The five most interesting facts about Vietnamese cuisine

Vietnamese cuisine is made from a delicate mixture of spices and ingredients. The culinary art of Vietnam presents Vietnamese culture because it comes from ancestral traditions with different cooking techniques. Despite distinct gastronomic characteristics between regions, Vietnamese cuisine still has commonalities. Therefore, we take advantage of giving you practical information that allows you to know the cuisine of Vietnam well.

1. Traditional principle in Vietnamese dishes

Subject to the influence of Chinese philosophy, the Vietnamese still use the Yin–Yang principle . This theory plays an important role in daily life and even in Vietnamese cuisine. Yin and Yang do not exist without each other, but always within each other. Yin-Yang is made up of five elements: water, fire, wood, metal and Earth.

All ingredients have their own nature, either Yin (that which is fluid, cold, humid, passive, dark, interior, of feminine essence like duck meat, fish, shellfish, zucchini, head cabbage, etc.), or Yang (that which is solid, warm, luminous, active, exterior, of masculine essence like ginger, chilli, pepper…).

When preparing Vietnamese dishes, one must seek to compensate and combine ingredients and condiments to strike a balance between one and the other. For example, if you eat seafood, you should add ginger, chili pepper and lemongrass to awaken your taste buds.

Particularly, based on the Yin – Yang principle, Vietnamese cuisine presents 5 tastes in one and the same dish. Spicy, sour, sweet, bitter and salty must be in harmony . The secret of Vietnamese culinary recipes is the balance between all these components. Different volume of ingredients and spices creates distinctive recipes and tastes.

2. Diversity of Vietnamese cuisine

The cuisine of Vietnam is the unique cultural harmony of three regions. Each region has its different taste and its own local dishes and specialties. This creates the richness and diversity of cuisine by region.

Speaking of the gastronomy of North Vietnam, we always think of the frugal and mild taste. In particular, soy sauce is often used in dishes to evoke a fragrant and delicious flavor.

In Central Vietnam, the food is very refined, spicy, spicy, a little sweet, and saltier than that of the North and the South. Pickles are also representative of this region.

In the South, Southern cuisine is simple, rustic but extremely diverse. Southern dishes are influenced by Chinese and Thai cuisine, often with added sugar or a sweet taste of vegetables and an oily flavor of coconut water.

3. Vietnamese specialties

With gastronomic diversity from North to South, you can find many tasty specialties that will satisfy your palates. Here are the top 10 best dishes not to be missed in Vietnam

Pho (rice noodle soup with beef)

Ranked among the best dishes in the world, pho is the most common dish in Vietnam. Composed of cooked rice noodles, beef and aromatic herbs, pho has a fragrant and incomparable taste. It would be better to add lemon juice and wine to the bowls of pho, depending on everyone's taste.

Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich)

Banh mi, a popular specialty in Vietnam, is one of the best street foods in the world. Garnished with meat, pâté, carrots, sweet and sour vegetables, coriander and chili in a flour baguette, this sandwich is part of the list of the best Vietnamese street food. Banh mi is omnipresent on Vietnamese streets, so you can easily find it to tantalize your taste buds.

Nem (rollo de primavera)

Spring roll (Nem) is a specialty known in Vietnam. It has varied versions depending on the region, depending on the composition of the stuffing in particular. However, in a rice cake, we always garnish with vermicelli, meat, fragrant mushrooms, aromatic herbs and spices. In particular, we eat it with nuoc mam fish sauce to best enjoy the perfect flavor.

Banh xeo (Vietnamese pancake)

Banh Xeo , a pancake known in Vietnamese cuisine is always yellow in color and crispy with a turmeric taste. This Vietnamese pancake is made from rice flour and turmeric, folded in half. Its stuffing includes pork, mini shrimp, soybeans and aromatic herbs. Enjoy it with fish sauce!

Banh cuon (Vietnamese dumplings)

Banh cuon is a popular, refined and undoubtedly prized dish, which is eaten hot and most often for breakfast. Banh cuon looks pretty easy to make, but requires a certain degree of skill to make a good one. Minced pork and black mushrooms wrapped in a rice paddle are steamed and eaten with nuoc mam sauce. This is an exquisite dish not to be missed.

Bun cha (grilled pork vermicelli)

Bun cha is a simple specialty, very famous and very preferred in Vietnam by locals and foreigners. This dish is harmonized with vermicelli, charcoal-grilled pork on bamboo sticks, accompanied by sweet and sour brine sauce. Fragrant herbs are often added to create an appealing scent and taste.

Cha ca (fried fish)

“Cha ca”, a “fried fish masterpiece”, has long captivated Vietnamese and foreign gourmets. For a good “cha ca”, the preparation requires caution, thoroughness and passion. This typical dish from the capital Hanoi includes pieces of fish grilled with saffron, green onion, coriander. Everything is eaten with mam tom, shrimp paste.

Goi cuon (sping rolls)

Gỏi cuốn, literally “rolled mixed salad” in Vietnamese, fresh and light , is one of the most popular dishes in the country. These rice cakes are wrapped in a leaf of salad, mint, a few bean sprouts and rice vermicelli. You can add pork, chicken, shrimp or fish meat.

Cao lau (Cao lau noodles)

When we talk about cao lau , we immediately think of Hoi An, a charming little gateway town in Central Vietnam. Cao lau is a typical Vietnamese dish, and specialty of Hoi An. Cao lau requires yellow pasta, pork, rice cakes, chopped fragrant herbs and a sweet and sour sauce that drizzles everything. It is mainly found in Hoi An.

Bun bo Hue (Beef soup of Hue)

Bun bo Hue is typical of the ancient capital of Hue . Bun bo hue is among the most popular among travelers in Vietnam. A bowl of vermicelli is added with thin slices of beef jar, slices of beef, pig's trotters. It is garnished with aromatic herbs, chopped spring onion and banana blossom. It is distinguished from pho by its glowing colors which come from the achiote used in the broth.

4. Vietnamese meals

The traditional feature of Vietnam cuisine regularly presents itself in Vietnamese meals, which is a process of combining different dishes. When it's time to eat, we always have several dishes on the platter: rice, soup, salad, vegetables in brine, fish, meat, either sautéed, simmered, or cooked in water or caramel. Every bowl of rice is the result of a marriage.

In the same bite, there can be rice, soup, vegetables, and meat, all together. This practice is completely different from the Western way of serving which consists of only bringing the next dish when the previous one is finished, a completely analytical way of eating. Currently, in popular restaurants, a new way of eating is starting to spread: plates of rice are garnished with all the dishes necessary for a complete meal: meat, eggs, vegetables, etc.

Particularly, the Vietnamese like to eat together while chatting during the meal. The two verses of the famous scholar Nguyen Khuyen on this subject have become almost a diction:

“Rượu ngon không có bạn hiền

Không mua không phải không tiền không mua”

(Good alcohol without a good friend accompanying you!

If I didn't buy one, it's not for lack of means)

Concerning the ethnic populations, they enjoy tasting alcohol from the jar – all the guests sit around the jar and immerse a long pipe into it to suck up the beverage or pass the same pipe one after the other. other like the way of sipping people from the South take turns drinking from the same small glass, is precisely the fundamental mark of the community spirit of the Vietnamese, united in life and death.

5. Why Vietnamese cuisine?

For some time now, Vietnamese gastronomy has often been presented in foreign media. According to the New York Times, she is even the “new culinary star of Asia” and considers her one of the 10 best cuisines in the world. The American channel CNN has presented Vietnamese gastronomy several times. Vietnam's restaurants and food festivals abroad are attracting more and more people, and the number of foreign tourists coming to Vietnam to learn cooking is increasing. Some even come to learn it and then open a Vietnamese restaurant.

Didier Corlou, a French chef well known in Vietnam, regularly composes Vietnamese cuisine for the head of state. In his eyes, pho is the best dish on earth, he even dedicated a book to it... He also loves traditional recipes as proven by other of his works such as Hanoian gastronomy of yesteryear and today, My Vietnamese cuisine and Mountain gastronomy. He claims that spices and the scent of fragrant herbs are the basis of this specificity that is not found anywhere else.

The Vietnamese use a lot of fragrant herbs and vegetables, which is excellent for health. In addition, these give a particular flavor to the dishes. Not too spicy like Thai ones, or fatty like Chinese ones, Vietnamese dishes are suitable for foreign customers. Vietnam extends from North to South. From the southern megacity, you can go to the central highlands to discover different dishes, each with a specific flavor thanks to different fragrant herbs.

The sauce is also an essential factor, essential to the dishes. It is of course nuoc mam or soy sauce, but there are many others. “What’s also interesting is tasting the food on the streets. They are all hot, very good and the price does not exceed a dollar,” notes an American gastronomy specialist.