gourmandonline

We found Thanh Binh from one of the recommendations on www.virtualtourist.com. A cheap, good, no-frills restaurant frequented by lots of locals. This place was tucked in behind Ben Thanh Market in District 1, HCMC. Lots and lots of items on the menu. Lucky they had a picture menu seeing that we are not Vietnamese.

I had a hard time deciding what to order but I settled with a rice cake dish I saw someone ordered.

The rice cakes were made from different flours I think. Different textures with different fillings. Pork, shrimps, sprinkled with fried pork fat and soaked in sweet chilli/fish sauce mixture that comes with most Vietnamese dishes. It was very different but very good.

Mel had crab spring rolls with vermicelli. Yum!! She loved it. Let the picture does the talking.

We were so happy with the dishes we went there again the next day for lunch. I ordered tamarind prawns. It came out within minutes (all the dishes came out really quickly!) and was very fresh. The prawns were succulent and sweet. Sauce was sweet and a little spicy and went very well with the coriander and shrimps. By the way prawns are always called shrimps in Vietnam.

We were curious with the desserts they put on our table, so we decided to try one. We chose the little green cake and it turned out to be very good! It had consistency like mochi with sweet shredded coconut fillings. Hmmm

Service was quick, food was excellent and very cheap (the prawns cost around AUD5, most other dishes cost around AUD2).

Address: Le Thanh Tonh 136/25, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam