Halong Bay, Vietnam
The friendly locals, beautiful Halong Bay, the thought-provoking Cu Chi Tunnels, buzzy Ho Chi Minh, imperial Hanoi, millions of motorbikes and sandy beaches; there’s so much to experience in Vietnam and Sarah from our team did indeed fall in love with the country when she visited last month. It’s Vietnamese food though that’s taken the centre stage – she’s not stopped waxing lyrical about ‘the best food she’s ever eaten on holiday’ since she returned, so here are her top foodie experiences in Vietnam.
Sarah exploring the Cu Chi Tunnels
Vietnam: stunning, vivacious and exciting. Some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met, the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever explored and some pretty thought provoking experiences too.
But we’ve already put together a list of our top recommendations for Vietnam, which means I have the excuse to talk about my favourite thing about travelling – the food!
Vietnamese food benefits from a huge abundance of fresh ingredients and a skillful way of weaving together herbs, soy sauce, garlic and chilli to make mouth-watering dishes. The French influence is also still obvious, especially in cities in the south of the country.
So here are seven top Vietnamese gourmet experiences I think you shouldn’t miss:
1. Pho: the Vietnamese food staple
That’s noodle soup to you and me. I ate this dish pretty much everyday for breakfast or lunch. Pho Bo [beef noodle soup] is particularly famous, but there are many kinds of meat, seafood and vegetarian options. Every single bowl I tried [from restaurant to road-side shack] was full of flavours like coriander, chilli, garlic, onion, all coming together in a satisfying but light meal.
Pho, Vietnamese noodle soup
2. Vietnamese spring rolls
Again, this became a regular appearance on our dinner table. Try the different kinds – rice or wheat paper, vegetables, meat, seafood – most of the time served with chilli sauce although once we had a delicious soy and garlic dip. Every restaurant has a slightly different way of cooking spring rolls, yet I couldn’t pick a favourite…
3. Kho
A stew prepared in a traditional clay dish – the non-glazed pot is soaked in water so it releases steam during cooking. Pork especially becomes mouthwateringly tender when cooked this way, but I also had a delicious mushroom stew I could have eaten three times over.
4. Exotic fruit
We ate lots of papaya, oranges, dragon fruit, mango, pineapple, lychees, all deliciously ripe and fresh [I must admit the local durian fruit wasn't to my taste...]. The local way to eat a sweet fruit like pineapple is to dip it lightly in chilli salt, it adds the hot and sour taste which is key to the Vietnamese palate.
Exotic fruit served with chilli salt
5. The street food of Vietnam
Fresh fruit, pork kebabs with garlic and satay sauce, fresh clams cooked while you wait, crab, lobster, a lovely rice pudding dish drizzled with sweet ginger sauce… You’ll really miss out if you don’t experience something from the stalls that litter the streets. Pick a vender busy with locals and just get stuck in! Although I must admit I wasn’t brave enough to try the dried jelly fish…
Vietnamese street food
6. Local beer
The cheapest we found was in Hoi An at 3,000 VND [21,000 VND is the equivalent of $1, I'll let you do the math….]. The local beer is excellent and worth trying over a Tiger or Heineken.
Vietnamese beer
7. Noodles
Crispy, fresh, stir fried, wheat, rice… of course the things Vietnamese can do with noodles is worthy of an award. And there are so many different sauces, ways of cooking and ingredients so you could have noodles morning, noon and night and still not get sick of them. Our favourite came to be the crispy noodles, they looked so impressive – like an edible birds nest – and almost require an architectural qualification to deconstruct and eat, but we’ve never had anything nearly as good as them before or since.
Ready to go?
Check out our selection of Vietnam holidays, including Escorted Tours and River Cruises.
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