There is a saying in Vietnamese: it's more important who you dine with than what you dine. I want to have both so I met up with my best friend Naomi for a buffet to spend a day together with good food before I headed home to my parents house with my kids in the afternoon. Naomi has been living in Saigon for 16 years and she is a food lover and an excellent cook just like most of Vietnamese women. There are many choices she asked me to pick : 300 dishes buffet, Western buffet, Korean or Japanese buffet, vegan buffet. I was so surprised to hear that many options and finally we decided to check out this lunch buffet place in Binh Quoi , a park along side Saigon river. The buffet takes place every Saturday with MeKong Delta reclamation theme for the price €11/person.
People in the Mekong Delta live in harmony with the environment. In the early days of settling, natural conditions had strong influence on their lives. For survival, people had to learn the way to adapt and get on well with the new environment. As a result, they got experience working with environment in a way that preserve the natural health of the environment while enjoying many of the fruits and vegetables that grow in the Mekong Delta. The food is simple, plentiful, healthy yet delicious and flavorful. They have different themes each week as : central food, seafood, northern food, vegan food theme etc...
The park is a great calming place to relax, a great break not far from buzzing Sai Gon. The dining area is right in the middle of the park to give you beautiful surrounding view . I took my kids there for one day and we enjoyed it a lot.
Porcelains bowls for serving food.
Drinks have cooling property to suit the hot weather : herbal drink(hot/cold) and sugar cane juice.
Naomi with our herbal tea and freshly made spring rolls, local roasted duck served with cucumber and wild herbs. Naomi and I spent many met up to explore Sai Gon's food and markets many times on my trip.
The lady is making coconut/turmeric rice cake, chicken/beef/pork BBQ, local sweet corns in a bamboo steamer.
My favorite dish: papaya salad.
They didn't serve Pho because it's not originally from Mekong Delta but this river crab noodle soup with tofu and pork is so comforting and wonderful too. Deserts are always lots of fresh fruits from the Delta, cakes with rice and sticky rice flour base with coconut. There were so much food that I lost count of the numbers of dishes. I remember I only could try 1/3 of the food there.
Many couples have their wedding photos taken at the park. The place is filled with smell of food, laughter and happiness. It's a great day for me and Naomi spending our time together as best friends.
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