The Best Restaurants in Tan Dinh, District 1, HCMC

Welcome back, folks!

I've been a bit sick the last couple weeks with a persistent cold, and now a possible ear infection, so I've been a little languid and haven't gotten much writing done. But the time has come to try and finish up my food and cafe overviews of Tan Dinh ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

Assorted Steamed Rice Cakes at Bep Hue

Saigon is a city of (as of now) 13 million people, and is, no surprise, a never-ending font of amazing food and restaurants of all kinds. Tan Dinh is a densely populated place and there's a lot of foot traffic, which leads to a pretty excellent variety of neighborhood eateries. 

You've seen my list of awesome cafes in Tan Dinh, drooled over the ward's many excellent vegetarian restaurants, and now it's time to focus on some of my favorite proper non-veg-exclusive restaurants in the ward (although, as usual, many of them offer some vegan options).

Click through for everything from Hue specialties to grilled octopus to Chinese noodles and more...

The 7 Coolest Cafes in Tan Dinh, District 1, HCMC

Cafe Time is Life. You know I speak the truth.

I moved into my new place October of 2019 here in Tan Dinh ward, District 1, and I really couldn't be happier with the location. It's full of street life, services, good food, and great places to explore.

Fortunately, there are also a bunch of great cafes to while away the hours with a book or your laptop and remote work. If you're anything like me, you love to find a good new cafe, especially one that lets you linger for a little while and take your time soaking up the leisurely pace of life that permeates Southern Vietnam.

Here are some of my close-to-home favorites...

Book Review: 'The Green Metropolis' and HCMC

David Owen’s amazingly prescient and clear-eyed book from 2009, The Green Metropolis, deconstructs exactly what city planners, environmentalists, and the general population get right about cities… and what they get very, very wrong.

His book offers staggeringly simple reasons to rethink how we approach the twin questions of:

1. “Are cities good or bad for the environment?” and
2. “Cars… OMG?”

His answers boil down to:

1. Very, very, very good, and
2. Yes, cars, OMG.

His arguments, citing a veritable mountain of statistical evidence laid bare in his clear, concise writing, chronicles the rise, fall, rebirth, and future of human cities since the invention of the automobile. He argues that these high-density urban environments are not only more environmentally green, but actually shift the entire conversation from cars and drivers back to fundamental quality-of-life issues for all humans, from the very young to the elderly, and how best to satisfy them.

Owens’ three basic themes are clear: live smaller, live closer, and drive less.

13 Haikus For the Elderly Woman Next Door

There's something about a stoic, silent figure that inspires the poetic in me. What is their mission? My neighbor is usually on her tiny balcony, watching over the alley. Unfortunately, I know little more than that. Here are some haikus I've constructed to help myself make sense of you, elderly Vietnamese neighbor grandma. A year and a half of enjoying you enjoying your little balcony has finally produced something.

Also, I'd been struggling to find a way to incorporate some modern and traditional art in my blog - taking pictures of art museums is pretty passe - and this presented an opportunity for me. Vietnamese art is the product of complex forces within Vietnamese culture and society, and these are a few of my favorites! There are a few galleries in Vietnam that deal art to international clients, which is where I've gotten most of these pictures of the works. Sadly, most are privately owned and my pictures of the art museum were pretty much crap.

And thank you for not calling the cops on our awesome stereo setup on the terrace, neighbor. (And that goes for anyone living in our vicinity who may be reading this, thank you!)

Xin cam on ba.

General Observations on Saigonese Architecture

[NOTE: This post goes out to my friend Jenny, who asked me about architecture in July 2013. Excitingly, it's a much more interesting topic than I assumed! So here's the first post!]

I find myself often looking down out my window, which is located on the 3rd (4th, American-style counting) floor of my house, and find myself succumbing to the question that must be difficult for any Vietnamese architect to resist: why isn't the entire lot filled... the entire vertical distance??

There's about half a meter of a small awning over the entrance to the garage... that would give me (or my poor roomies on the other side of the building, in their small, glass closet-rooms) just a liiiiiitle bit more breathing room.

But this is a form of thinking that I had never encountered as a designer. Form really SHOULD follow function, but it's difficult to resist the idea that an object's aesthetic should be at least equally important.

On one level, though, this extreme interpretation of Form v. Function just makes common sense - people are more important than the building, so stretch the building to the farthest corners of the available land, all the way up, and you'll have slightly more comfortable humans.

Not to mention the fact that in the average Vietnamese home, there are many family members, and, all of a sudden, this doesn't just seem like A way to do it, it becomes THE way to do it. Even in parcels of city land that are surrounded by unsold/unimproved lots, the tube house reigns supreme... because the expectation is that this neighborhood will, in time, be just like every other well-developed neighborhood in the city - packed, walkable, vital, and very, very local.

New 'hood: Ward 2, District 3

A roundabout with public art that I pass every morning
on my way to District 6. Chunky, blocky... everything
you would expect from socialist art. It's still nice.

In Chicago, you tell others a little about yourselves by saying what neighborhood you live in. This is due in part to the extreme hyper-localization that happens in Chicago - ethnic groups tend to clump together, and if you're lucky enough to live in a neighborhood with a solid identity, it will tell other Chicagoans what restaurants you prefer, what kind of neighbors you like, where you hang out, what your social concerns are, and more. It's an interesting and unique way of communicating more about yourself, while granting a more or less permanent aspect to your identity. If you want to live with like minded people, you find them, and then you interact with them in those spaces. It's very simple. While it's true the entire city is your playground, you can still count on knowing that where you live is just as important as how and why you live. It is a very easy way of building community in a relatively small town of 2.8 million.