What do you love about Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)?
I love the sights, the smells, even the noise. The never-ending unpredictable torrents of motorbikes and bicycles, the street food, and the relatively passionate/expressive (compared with the more dour Hanoi) residents. I love my adoptive Mom - Madame Ngoc - the iron-fisted proprietor of my favourite restaurant.
What's the first place you head to?
The Ben Than market early in the morning. No better way to tap the pulse of a place - and the food stalls are a paradise.
Where can you find the best value food?
The best is in the street and on the sidewalks - pho, a noodle dish eaten on a low plastic stool at the stalls at the market. You can rarely go wrong. If it looks good, smells good and there are locals eating it, it's worth trying.
Where do you go for a treat?
I drink silly novelty drinks at the ludicrously overdecorated rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel. Or stay in a good room at the Majestic, or the more downscale but history-soaked Continental.
And for breakfast?
Best breakfast without a doubt is a bowl of pho. Anywhere crowded. The Trung Nguyen chain of coffee shops is also excellent. I suggest trying the "fox" coffee which has been "processed" by passing through a fox or weasel before roasting. There's a pastry shop across from the Continental that does very good French pastries and croissants.
What's the strangest dish you've eaten there?
The tiny whole birds - feet, bones, beak and all, fried in oil-filled woks out front of the market, their entrails bursting from their crispy bellies - are astonishingly delicious. And the reeking durian fruit and jackfruit are also worth trying.
What does Ho Chi Minh do best?
Seafood - particularly the crabs, prawns and shrimps. Southern pho is preferable (to my mind) than northern as it's (like most southern food) spicier.
What do you always bring back?
Vietnamese coffee. Drink it with sweetened condensed milk.
What's the one place visitors shouldn't miss?
Com Nieu Sai Gon (6C Tu Xuong, District 3), a restaurant run by the impressive Madame Ngoc, is my favourite place in town. Everything is good - and travellers who've followed up on my recommendation to eat there never return unsatisfied. They specialise in clay-pot-baked rice which, after shattering the crockery, they spin, sizzling hot, through the air over the heads of the customers then dress with sauce and scallions. Always my best meal in Saigon. Just order "everything" and eat yourself silly.
Where are you going next?
Well, I'm moving (sometime next year) to Hoi An - a town I've never been to. Which is exactly the point. I'm told it's beautiful: it's near the coast, in an area I'm reasonably familiar with, and it's in Vietnam. That's really all I need to know. We'll see what happens. My fascination with Vietnam is such that it really doesn't matter.
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