Lunch Lady – Legendary Street Food Stall In HCMC You’ll Regret Not Visiting At Least Once

Lunch Lady Group Shot

When visiting Ho Chi Minh City, no one ever leaves without paying the acclaimed Lunch Lady a visit. This internationally-renowned street food stall—located just a few steps away from popular pho joint, Pho Phuong 25—is famous for their down-to-Earth, rustic charm and menu that rotates daily.

The stall made its mark less than a decade ago after the late, great Anthony Bourdain visited them as part of his food programme, No Reservations. Until today, Lunch Lady is still highly patronised by locals, tourists, as well as food bloggers from around the world—like us.

The humble stall is owned and run by Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh, also known as the Lunch Lady. An international street food icon, her modest stall in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 is packed daily and for good reason–her food is truly out of this world. Period.
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Anthony Bourdain to open Singapore-style Food Market in New York

Anthony Bourdain

A food market serving Singapore-style street food in New York? This is exactly what author/TV personality star Anthony Bourdain – known for his book Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations – is working on next.

He has signed a deal to open his first large-scale food market in Manhattan, which will reflect his passion for international street food.

Anthony Bourdain confirmed the project: “I am indeed working on this project—carefully assembling a dream list of chefs, operators, street food and hawker legends from around the world—in hopes of bringing them together in one New York City space. As the greatest city in the world, I’ve long felt that we should have the kind of delicious, diverse food centers that Singapore (for instance) enjoys. And, in fact, it is my hope that an important component of this project will be representatives of Straits hawker masters. My likes are pretty well known: dai pai dong in Hong Kong, Boqueria in Spain, hawker centers in Singapore, street tostadas in Ensenada. To the extent that I can help bring those things home to New York, along with a truly interesting collection of home grown innovators, I will be very, very pleased. If nothing else, I hope to soon be able to enjoy a really good Chicken Rice in NYC.”

While surprising, it is actually little wonder this is happening because Anthony Bourdain is known to be a big fan of Singapore local food. This is great news for us as more people will get to taste our popular local food. This might just pave the way for more Singapore restauranteurs and chefs to expand and venture to the United States.

New York City, watch out for Singapore street food!