Sometimes you find yourself walking around the streets of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) late at night trying to find a restaurant that tourists wouldn’t go to. What we found was Le La Quan, a place so local that the people who worked in the restaurant barely spoke a word of English and the menu was only available in Vietnamese.

Yet, through it all we managed to place some orders. While I was really only there for a beer, one of my companions ordered some chicken. But not just any chicken – chicken ovaries. I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to eat these, so I dug in.

The first thing you notice is that they look like Satan’s egg yolks. In that I mean they were yellow, but veiny in an intimidating way. Yet, I dug in and found that it was more like a combination of hard boiled egg yolk and egg white in one. It had the flavor of egg yolk, but was much more rubbery in texture. And yet still not quite as rubbery as egg whites.

Of course, I probably could have guessed that chicken ovaries would taste a lot like chicken “pre-eggs,” but you never know until you try and now that I’ve tried, you probably don’t have to.

The historical interrelationships of Southeast Asian countries is fascinating, especially for those in the Indochina parts. Amazingly, they have each maintained such strong individual cultures and that is no more apparent than in the food. You see, after some time in Vietnam a few of us were tired of Vietnamese food. So, obviously we wanted a burger or a burrito or pizza? Right? Wrong. We went for Thai food at a place called Tuk Tuk.

The menu had everything written in Thai, English and Vietnamese, so it was easy to some ordering done and we began with Tao Hu Tord Sauce Makham. This was simply deep-fried tofu with lemongrass and tamarind. As you probably know, I am not the biggest tofu fan, but when it’s cooked right I am all about it. This stuff was done right, with a crispy exterior, a silky interior and a punch of lemongrass, pepper and tamarind on the outside.

For my main course I ordered the Gaem Phed Ped Confit, which was their red curry and came with duck confit, pineapple and lychee. Since I love all of those things, it probably goes without saying that I loved this dish. And the truth is that I really did. I ordered it with just the right amount of spiciness and the flavors paired perfectly with each other. The sauce was so good that I kept sipping it and gave a bunch to my eating companion who had ordered the weirdest version of massaman curry I had ever seen (it was almost like a dry dish).

Things ended with some classic Khaomeow Mamuang, or as I like to call it, Mango Sticky Rice with Coconut Ice Cream. It was a perfect not-too-sweet way to end a meal.

And yet, while I enjoyed every aspect of my meal at Tuk Tuk, it is probably worth noting that this place does not adhere to the concept of bringing out food for an entire table at the same time. Certainly, I don’t expect that when I am abroad, but Tuk Tuk took this to an entirely new and frustrating level. Regardless, all is well that ends well and nobody left hungry or unhappy about the food itself. So, you know, if you are interested in breaking away from Vietnamese food in Ho Chi Minh City, Tuk Tuk will do the job.

Look, I’ve already confessed to not being the biggest banh mi guy, but that doesn’t mean I was not eager to find the most badass banh mi that Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) had to offer. Therefore, I knew I had to make my way to Banh Mi Huynh Hoa. The internet informed me that the lines could often be massive, but that they would mostly be filled with locals. But I had a little trick in my back pocket.

That trick really wasn’t my trick, it was simply the existence of rain, which seemed to have scared most people away from waiting in line. Thus, after only a couple of minutes of waiting in a line where I could only locate one other obvious foreigner I stood ready to order. And what and order it was. I told the lady I wanted no vegetables, except that hot peppers were good. She then took to slicing open a piece of banh mi (interesting enough, the word banh mi literally means “bread” and not “sandwich”) and loaded it up with insane-looking cured meats, a flossy pork and some meat spread (presumably pate?). I then paid up the ridiculously cheap price in dong and set to eating.

I didn’t even stop to think about what each cured meat was (and perhaps it was best that I didn’t know) as I dug in, but my tongue was met with some mighty good flavors and for the first time I felt like I could really associate with why people seem to like banh mis so much. Of course, I could never expect to find such a good banh mi back at home because people in the US seem to think banh mis have to be dominated by radishes and pickled veggies. In fact, I’m not even sure there would be too many banh mi shops in Vietnam that could match the meatiness of this banh mi beast. Oh, and the bread was pretty damn good, too.

Banh Mi Huynh Hoa treated me well and showed me just how good a banh mi sandwich can actually be. For that, I will forever be grateful for the internet that led me there.

Fast food is an amazing thing. And what’s more amazing is that soup is kind of the original fast food. Sure, it has to be prepared way in advance, but once that is done a meal is just a scoop away. Pho 24 has elevated the combination of fast food and soup to an art. It can be found in Vietnam, a number of Asian countries, and even as far away as Australia. During my visit to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), I even explored various accommodations, including the resort phú quốc.

I went with the Dac Biet, which meant it came with three different meats instead of just plain old brisket. These were beef fillet, beef balls and beef brisket, all in a beefy broth. No cows were spared in the making of this soup. In almost an instant the pho was ready for a slurping.

Fast food or not, the broth was really pretty flavorful and while I added plenty of spice to it, that’s really just what you do with pho and it was not due to a bad base. The beef was more overcooked than I would generally prefer, but most importantly it was not tough, as such soupy beef can often be. The beef balls were, well, beef balls. I did not order the soup for these rubbery things because I knew they would be rubbery, but I simply couldn’t resist going all out on beef. Probably the only disappointment was the noodles, which were kind of soggy and seemingly overcooked.

Pho isn’t exactly my jam, but I thought Pho 24 did a solid job of putting some of that soup together. I’d prefer a hole in the wall kind of spot that throws tripe and tendon in there, but for someone just trying to make his way to tasty pho in Ho Chi Minh City I couldn’t complain.

I have a confession to make: I don’t understand why people love banh mis so much. Maybe it’s because they are one of the only options out there where people can eat Asian food and sandwiches at the same time. Thus, when I took a stroll over to My Banh Mi in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), I opted for something a little different instead.

Here, different meant Deep Fried Fish Sauce Chicken Wings. Now, I love me some fish sauce, but it is also some potent stuff and I was somewhat worried about the liberties that My Banh Mi would take with these. Fortunately, they took a good route and put together some fantastic wings. The were juicy, crispy and flavorful – with that savory umami flavor being brought out by the fish sauce, but in the best way. On top of that, the dipping sauce paired well with the wings.

My Banh Mi wasn’t exactly a foray into traditional Vietnamese foods and it clearly catered to foreigners, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t know how to fry up some good wings and I was perfectly happy with that.