People squatting on Vietnamese streets to slurp noodles, fix a motorbike, or wait for a bus — this posture has a name: “ngồi chồm hổm.” It's the so-called Asian squat, sitting deep with your heels flat on the ground, and Ho Chi Minh City's English-language outlet Saigoneer covered it on July 30, 2026 as “the simplest way for anybody to feel more Vietnamese.” For travelers and business visitors too, blending into the street at this low posture instead of sitting in a chair is something you can imitate — and it changes how the place looks to you the same day. Here's the background, and some tips for actually trying it at a street stall.
Whether You Can Squat Comes Down to Ankle Flexibility, Not Body Type
The first assumption the Saigoneer article dismantles is that “Asians can squat because they're Asian.” What determines whether someone can squat deep, it argues, isn't ethnic skeletal difference but mainly ankle flexibility — the range of dorsiflexion. Every child can naturally take this posture, but a life of chairs and sofas stiffens the ankles and calves until the heels lift and you topple backward. Vietnamese people who keep squatting in daily life — washing vegetables, fixing a motorbike, waiting for a bus, playing games on the floor — retain that range of motion even as they age. In other words, not being able to do it isn't about bloodline; it's simply about disuse.
Medically, too, Harvard Health and other sources note that a deep squat with the heels flat moves the ankles, hips, and knees through their full range of motion, helping lubricate the joints and maintain lower-body flexibility. On Vietnamese street corners, this “healthy resting posture” is built into daily life — no gym required.
| Where Squatting Still Happens Naturally | A Motion That Fades in Chair Culture |
|---|---|
| Slurping noodles or porridge on a low street stool | Eating on the floor or while squatting |
| Servicing a motorbike on the sidewalk / waiting to refuel | Work done at ground level |
| Washing or sorting vegetables at the market | Household chores done low to the ground |
| Waiting for someone at a bus stop or shopfront | A way to rest without standing the whole time |
Red and blue plastic stools still line the same streets where sugarcane vendors once squatted in 1950s Saigon
Squatting was once the standard posture for slurping noodles in Vietnam. Saigoneer points to a photo of a street sugarcane vendor squatting in 1950s Saigon as evidence that city life was once lived almost at ground level. The traces of that are still clearly visible today. The small plastic stools set at the edge of the sidewalk — about 20 to 30 centimeters high, the red and blue ones — are a tool for “lowering yourself” that's an extension of squatting. Combined with the street café culture that spread during the French colonial period, they created the familiar sight of simple tables and low stools lined up along the road.
Eating close to floor level isn't only about stools. At home, the custom of sitting on the floor around a round tray, sharing the meal with no head seat or lower seat, is still very much alive (The round 'cái mâm' tray, with no head or foot of the table: the single piece that binds the Vietnamese meal). Squatting, the low stool, and the round tray all line up along the same thread: sharing a meal with others in a posture close to the ground.
Sitting Down on a Low Stool Brings Your Eyes Within Inches of the Next Diner's
The low street stool does more than serve a practical purpose. Lowering yourself onto it brings your eye level down and closer to the customer next to you, and conversation naturally follows. One resident drawn to the plastic-stool scene wrote, “the little stool is no longer furniture, it's culture.” This closeness, where the eating space and the people merge into one, is what makes a street stall feel comfortable. Squatting works the same way — step low into the circle, and the gap between a traveler standing and watching and a regular squatting down to slurp noodles disappears.
This phenomenon — a single gesture closing the distance with a city — isn't unique to squatting. In the Mekong, people wear pajama-like đồ bộ from morning to night, and knowing about that one garment alone helps you read street life there (Why is everyone in pajamas? The story of do bo, worn morning to night in the Mekong Delta). Whether it's clothing or posture, sharing just one small habit that locals do unconsciously lets you step outside the tourist frame.
As More People Avoid It as “Countrified,” Fewer Can Actually Squat
At the same time, this posture is quietly fading. As chair-based living spreads along with economic development, more people reportedly avoid squatting, seeing it as an unpolished, rural habit from poorer times. The association with using the toilet before Western-style fixtures were common only reinforces the negative image. The Saigoneer writer — a white American who kept squatting even as their parents told them to stop as a child — nonetheless writes that “chồm hổm is what makes me feel Vietnamese, and it's more comfortable and convenient than any chair.” A posture with real health benefits and ties to the city's memory quietly fading away as prosperity rises is the twist that makes this more than just a tourist curiosity.
Test Your Ankles on a Street Stall's Low Stool, and Street Food Changes
If you want to try it as a traveler, there's no need to attempt a perfect squat on the street right away. Start by settling deep onto a low stool at a street stall and sitting without lifting your heels. If stiff ankles make you feel like you'll topple backward, that's simply a sign of relying on chairs day to day — a little practice will bring the range of motion back. Once you're comfortable in the low posture, you'll receive your food at close to ground level and meet the eyes of the vendor or the diner next to you through the steam — a closeness to street food that just standing and taking photos never gets you.
In fact, the same dish becomes something else entirely from one street or alley to the next in Vietnamese street food, and settling into a low stool is exactly what lets you notice the difference (Same com tam, different town, different dish: Long Xuyen-style alley food from An Giang). Squatting or sitting on a low stool turns that one dish from a “tourist consumption” into “time blending into the street.” No price, no reservation required — just a bit of ankle flexibility and the nerve to lower yourself down.
Sources referenced
- Saigoneer — “Learning to Ngồi Chồm Hổm Is a Simple Way for Anybody to Feel More Vietnamese” (July 30, 2026)
- Harvard Health — Try this: Get low with deep squats
- Tatler Asia — The science-backed benefits of the Asian squat
- Viet Origin Betoya — Vietnam's Street Stall Culture: The Secret Flavor Behind the Plastic Stool
