Madam Saigon: No wonder the Vietnamese are so slim!

Starter Sampler $29.90 (6pax)

This is a wild guess, but I reckon that more women like Vietnamese food than men. We are talking about Singaporeans of course. The reason I say this is because Vietnamese food is pretty healthy and low in oil and coconut milk. I think if we did a survey, the number of women putting up their hands should at least be twice the number of men.

I have been to Vietnam only once, but the place that I ate Vietnamese food most was in Australia and Thailand. It's funny, but in Thailand, Vietnamese food is regarded as a higher class of cuisine than the local fare. It's very much like how we compare Thai food to our local hawker food.

When you feel that you have had a little too much rich food, than going to Vietnamese restaurant to eat something light and satisfying like the salads and summer rolls might just be the way to go. For starters, we had the sampler which had three different types of salads and they were all refreshingly good. It's the combination of fish sauce, vinegar and palm sugar that gives the salad that kick. 4/5


Summer Rolls with prawns (Guoi Cuon) $8.90 (2 rolls)

Summer rolls might seem like a very simple dish to do since it really is just rice skin, vermicilli, prawns and mint leaves. However, it is a bit of a challenge to rehydrate the rice skin to just the right texture so that it has that nice gummy bite to it. For me this dish always epitomizes healthy eating. Having tasted this dish quite a few times, I am confident to say that the summer rolls here is almost as good as it gets. 4.25/5.


Stir Fry Beef Vermicilli (Bun Bo Xao) $10.50

The dish of the day for me though, was the dry beef vermicelli. The fragrant lemongrass marinated beef combined beautifully with the vermicelli, ground peanuts and other condiments. It's tasty, yet contains very little oil so you go away with a satisfied tummy and a clear conscience. 4.25/5


Vietanmese Pancake (Banh Xeo) $10.90

Vietnamese pancake is a sort of rice flour pancake filled with bean sprouts, prawn, chicken and mung beans which I surmise must have been a Vietnamese adaptation of the French crepe. I have had this many times in Thailand before and all the crepes always came very thin and crispy. The version here has got a thick chewy pancake which I felt was a tad too heavy. Would have preferred it thin like a Thosai. Then again they have thin and crispy as well as pan pizza to cater to different types of people, don't they? 3.5/5


Beef Pho $8.90 (Special)

How to blog a Vietnamese joint without the Pho? This is as Vietnamese as Hokkien Mee is Singapore. To have good Pho, you need lots of good quality beef bones. The Pho that they sell in Cabramatta, Sydney are really good because they have lots of cows in Australia, so bones are cheap which explains how they get their soup to be really robust and sweet. I guess in Singapore, it is harder to do the same. Despite that, they did managed to produce a pretty good Pho here which is good enough to satisfy a Pho craving. 4/5

Conclusion

If you feel a need to eat something light and tasty, Vietnamese cuisine is a good bet. Madam Saigon is a comfortable little eatery with friendly service and several items which are worth trying.

So, am I right is saying that there are more women than men who enjoy Vietnamese food?



Carlene introduces us to Madam Saigon!

Just trying out some new things with my Creative Vado. Let me know what else you think might be interesting for short clips.

Madam Saigon
30 Liang Seah Street
Tel: 6333 9798
Mon-Fri 11.30am - 3pm, 6pm to 11pm
Weekends, PH, 12pm-4pm, 6pm to 11pm
Disclaimer: This was an invited review




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Saigon Deli: Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine

The Saigon Deli is not there anymore and we don't have any idea if they have moved or if they have gone back to Vietnam. If you know please let us know ok?

With mien and iwatch_ueat


I first got to know about this little eatery through Channel 8 Ter Sie (Special Report) programme whose story centred on the life of this interesting Vietnamese Lady living in Singapore who missed her homecooked food so much that she started a restaurant. But the problem was that mediacorp did not publish the address or even the name of the eatery!

As fate would have it, I came across an entry by MT88 in a forum on it which showed pictures of some interesting eats and most importantly, the address of the place!



Vietnamese food is very light especially when compared to neighbouring Thailand. There's much less use of coconut mik, so you don't get your rich curries. Instead, you have light and refreshing salads, clear soups and lots of different manifestation of rice; like rice wrappers, rice vermicilli and kway teow.

This Mango Salad is a wonderful example of how aptly the sweet, tangy and salty tastes of the salad, as well as the texture of the mango and carrots perfectly complement the other meat dishes. $4.80 4/5

nei

Probably the most iconic of Vietnamese cuisine are the Summer Fresh Rolls which are a favourite especially amongst Ang Mohs (Westerners). The combination of the chewy rice wrapper, crunchy salad, thick vermicilli and mint leaves with the killer sweet, sour, spicy peanut sauce can be quite tasty and refreshing at the same time!. $4.80 4/5



Now we come to what I really really liked. The grill pork chop with rice looks like a simple dish, but that pork chop has been marinated with such a delightful combination of spices that my stomach is beginning to growl even while I am typing this blog. Most of the dishes here come with variations of a mysterious clear sauce which tastes like a combination of fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and various spices. $6.50 4.5/5



The soup in the Pho (Kway Teow Soup) is light and yet robust. The sweetness of the soup comes from boiling beef leg bones for more than 15 hours. The soup is very tasty and they are very generous with the Kway Teow, so one bowl will be enough to fill you up! $4.80 4/5



Out of curiosity, we tried this Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chop with Tossed Rice Vermicelli (Think Gon Lor Mee with thick Bee Hoon) Again, very little oil is used, instead you pour yet another version of the mysterious clear sauce into the bowl and mix the Bee Hoon with the peanuts, shallots and the salad. Good, but not as good as the grilled pork chops! $5.80 3.5/5



There were many authentic Vietnames drinks offered. We tried the pennywort which was like a watercrest drink as well as the sour plum which was quite "Power". The one which I really enjoyed was the lemon grass and honey as seen in the picture above. Light and very refreshing. $2.50 4/5



What better way to finish the meal then with a cup of Vietnamese Coffee which (I'm told) the Vietnamese drink 3 times a day! After dripping throught the percolator, you add the coffee into a glass of ice and enjoy the caffeine rush!

Conclusion

Great experience for me since the last time I ate Vietnamese food was while I was living in Thailand which was a few years ago. Interestingly Vietnamese cuisine in Thailand is considered a higher class of cuisine much like how the street food of Thailand is sold here for 5 times the price in a restaurant.

Vietnamese food is quite healthy as it does not use a lot of oil and coconut milk. Quite good if you feel that you need a cholesterol break! I enjoyed it! My only grouse is that the portions of meat are a tad small and I would really need two portions of grilled pork chops to satisfy my craving!

8/10 (T3, V2, S2, E1)

Saigon Deli
470 North Bridge Road
#01-05 North Bridge Commercial Complex
63334243

Acknowledgement: MT88 recommmended this in the asiaone motoring forum!

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