Sa déc is a provincial city in Dong Thap province in southern Vietnam about 2-3 hours away from Saigon (Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh nowadays). My father’s family is from this area, having lived here since his father immigrated from China in the 1920s. They still have a house on the main street in Sa ?éc even though most of our family has moved over to the United States. We still have a few aunts and uncles in the area though, and we stayed with one of my aunts Cuc Cua at her home during our stay. Even though she would home cook meals for us all day ( I literally just ate and slept in Sa Dec), in the morning before everyone in the house awoke, my mom and I would venture out of the house into Sa Dec to explore the markets and get some breakfast and coffee.
At the heart of each town, there is a “Cho” or market. Cho Sa ?éc is a huge building built over 20 years ago housing different clothing, shoes, jewelry and electronics shops. It reminded me of a large flea market similar to Magic Mall found in Orlando. Beside the Cho Sa ?éc is a open air street food market with many different food vendors that sell everything from pho, hu tieu, rice dishes, coffee, rice paste noodles, and even vegetarian dishes. My mom and I would frequent this place often in the mornings, ordering bun thit nuong (rice vermicelli noodles with grilled pork) and banh cuon (rice paste with pork roll) and Vietnamese coffee. There is also a Cho Thuc Pham that is basically a meat market with cuts of meat hanging out at their stalls.
I enjoyed eating at these small food stalls as you can tell everything is home made and fresh. They get their products from the local market and make it fresh each morning.
Here is a video about Sa Dec from youtube!
