Feasting in Back Alley Seafood at Quan Oc Co Sang
“Where are we going?”
“To the best back alley seafood place you’ve ever been!”
Quan Oc Co Sang tl;dr
- Found in the Alley
- You’ll Probably Want to Go With Someone Speak Vietnamese
- Get Everything!
- Unless you have a peanut allergy
As a part of our stay in Ho Chi Minh City, otherwise known as Saigon, Nadia had booked us a tour. And the wonderful Van from Saigon Hotpot Tours came out and showed all around town, the places she likes to visit, the places she likes to eat and everything in between. Essentially she showed us her Saigon and for that we are forever grateful. It is a perspective that I doubt we’d get any other way is such a short period of time.
Don’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover
Like the rest of our tour, we had an amazing seafood experience for dinner with Van in this place that to this day I can’t quite remember how we got there. Fortunately for copious amounts of time and Google Maps, I was able to pinpoint the general area, if not the exact location of the vendor. Unfortunately since Google Maps doesn’t have street view of the exact location, I can’t quite say with 100% certainty that it is the place. But I do have a picture of the signage with both phone number and address. If anyone knows whether it is still there or whether my map is correct, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Be the Best House Guest
Back to the story about how we eat. Because we eat. And everyone has to eat. And just because you NEED to eat, doesn’t mean it can’t be tasty. Fortunately this was AMAZING! I personally was a little wary simply because I was unfamiliar with the area much less Saigon. But Van was an amazing host and figured she wouldn’t steer us wrong. I’m so glad that we insisted on going here despite her reservations on how we would take to it.
We Are Truly Blessed
Having traveled a little, Nadia and I and been blessed with experiences all over both AMAZING and less than amazing. I could understand how one would be less than thrilled with going here, especially for the very first time but if you can look beyond that, then you’re in store for a great dinner. I don’t know how far we could have gotten without Van. Her amazing skills wielding the Vietnamese language is so much better than mine and has rewarded us with a meal.
THE MEAL
I would like to tell you what we ordered. I would to tell you that this was everything that was deliciously document below. But then again, it could easily be a laundry list about what they didn’t like about my appearance or how I smell (it was a long hot day). That aside, hoping that I’m not totally wrong, we had the freshest shellfish, a lot of fresh shellfish, like a ridiculous amount of ocean sweet shellfish that no human should attempt to eat alone:
1 | Ubiquitous Dipping Sauce with Salt and Pepper
2 | Cheese Covered Oysters
3 | Razor Clams(?) Over Noodles with Something Green?
4 | Cockles(?) with Chopped Peanuts
5 | Peanuts Over Clams(?)
6 | Chopped Peanuts Over Large Sea Snails(?)
7 | Peanuts Over Small Sea Snails(?)
8 | Cheese Covered Clams(?)
9 | Crab Legs with More Snails
10 | Clams in Lemongrass Broth(?)
That was a meal that will haunt me and my dreams for the foreseeable future. I’m sure I’ll tell this story to all I know, to my kids, to my kid’s kids and so on. I enjoyed it so much that I wrote another post about it to elaborate on the meal other than simply leaving it in the other Saigon Hotpot post. It’s so good that it warrants it’s own spotlight.
On a side note | In hind site though, I think I should have brought another chair or something because the small plastic stools didn’t instill in me self confidence that it wouldn’t break under my girth. With that being said, I drank more beer than I should have to distract me from that.
Thank you Quan Oc Co Sang for the explosions on my palate.
Thank you so much Van.
Thank you Saigon!
