Travel to Saigon: Eating bun thit nuong and banh mi thit, grilled pork rice vermicelli bowls and Vietnamese sandwiches

Second day in Saigon: food, signing my newly translated cookbook, and more food.Family lunch today had us venturing outside the house into the crazy crowded streets of Saigon. We dine at a well-known rice vermicelli restaurant, and I pick up some bad-ass banh mi for afternoon snacking at home.Besides pho, I’d say bun thit nuong and banh mi thit are the most well-known dishes in Vietnamese cuisine--they’re what people try when first being introduced to Vietnamese food. Growing up, grilled pork was more often eaten with broken rice (com tam) in my home, and sandwiches were always picked up to-go from a deli in Houston’s original Little Saigon in Midtown. Since then, I’ve seen renditions of these dishes show up on hundreds of menus from Vietnamese and new American restaurants alike.When was the first time you ever tasted Vietnamese food? Which dish was it, and what did you think? Was it love at first taste?