Snail hunting in Saigon

In preparation for this trip, I watched and rewatched Anthony Bourdain's episodes in Vietnam. In his South Vietnam feature, Bourdain visited what he termed as "Oc Street" in Saigon, an entire street dedicated to serving snail (oc means snail in Vietnamese) and other seafood delicacies, such as shellfish, clams, oysters, and soft-shelled crab. Watching him feast on snail and crab, cooked in tamarind sauce and all sorts of spicy goodness made my mouth water and I told myself then that when I went to Vietnam, I had to find this Oc Street and eat there.

I asked my family of such a street and they immediately knew what I talking about, but they were more surprised that I would actually want to eat there. "Aren't you scared?", they asked me. Scared? Why would I be scared? Should I be scared? Apparently, these places aren't known to be the cleanest and with my foreigner stomach, the risk of getting a stomach ache or even worse, food poisoning is high. Pssh...screw that. I wasn't going to pass up the chance to eat seafood for a third of the price it would cost in the States and seeing that my stomach has been surprisingly healthy so far, I was game.

They took me out on a Saturday night and Saigon was bursting at the seams with energy. Everyone was out on their motorbikes, taking in the nightlife and the streets were full of hungry people looking for some good Southern Vietnamese food to fill up their stomach to either sober up or prepare for the drunken festivities ahead.

Oc Street is located in Saigon's District 4, an area well-known by locals to be sketchy and dangerous, but also where you can find some good drunk food. The street itself isn't difficult to find because once you locate an oc restaurant in the area, chances are there are many more around the corner. With so many restaurants to choose from, we randomly picked a place to eat.

The other patrons were mainly young men, already drunk and thoroughly enjoying their late-night dinners. The place was staffed by young, pretty girls, fitting for the clientele and the ambiance in which they were serving. And the cleanliness? The seats were covered with a layer of dirt and when I tried going to the restroom, there were no stall doors, no toilet paper, and the toilet itself was crumbling and moldy. Oh, it was also unisex. I decided it was best to wait until I went home. But all of this didn't matter because when the food arrived, the aroma and the presentation captured all of my senses.

The first dish, clams cooked in tamarind sauce with peanut bits as garnish. The sauce made the dish--the right amount of sweet and sour.
My favorite dish. Not sure what type of clam this is, but pour a little fish sauce on top and scoop the whole thing in your mouth. So, so good.
Clams cooked in a hotpot of lemongrass soup.

Spicy soft-shelled crab. This dish was too spicy for my taste and my lips were burning red after eating just a few.
Mussels eaten with fish sauce.
And the snail dish? I left the ordering to my family and they ended up not ordering snail, which was what I had been anticipating the most. Not really sure why that was the case, but it didn't really bother me, considering that this was one of the best seafood meals I ever had in my life. It was also the cheapest. Every dish was around 45,000-55,000 dong, which is about $2 to $3 per dish and rounded out to be about $20 for the entire meal (we ordered seconds). A seafood meal such as this would run around $40 at the very least in the States. So cheap.

My seafood cravings are satisfied for now, but I'm still hunting for a good snail joint and I will gladly return to Oc Street again to continue my search.