If we’ve learned one thing from our first day in Saigon… it’s that you don’t ease into Saigon. 

You land, you blink, and suddenly you’re eating pho for breakfast, moving amongst the fluid dynamics of motorbikes, and watching someone casually break down a pig’s snout in an alley like it’s just another Tuesday.

This is our first 24 hours in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), recorded straight out of Saigon Podcast Studio: jet lagged, not under-caffeinated (hard to be in this town), and fully thrown into the deep end of Vietnam’s food culture.

We get into:

• The moment pho finally clicks (and why breakfast might be the best time for it)

• Vietnam’s wet markets: where you can buy herbs, headless frogs… or nail clippers

• Why banh mi might be the most perfect sandwich on earth

• The controlled chaos of Saigon’s streets and why it somehow works

• And a completely passionate detour into overcooked wild salmon and love for the broiler

It’s messy and meandering… and it’s exactly what day one in a new city should feel like. Equal parts discovery, confusion, and thrill. 

Welcome to Vietnam. We’re figuring it out as we go.