Binh Dinh Province, known as the cradle of Vietnam’s traditional martial arts, also enjoys national fame for its cuisine.
How special its cuisine is can be gauged from the fact that many of its dishes have appeared in Vietnamese idioms and sayings.
Residents of Ho Chi Minh City do not have to go far to sample central Binh Dinh cuisine. They can do it in Binh Thanh District at the Song Trang Restaurant.
The restaurant is run by My and Ngoc Thanh, a couple from Binh Dinh who settled in the city about 20 years ago.
Song Trang serves a wide range of dishes including nem (pork paste), tre (beef paste), grilled beef, rice vermicelli with fish, fish salad, banh hoi Binh Dinh (Binh Dinh-style rice noodle) and banh it la gai (black glutinous-rice cake that gets its color from a certain kind of leaf). The pork paste is the most famous of all these dishes. While it is not exclusive to Binh Dinh, nem from the province is acknowledged to be the most delicious. The paste is made from minced lean pork spiced with superb fish sauce. The paste can be fixed to a bamboo skewer to grill over a fire and eaten instantly, or wrapped with the young leaves of a vong tree (Erythrina variegata L.), and a banana leaf and preserve it for a few days until it gets sour.
Thit thung, fillet of beef seasoned with spices, fried in oil and cooked in water, is another popular dish, which sometimes uses pork. This dish can be preserved at room temperature for a week and can be cut into slices to eat with rice paper, fresh vegetables and fish sauce.
A dish that is quintessentially Binh Dinh is banh hoi
(a kind of rice noodle). Made with rice flour, the noodles are usually accompanied with pig’s entrails, pork or cha lua (pork paste), rice paper, chives and fish sauce. Banh hoi can replace rice at meals, and people are never tired of eating it.
Song Trang Restaurant offers all these specialities for those who want to tuck into one of the nation’s premier cuisines. The restaurant with about 500 seats is located at 1035 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh St., Binh Thanh District, on the way to Binh Quoi Tourist Park.
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