On a brilliant morning last October Dong Khoi Street, the premier commercial thoroughfare in Saigon, was closed for nearly two hours to celebrate the opening of Vincom Center A, a precisely, if infelicitously, named shopping center.

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The final stop, in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), includes chef-led cooking classes and a street-food tour -- and boundless opportunities for trying snacks such as banh mi (sandwiches), pho (spicy noodle soup), goi du du (green papaya salad) and banh xeo (rice pancakes with pork and shrimp).

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To residents, whether street sweepers or company presidents, the city is, as it always was, Saigon.

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