Entree Kibbles: The Famous Ben Thanh Market @ Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam

Monday, January 30, 2023

The Famous Ben Thanh Market @ Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam

Known locally as Chợ Bến Thành, I first heard of this famous market at Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) when some people termed it as Vietnam's equivalence of Bangkok's Chatuchak Weekend Market.

For clarification, it's incomparable! Chatuchak Weekend Market was way bigger, selling a wider variety of merchandise and services, and said to have more than 20,000 stalls at its peak. Ben Thanh Market had like only 6,000 businesses across 1,500 booths.

With four main gates that have names corresponding to north (Bắc), south (Nam), east (Đông) and west (Tây), the directional sections concentrated on certain products; for example, more dried food products in the eastern section.

I went twice and the photographs taken were from two dates (28 October and 01 November 2022); there was a wider 'street' in the middle of each main gate that intersected in the center of the century-old, single-storey market.

You would be swarmed with the large bags of dried products and coffee and stall-owners wouldn't hesitate to approach you for sales; just be firm and politely reject if you are not keen to make any purchase. If you want to buy, bargaining is a "must".

To me, the market was really touristy and most items are roughly the same, unlike Bangkok, where you can find more independent designs and offerings and, way better marketing.

Honestly, most night markets in Bangkok were similar one or two decades ago but they evolved rapidly to become a major tourist attraction not only for foreigners, but also for the local populace!

I had gotten past the age whereby I would buy such souvenirs to collect dust at home. However, I was indeed on the lookout for some piggy banks to add on to my collection. p.s. couldn't find a unique one.

The clothing shop at the back had like fixed pricing although I bet tourists would still attempt a bargain if they could. Designs, however, were more for the much younger or the older generation.

Food stalls in the market; one thing I regretted was not trying any of them when I was there, although I might assume this would cater more for foreigners like locals, and hence, would either be not as authentic and / or too pricey! Soursop smoothie at 30,000 Dong (about S$1.70) sounds reasonable though.

My favorite custard apples! The fruits looked so utterly fresh yet I didn't even attempt asking for the prices. I ate a lot of fruits when I am at home but once I am overseas, my fruit intake would likely be limited to those served in hotel's breakfast buffets.

Considerations included not knowing if the fruit was ripe, whether there would be pesticide or added chemicals and / or I am paying a reasonable price for it.

Cute baby carrots! Would tourists buy fresh produce if they don't have a kitchenette in their accommodation? To put things in context, my mom ever brought back two yams from China and I had purchased six ears of corn and brought them back to Singapore from Cameron Highlands.

The inner passages were tighter and maybe because there weren't that many tourists, the 'window shopping' was quite pleasurable. Furthermore, the high ceiling likely contributed to better air circulation as I don't get all sweaty and hot when I was there, unlike Chatuchak Weekend Market.

A better look at the yellow metal architecture of the market. With a total area of 13,056 m², this market was completed in 1912, with a major renovation that last took place in 1985. That's almost forty years ago!

Section I spent the most at; the one offering dried nuts, fruits, coffee and tea! The one thing I told myself to buy would be lotus seeds and there were so many, many stalls to choose from. If you ask me, there's another market at Chinatown, Cho Binh Tay, that offered better pricing but I didn't buy enough; hence, the need to come back to Ben Thanh Market on my last day to make last-minute purchase.

The good thing is that I already roughly knew the market price and hence, the threshold on how much I am willing to pay. So, I went with the above stall and bargained the deep fried lotus seeds from 500,000 dong to 430,000 dong a kilogram; sampling is a must though as I don't mind paying slightly more for better quality. At Cho Binh Tay, average pricing would be about 400,000 dong a kilogram.

Okay lah, the lady operating the stall was nice; so a higher premium would still be acceptable. Name card as appended above for ease of reference.

I didn't buy any coffee beans / tea leaves though as there were too many types! For coffee, I am more into 3-in-1 though. There's the all-famous weasel coffee and surprisingly, it's not the most expensive; the coconut coffee was more than double at 250,000 dong per 100 grams!

Ceramic coffee drippers! If you don't know how to use a Vietnamese coffee dripper, you may check out this YouTube video here. Since the dripper is quite commonly used in Vietnam, I am going to check out the supermarket to see if they sell it, likely at a much more economical pricing.

Two random photographs.

Operating hours of Ben Thanh Market are from 6am till 6pm but the streets surrounding the market would be converted into a night market after 6pm. I didn't have a chance to check it out; maybe next time.