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Vietnamese Food: Everything we ate during our first visit to Vietnam
Edit: I wrote this after traveling in Vietnam for the first time. Since then, I moved to the country, and went totally nuts on the food. If you want to learn more about the cuisine, check out my Food-Lover’s Guide to Vietnamese Food. It took me 2 years to make and contains over 75 dishes.
Fruits, vegetables, herbs, shrimp paste, fish sauce, pork, beef, chicken, seafood, rice, and all of it fresh. Vietnamese food is known for being one of the healthiest cuisines in the world. Noodle soups are eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with pho being the most popular. The Vietnamese aren’t afraid to eat anything: organs, testicles, tongues, feet, snake, rat, worms, fertilized duck eggs with partially developed embryos in them. Picking out a restaurant can sometimes offer some unappetizing surprises, such as a dog being roasted on a spit, but if you come to Vietnam with an open mouth and an open mind, you’ll be sure to leave with new tastes and experiences that can’t be matched anywhere else in the world.
For more information and more beautiful photos (yes, ones more beautiful than even my own) I highly suggest picking up this book: The Food of Vietnam. Or if you are heading to the country and want a handy food related guide book, consider one of these: Lonely Planet World Food Vietnam or Vietnamese Street Food Vietnamese to English Translations. Or better yet, bookmark this site: Vietnamenu: A Food Lover’s Travel Guide to Vietnamese Food. It’s a site that I’ve been working on since moving to Vietnam. It contains profiles of various dishes that you will come across on your journey through Vietnam with both the English and Vietnamese names. I’m adding more dishes everyday. Eventually, it will be the ultimate foodie’s companion for their trip to Vietnam. Hu tieu bo kho or beef stew with rice noodles. Duck curry noodle soup: a great way to start your day.Pho ga or chicken in a clear broth with pho noodles. Garnish with mint, Thai basil, bean sprouts, lime, and chilli peppers to your taste.Made by the famous Lunch Lady of Saigon, an incredible combo of deliciousness. Shrimp, tofu, chicken, meatballs, a quail egg. Every spoonful blows my mind.Banh Khoai a pancake filled with prawns, pork and bean sprouts. A specialty in the province of Hue.Bun thit nuong: rice noodles with pork and a cut up spring roll with scallion oil. This was for breakfast.Cao lau. This dish is so well-known that it has its own Wikipedia page.Chicken hot pot. Known as Lau, the hot pot is very popular in Vietnam. Chicken can be substituted for fish or seafood.Jumbo shrimp battered and deep fried.Eel fried with chilli peppers.Fresh spring rolls with lettuce, Thai basil, mint, and vermicelli rice noodles.Fried chicken wings. They’re no Buffalo wings but they’ll do.Deep fried fish at its freshest.Scallops grilled and sprinkled with peanuts.The inside of a Vietnamese pancake.Nem lui, lemongrass with a sausage-like pork wrapped around it.Pork ribs in a sweet sauce.Shrimp with garlic. You don’t even have to peel them just pop them in your mouth like popcorn.Bad English translations of menus can often lead to something like this. “Vegetables fried in garlic” is really water spinach fried in garlic. In most countries water spinach is just a weed but the Vietnamese see it as a tasty side dish.Vietnamese sandwiches are becoming popular around the world. I’m not really sure why though. Whatever tickles your taste buds.Vietnamese BBQ. Put some meat on a stick and chances are I’ll eat it.Tuna chunks in a curry sauce served in a clay pot.Deep fried spring rolls with pork.Wash all that down with a Vietnamese iced coffee. Condensed milk with a thick syrupy coffee on ice. Be careful they are addictive.
