Chad Kubanoff, 38, is an American chef currently living in Ho Chi Minh City with his Vietnamese wife and their children. He runs a YouTube channel with nearly 130,000 subscribers, where he regularly shares videos of his street food adventures in Vietnam.

Recently, Chad posted a video about a breakfast dish that’s particularly popular among Vietnamese men. He called it a “special” breakfast. The dish? Cháo lòng – a porridge that many foreign tourists find strange or off-putting.

On June 23, Taste Atlas, an international food platform, released a list of the “worst-rated Vietnamese dishes” for 2025. Cháo lòng ranked 33rd with a score of 3.9.

Just a month earlier, however, the same site included cháo lòng among the best porridge dishes in Asia. Placing it 7th, Taste Atlas described it as “appealing, affordable, and beloved by people throughout Vietnam.”

Chad and his wife chose to enjoy the Hanoi-style cháo lòng on Nguyen Luong Bang Street in Tan My Ward, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Tan Phu Ward, District 7). They ordered two hot bowls of cháo lòng, a plate of boiled innards, and a glass of rice wine.

Chad previously shared that his first taste of the dish was a little strange. But over time, he developed a craving for it. He described the porridge as having a unique color due to the addition of pig’s blood. Inside the bowl were a mix of pork intestines, liver, and cartilage.

To enjoy the dish to its fullest, Chad added crispy crullers (quẩy), bean sprouts, herbs like sawtooth coriander, mint, and Vietnamese balm, shredded scallions, and chili fish sauce.

“The flavor is rich, intense, and mysterious,” Chad said. “The small intestine is chewy and fatty. The large intestine is my wife’s favorite. It’s softer, stuffed with blood pudding, minced herbs, and roasted peanuts. You can think of it like a blood sausage,” he explained.

The couple ate cháo lòng with a side of boiled offal including small and large intestines, liver, stomach, and cartilage.

“These ingredients seem unrelated but come together beautifully. For example, the liver is tender while the cartilage is crunchy,” Chad noted. During the meal, his wife shared that cháo lòng is a dish deeply tied to her childhood memories.

According to Chad, the restaurant may not serve the best cháo lòng he’s ever had, but it’s still worth trying. He plans to return to explore more dishes like stir-fried intestines with pickles, fish noodle soup, and pork ball vermicelli. The total cost of the meal for the couple was 153,000 VND (about 6.00 USD).

Under the video, many Vietnamese viewers expressed delight watching the American chef enjoy cháo lòng so expertly, even mastering the complementary condiments.

Linh Trang