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Anyone who's had a rice in a clay pot, they all know the best bits are the crispy bits on the bottom
That's what they've done here. But the whole thing is a crispy bit. Let's try it out
Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City. Today, it's all about the street food and our $100 street food challenge
Vietnam is a land known for its delicious, affordable, one-of-a-kind street food
You can find this for under a dollar
You can find this for under $2. You can find this for under $4
Our previous videos were about how affordable street food can be here
But today we're going super expensive at least as expensive as we can find.
I have done the $100 challenge in many countries Japan, Korea, India
Even in Disneyland in the USA and every time I came up short
I failed I got too full too quick or the food wasn't expensive enough.
I think we missed it by a lot. Today everything is gonna change because I am determined to eat $100 worth of street food any way I can. I'm hitting the streets of Saigon alone. Let's see if it can be done. Let's go
Welcome to the beginning of our $100 street food challenge here in Saigon. In order to spend this much money
We're gonna have to eat some super-sized food
And that's why we've come here to the place right behind me. Banh Bao Toa Phat. Banh Bao Toa Phat. Banh Bao Toa Phat.
This establishment has been around for 30 years making the best steamed buns in the city
They sell up to 2,000 buns per day
And that's not including the thousands more that are shipped off to convenience stores around Ho Chi Minh City made with an endless variety of fillings
Including pork, quail eggs, or even salted eggs always wrapped in a cushiony soft bun
Here we have the king of all Banh Bao
It has eight eggs inside seven quail eggs and one salted egg from a chicken
From a duck. Do you guys salt chicken eggs? No, that would be silly. Why would we salt the chicken egg?
All right, I'm gonna sink my teeth into it now
I
Was told this dish is all about the eggs, but there's so much meat
It's some kind of new fangled Vietnamese hamburger
Almost the meat inside is so juicy and porky and then the eggs. They're just like the cherry on top. It's so satisfying
Oh and here if I bust this open you can see the salted egg. So every bite a new surprise. Let's try it out
It's
Super dry. Oh, but it's so rich and flavorful. This is a very filling meal. Yeah, this whole big thing is only $2
It's a good deal, but that's a problem because I'm trying to spend $100. I don't know how we're gonna do it
Maybe I could eat five of these. I doubt it
Street food number two this time the street is inside this restaurant. Is this street food?
I don't give us a break on the technicality. It's very near the street. You can hear the traffic, right?
So right here we have a fresh water prawn on sticky rice with a salted egg sauce
And this is a treat that you could eat with silverware or you could just dive in with your hands after lathering them up with antibacterial solution the dish starts with a coconut sticky rice mouth
That's coated with a generous dose of salted egg sauce and finally topped with a prawn
It's the signature dish and pride of this restaurant only found here now. I always like sticky rice
It is like the most underrated rice and then on top of it this salted egg sauce. Let's try out this salted egg sauce
Nice bro, there's something about the salted egg
You got to be careful with it man
Like when I had the salted egg in my bun bow, it was so concentrated that it just became like dry and chalky
But when you mix it with the right ingredients and make a nice sauce out of it
It can just be very like rich next
These are fresh water prawns and this whole thing is just caked with that salted egg sauce a couple notable features here
First of all, it has arms
What have you ever seen a shrimp with arms before second as very spiky arms and there's actually meat inside of each one of these
That's not it
That's not it either. I'm gonna eat that arm later. There's so much meat in there
Well, we really want is in here. It's gonna be a massive tail pull it out just like that. Boom. That's a beauty
Look at that. All right, I'm gonna get some rice get some more sauce. Let's try it out. Oh
That's super tasty
I'd like to order like five more shrimps to put on there
Well, so good and then in here a place where a few Americans have gone before you got it
Like take the top off and then look all that that's all food. Technically. This is the head butter. This is what everybody loves
It's so good. It's so rich and creamy. That's damn good
Right
Now we are on one of the busiest streets in Saigon and one of the busiest street vendors is right there
Can you guys see him in the camera frame? You see how he did that?
Cool
This business is on every food delivery app about every couple minutes
You'll see some delivery food guy pull up throw about 15 of these on his bike and take off and they've been here for 40
Years two sisters created this recipe and they've been running this place
Which is insanely popular now like they have built an empire off of papaya salad
You'll notice that no one's actually eating here
So what happens is over here in the park people order the food?
There's somebody over there with a walkie-talkie here. They make it and they deliver it to the park
So what is the food that everyone's going crazy for well
It's right here a papaya salad the first ingredient and the core of this dish is shredded young papaya
Then beef jerky made from cow lungs shrimp crackers peanuts and Vietnamese coriander
However, this dish wouldn't be complete without their own homemade sauce made with secret ingredients that if revealed could get me killed
You
Get a little bit of everything in here a little cracker a little bit of jerky a little bit of papaya
Wow, that's a bite worth getting a close-up on. Oh, there we go. I want to try it out
Mmm, that's awesome such a mix of fresh flavors. It's sweet spicy and savory
There's almost nothing better than getting a papaya salad in Vietnam
Like the name of it seems like first of all salad that doesn't sound good papaya
What is that a plant but it's more than that. I mean when you look at the elements here
It is a celebration of textures. You've got crunchy crackers chewy beef jerky and crunchy nuts
I say crunchy twice, but it's different types of crunchy. Oh, it makes that all with the fresh papaya. So damn good. Love it
Our next location a street side restaurant called soup kua cheap week
They opened two years ago, and I heard they have something really fancy
The $100 street food challenge continues and I was getting a little bit worried
We're getting behind because I'm getting full and I don't think we've even spent $10 yet
But here they have a fabulous luxurious crab claw dish nearing $20 and I got two of them just to be safe to make sure I'm extra full and that we actually hit our goal of $100 allow me to unveil for you guys now
A crab soup, but wait, there's much more to it than what you see at first glance
They add in a giant crab claw century egg and coriander all swimming in a viscous cornstarch
Thickened gravy this soup always reminds me of the egg drop soup. I had growing up as a young Chinese boy
What I'm gonna get just a bunch of this viscous almost not like broth. I'm gonna try that out
Oh
That's delicious, wow, it's got a bit of spice to it
It's super savory very satisfying warm as it just kind of slowly glides down your throat home
Let's try this thousand-year-old egg and the egg that you'll find all over many parts of Southeast Asia and China
That's so delicious no super intense taste just like super eggy enough of that now it's time for the main event
All right, giant crab claw. Let's go for it
Oh
They took many pieces of crab meat from different crabs and fused it all together to make a new crab claw
I've never seen anything like that. Very unique a little strange and very delicious. All right now the show must go on
We're about halfway to our goal of $100. We got to keep going. Let's go
Our next food it seems simple but it packs a flavor punch
Overcooked rice and honestly anyone who's had a rice in a clay pot
They all know the best bits are the kind of crispy bits on the bottom
That's what they've done here. But the whole thing is a crispy bit home
Che call wit it consists of two parts the crispy shell made by spreading rice over a fiery hot pan and the dip made
Of a concentrated fish sauce dried pork fat dried shrimp ease scallions and stir-fried minced pork
The
Move here mix it up and that's gonna be almost like the jam to my bread
So I'm gonna bust off a piece of this put on a little bit of jam and honey
Oh, it's gonna be good. Try it out. Oh
That's a winner super good I probably put too much on there it's very salty but the best part is the texture
It's so thin and the one side is just golden brown crispy. I can munch on that all day. That's it
It's not a super dynamic food. Did you love crunch? You'll love this 10 by 10
Welcome to our next food. It's totally the same day. It's not the next day. I'm so full, right?
Good. So here this is a great story
She has a snail cart, but no one's really eating here people actually drive up
They get their snails and they get them to go actually someone just ordered snails through a delivery app
Unless the delivery guy is just hungry. That could be too also with this place. It's a heartwarming story a
Long time ago
She used to be a mobile vendor
But she's been able to kind of settle down here in one place in this small market because a youtuber came here did a little
Feature on her sales and now she's very busy lots of traffic people ordering online and us here right now
She has a few different types of snails available and I went with the biggest one she had because they look delicious and plump
Plump snails she steams them at home with only a touch of lemongrass
Then she brings them here selling them with a homemade chili sauce. All right, let's try it out
Mmm, this is so delicious. This is kind of what makes it right here. I think everyone's coming here for her famous sauce
It's just a little spicy
So you feel a little heat kind of warms you up and then very sweet and a bit sour
It's delicious. If you've never had a snail before you have to give it a try. I always say this snail. Oh, thank you
This is a different brand of snail. She's given me
When there's that much sauce, I can't really tell a difference
They're all just kind of delightfully chewy but at different sizes
So it's like do you want something small and chewy or big and chewy?
I like big and chewy
But if you're afraid of trying kind of adventurous wild food a snail is a great place to start
It's pretty doable and in Vietnam, it's gonna taste great
They're delicious, all right, did we do it we did a good job since I
I
Here we are welcome to my sausage party
Behind me such a wonderful array of sausages and the queen of sausages
She's back there whipping up some more sausage concoctions for all the people coming through
Oh, you shouldn't say sausage and concoction too close to each other
Miss knew it has been whipping up these sausages for over 30 years
Recently a local food blogger discovered her reviewed her food and blew up her spot now
She can't stop people from snatching her plump sausages
Her staple dish nem chua chay made of fermented pork ears and skin garlic chilies steamed pork sausage raw pork sausage
Vietnamese coriander kumquat and a pinch of salt it gets all mixed up and served with banh mi bread or shrimp chips
I'm gonna try just some of this chalua
Mmm, chalua is very yummy. It's very dense. It's like the perfect sandwich and deli meat just savory
Meat
I'm running out of words guys. Can we look up synonyms for savory?
Salty spicy piquant acceptable and those are all words that I think suit this food quite well
It's very piquant and acceptable here. This is kind of like a cured pork. I believe it cooks through the acid
That's in there maybe from the salt maybe from some lime science
Oh, I love that and it has this delightful kind of tang to it no part of this pig was wasted
Look at that. That's a bunch of skin
The skin is very bouncy
I like that and then get a little cracker put some meat on there some herbs and we can take that down, too
It's so good, but so intense and there's such a heavy amount of salt in there
It's almost like starting to cook your own tongue. Eventually if you eat enough of this your tongues gonna look like this
It's a lot of sausage I might have to take some of this home
Guys we came to the giant meatball place. Do you have a giant meatball place in your town?
I fucking doubt it on a more serious note. Have you ever seen a meatball this big? It's incredible inspired by Indonesia's giant meatballs and the movie
Inception this creation is a dream come true for ball lovers like me inside the giant meatball
You'll find a grocery list of items corn carrots seafood and smaller balls within the big ball
All that is topped with purple cabbage fried onions dried cabbage and spring onions
Finally, our meaty majesty is bathed in a meatball broth
I think you're supposed to share this with friends or family loved ones someone you met off Craigslist. That would be acceptable, too
I did put up a tinder ad that said looking for someone to eat balls with but nobody got back to me
What is this one? It's probably a fish cake. I bet
It's seafood tofu I bet
Very nice here. I'm told this one is a cheese ball. Try that up. Oh
It tastes cheesy. I think the outer layer is a fish ball and then some kind of processed cheese on the inside
It's so like processed, but I still love it
And then of course there's like the main meat wrapping here kind of split apart making a giant meat flower
One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen and honestly for Valentine's Day
This is what people want right here a meat flower
Roses, right? I want a meat flower
Mmm, that's a good meatball. It's like real dense. It's got some nice chew to it soft
Like just very comforting dude what this meatball is giving birth to other smaller meatballs
This is also a meatball from inside the meatball. You never know what to expect in here
I feel like I'm gonna pull up an entire Big Mac burger or a fish
Then there's like little vegetables in here, let me try this specials, huh?
Remarkable all this was in the ball. I kind of wish life was more like that
Like I wish every food came in a ball of meat. Oh, you want a piece of cake?
It's inside the ball of meat ranch sauce all the meat
You want a ball of meat we put it in a bigger ball of meat men
What a day we've had eight different foods at eight different price points. Oh wait, that's a different kind of video today was wild
We had eight different foods
I'm super full right now, but our main goal wasn't just to eat a lot of food
But to see if I can really spend a hundred dollars and right now we have our final food calculator on the screen
And the final number appears right now
We didn't get it again, I have an idea we can still do this. It's not too late. Give me a second. I
Wait you see
Your golden smile
Every time I've set out to complete a hundred dollar street food challenge
I've failed in Korea, India, Japan even in Disneyland where I missed it by less than a dollar 9970 but today I'm determined to be victorious and do a good deed at the same time by using the remaining money and buying as
Many sausages as it'll get me
Ho Chi Minh City a city of 8 million
There is no shortage of diverse affordable delicious street food
And even when you're trying your hardest to spend your cash, you'll almost certainly have some leftover for sausages
Hey guys, how's it going with that quarantine more like quarantine am I right?
If you're anything like me, you're probably stuffing yourself twice a day. Listen, we're gonna get through this
I'm not talking about the apocalypse. I don't know anything about that
I'm talking about this constant stomach stretching that we keep doing but if we move forward if we persevere at the end of the day
We can call ourselves food coma survivors
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