“Hello! Vietnam” is an Oriental Food Market and Vietnam Street Food Deli located at the top of Derby Road in Nottingham. I first stumbled across this place back at the end of 2019 where I bought some ‘harder to find’ ingredients to rustle up some Vietnamese inspired meals.
While there I learned that they were planning to start selling street food from the deli section and I got really excited at the prospect of coming back to eat it. Then sadly the world got turned upside down with COVID and I kind of forgot about the place.
Then this week I was looking at Uber Eats just through curiosity to see what sort of food I could order to my place and Hello Vietnam popped up in the list. Could it be the same place? I checked it out and was so happy to find that it was!
COM THIT HEO QUAY
The first dish I ordered was the Com Thit Heo Quay or ‘Crispy Pork Belly and Rice‘ (if you want a simpler description of what is going on in the bowl).
On their menu they say “This popular dish has served so many Sai Gon working class till now. Serving with crispy belly pork, colour rice, fresh salad, pickles and homemade sauce. The perfect dish for a hungry foodie“
THAT CRISPY BELLY PORK!
The star of the show is supposed to be the Crispy Belly Pork and it certainly was ‘sitting loud and proud’ on top of the yellow ‘colour’ rice and the crunchy salad. While the actual pork meat has little flavour the dusting of spice and seasoning sprinkled over the pork alongside the sweet and sour nuoc nam sauce adds a really nice fresh tang to each bite. Chilli and Lime make your mouth pucker a little bit and gets the juices flowing
The thing I really love about the Vietnamese salads is that I can forget it’s just boring green stuff as its so alive and enjoyable to eat. I find that the different textures and temperature, the crunchiness of the carrot and the cabbage, and the freshness of the herbs and the cooling effects of the mint just make pops in my mouth as I eat, pinging messages of enjoyment to my brain so that I just find myself gobbling it all up.
The colour rice which on the face of it was just ‘yellow’ coloured rice was also excellent, once the dipping sauce is added into the mix everything in the bowl becomes a must eat item and I even found myself scrabbling away at the bottom to get the last of the grains.
Such a good dish to eat and one to seek out again.
BANH MI HA NOI
Banh Mi Ha Noi described as a Northern Style Baguette combining a crunchy baguette filled with ‘succulent aroma pork meat’ and topped with fresh salad, pickles, and their special homemade sauce. They say that it is a ‘must try Vietnam baguette’ which I would agree with having just eaten one.
As with all good Banh Mi, this one has plenty of crisp and crunchy fresh salad inside a crusty french bread type roll all giving a home and bedding to loads of tender soft pork.
As you would expect they get everything right with this sandwich without fuss and at a price that is fair. I would be happy to order another one of these and most probably will!
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Hello Vietnam is located at 163 Derby Road in Nottingham (NG7 1PQ), you can check them out on their Facebook Page and order for delivery