Saigon’s Turtle Lake: Street Food Destination

Pop up question! If you are a traveler first time coming to Saigon, what should definitely be in your rucksack? Some clothes? Sure! A camera? Absolutely! Money? I don’t see why not! A tourist guidebook?

Nope, you can leave that out.

Tourist guidebooks might be useful if you are visiting Saigon for its attractions, its historical monuments, and other boring places where people flock for holiday pictures. They are not really useful if you want to breathe the same air as Saigonese people, eat the same food as Saigonese people, or better, party like Saigonese people. If you are coming to Saigon looking for the most authentic experience, skip anything that looks too touristy and instead, start at Turtle Lake.

Undoubtedly one of the most popular places where Saigon youths hang, Turtle Lake abounds with story reflecting the various yet authentic aspects of life in the city. Just don’t shy away from striking up a conversation with the people there and you are sure to hear the most fascinating stories about Saigon and hopefully, be able to love it the way the locals do. What’s even more exciting about Turtle Lake is the street food it offers. Although there are over dozens of dishes, here are three must-tries for the most time-pressed visitors:

First is the much famed Bánh tráng nướng, a.k.a “Vietnamese pizza”, which is a Da Lat signature made with a Saigonese twist! Instead of eating Bánh tráng nướng to fend off the cold like in Da Lat, Saigonese people like to enjoy the dish spicy to sweat off the heat. With a layer of fried eggs, topped by a layer of celery, topped by another layer of fried pig skin, fried meat, dried shrimp, all packaged neatly on the rice paper, what should be expected of each bite is an explosion of flavors encompassing the eater’s palate, imprinting its remarkable taste upon the toughest food critics. With at least three years of experience, the streetfood artisans around this area welcome large numbers of customers every day so you can get a Vietnamese pizza for as cheap as a dollar!

Next on the list is another member of the rice paper family – rolled rice paper! If you have tried Vietnamese rice paper salad, then this dish is made of basically the same ingredients but the catch is that everything comes in rolls! Made with the vendors’ love, care, and a whopping amount of mayonnaise sauce, rice paper rolls is no second fiddle to Vietnamese pizza; some say it’s more delicious. So what’s the final verdict? We’ll leave it to you to try both dishes and figure it out yourself!

If all this eating underneath Saigon’s scorching heat is too unbearable, quickly grab some ultimate-body-temperature-regulator iced lemon tea! A concoction of kumquat juice, lemon juice, sugar water, and tea, just a sip of this drink will undoubtedly blow all the heat away, leaving you with even more appetite to try other Turtle Lake specialties like fried corns, fishballs, and many more!

Of course, it’s no fun to only read about all this food and have your stomach growling so feel free to visit Saigon and try out Turtle Lake’s specialties whenever you can, we’re open 24/7!

Photos by Phuc Nguyen
Words by Dang Nguyen