I have a new Saigon food obsession that's overtaken my cravings for fried chicken from the mosque, nemesis cake from Au Parc and set menus at Ty Coz - salt and pepper squid at Red Hot Wok!
Red Hot Wok opened a few months back down a pokey little alley way just round a corner from Nguyen Hue. It's run by a friendly middle-aged Aussie-Vietnamese couple and the food reminds me very much of that found in Australian Chinatowns and cheap and cheerful Chinese food court restaurants. Think wok fried dishes served on sizzling cows (you know - the black iron kind), stir fried noodle dishes and plates of yummy Asian greens. The squid is my ultimate recommendation though - deep fried with a hint of szechuan pepper, topped with a mix of fried garlic, shallots and chilli. At Red Hot Wok it's called something like 'Deep fried squid with salt and chilli' but really, it's the dish we all know and love as 'salt and pepper squid'. Am so happy to have finally found a good version of this dish in Saigon - yay!
Beef with black pepper (which is really, really tender) and my beloved squid
Red Hot Wok, 9/12 Huynh Thuc Khang, D1 (open 11am til...4am!)
