Dinner in Saigon

You can always get a meal in Vietnam if you have about a dollar.

This is Saigon. Late at night. 

Across the street from the alley where I was staying a woman set up a cart to sell pho, banh mi sandwiches and other variations of Vietnamese street food under a Coca Cola canvas attached to a mustard colored wall that stood in contrast to the blue pavement illuminated by a mix of incandescent and fluorescent light. 

The average price for a full meal and a place to sit for as long as you need is 20,000 Dong. About .85 cents in U.S. currency. You will get more than enough to eat for that price. The same menu is in effect from morning until night.

At your plastic table there are limes, chilis, bean sprouts and various hot sauces if you want to spice it up. You use both chop sticks and a spoon to manipulate the soft cooked chicken, beef or pork together with the greens, onions, peppers and noodles in the broth that makes up most dishes. You eat fast. You slurp your noodles. There are no style points for eating silently without spillage. 

There is always somewhere else to go in Saigon and something else to do. Eating is a task. Once it is complete you move to the next and someone takes your place at the table next to the scooters on the busy city street.