Western guests' reactions when enjoying "strange" porridge at "dirt cheap" price in Hai Phong

Chris Lewis is an American blogger who has lived in Vietnam for nearly 4 years. He is also the owner of a YouTube channel with over 800,000 followers. On his personal page, Chris regularly shares videos about culinary experiences across the 3 regions of Vietnam and attracts a large number of interactions.

In a recent video, Chris revealed that he took a trip from Hanoi to Hai Phong and enjoyed a dish that he had never known during his 4 years in Vietnam. That dish is porridge.

The American blogger said he accidentally discovered the porridge dish while searching on Google about the culinary culture of the people of Hai Phong. At first, when he heard the name, he thought it was a white dish with toppings such as cartilage ribs, eggs or fruits that he had eaten before.

Chris excitedly enjoyed the hot porridge that he first learned about when traveling to Hai Phong (Photo cut from clip).

However, when he was served a bowl of porridge, he was surprised to see the special color of this dish.

“This porridge is really different. First of all, it is green because it is made from pureed spinach. Second, it is only sold in the afternoon, and it will be sold out in 2-3 hours. When I think of porridge, I immediately think of an early breakfast or late afternoon meal, but most vendors in Hai Phong start selling this dish from around 3pm, and on busy days like today, it can sell out within 2-3 hours,” Chris described his first impressions of porridge in Hai Phong.

Chris was also surprised that the place selling porridge was not a restaurant or eatery but just a small street stall, surrounded by a few plastic chairs for customers to sit on. However, he liked this rustic way of eating, consistent with his familiar street experiences when living in Vietnam.

A Western tourist stopped by a street vendor on Dinh Dong Street, Le Chan District to enjoy the famous porridge dish. This is also a favorite place for many food lovers in Hai Phong (Screenshot).

Talking to the porridge seller, Chris learned that she has been selling this dish here for 21 years and only uses a traditional “shoulder basket” to carry all kinds of items, from the porridge cooking pot to the bowls, spoons, etc.

Admitting that he had lived in Vietnam for quite a while, this was the first time he had heard of porridge, so he could not hide his excitement. He also carefully observed the agile movements of the saleswoman as she made him a full bowl of porridge.

“She ladled the hot green porridge into a large bowl, sprinkled with fried shallots and shredded green beans on top. The dish looks simple but is quite laborious. The owner here said it took the whole morning to prepare, from simmering bone broth with pureed spinach before mixing it with rice and boiling it, giving the porridge a truly delicious flavor,” Chris commented.

The porridge is smooth, rich in the flavor of stewed bones, mixed with the rich, fatty taste of green beans and golden fried onions, making diners remember it after just one bite. Not only delicious and easy to eat, this porridge also has many nutritional values, good for both the elderly and children.

Unlike traditional porridge dishes with the original white color of rice, Hai Phong porridge impresses with its beautiful green color thanks to being made from the juice of fresh Malabar spinach leaves (or pandan leaves).

In addition, Khoai porridge is not cooked from whole grain rice as usual. To cook this dish, people have to choose fragrant rice and grind it into fine powder. This special powder helps the porridge to be both smooth and thick, and has the pleasant aroma of carefully roasted and ground rice.

Not only impressed with the taste, the American guy was also very surprised to know that this strange porridge dish has a "dirt cheap" price, only 15,000 VND/bowl but enough to fill his stomach in the afternoon.

It is known that during this trip to Hai Phong, in addition to porridge, Chris also spent time enjoying some other specialties of this land such as crab rice noodles, banh duc tau, ... and dishes made from snails and seafood such as snails with salted egg sauce served with bread, crab claws with tamarind sauce, steamed mantis shrimp, ...

Delicious dishes made from snails and seafood are also a culinary plus that attracts tourists when traveling to Hai Phong. In the picture, an American guy exclaimed after tasting the salted egg snail dish (Photo cut from clip).

Among them, he appreciates Hai Phong's crab noodle soup more than pho and humorously comments that this is "the best noodle dish in Vietnam, not in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City". In addition, the American blogger also commented that the banh duc tau dish is "surprisingly delicious, nutritious and cheap", only 12,000 VND/bowl but filled with different toppings such as braised shrimp, sweet and salty sauce and many other things.

Phan Dau

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