If you're in Vietnam on a rainy day, the best way to warm up is with a bowl of chao muc - rice porridge with squid. And if you want to taste the best in the place, be sure to get it from the restaurant at Pho Duc Chinh Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

Traditional Chao muc is composed of slices of dried squid, pork blood pudding chunks, shredded spring onion, and strips of ginger. For the spicy lovers, they can add chili powder to the dish as well as to lessen or remove the “fishiness” of the squid. It is usually served with deep-fried strips of Chinese cruller called gio chao quay (quay in Vietnamese), and yu char kway or youtiao (in Chinese).

Dried squid is what's typically used in Chao muc. The dry meat is soaked in water, mixed with rice wine to remove the strong smell. It is then washed clean, cut into pieces, and stir-fried with sugar and fish sauce. Some versions actually use fresh squid meat. It depends on the customer which they prefer.

Although Pho Duc Chin Restaurant serves the traditional style Muc chao, it also concocted its own side dishes for the meal, which made it different and stand out from all the other eateries. Chan ga luoc (steamed chicken legs) and hot vit bac thao (century egg or pidan) can be eaten with the porridge or separately as side dishes.

Other snacks such as Hoanh thanh la (no-filling wontons soup) is also famous at the restaurant. Guests have a choice of eating it with either squid or chicken wings. Chao Muc is reasonably priced at VND15,000. Along with the other foods at Pho Duc Chin Restaurant, they are more than enough to warm you up on a rainy day or satisfy your stomach after a long and tiring day at work. In fact, they are perfect any day, everyday.