Saigon&mdash;as mostVietnamese continue to refer to Ho Chi Minh
City&mdash;is a thriving metropolis: hot, crowded, vibrant and
utterly dazzling. "Saigon's all about living larger.
Everything's bigger and louder" there than it is in the north,
says AndreaNguyen, aVietnamese- American food writer and author
of the cookbook, "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen."  David Hagerman
The same could be said of canh chua ca (pronounced gahn joo-ah
gah), the southern Vietnamese sour fish soup beloved by the
city's residents.  "Wild and woolly" is how Ms. Nguyen describes
the city's emblematic dish, which takes the form of a bowl
packed with large chunks of deep red tomato, golden pineapple,
crunchy bean sprouts, tender okra and bac ha (taro stem)&mdash;a
spongy, bland vegetable that absorbs the tamarindtart, fish-
sauce flavors of the salty broth. With a scattering of browned
garlic nubs and vivid green herbs, including the lemony, lightly
cumin-flavored rau om (rice paddy herb), canh chua ca is a
colorful jumble of contrasting