Taste Vietnam
Việt Nam
Herbs, broth and a table that lets you finish the seasoning yourself. Fish sauce is the salt; lime and chilli are the last word.
Northern cooking is clearer and more restrained; the centre is spicy and complex; the south is sweeter and more herbal. Phở bò is a long beef broth with charred onion and ginger, star anise, and herbs you add yourself. Bún chả is Hanoi grilled pork with noodles and a dipping sauce that should taste like balance, not sugar. Bún bò Huế is a lemongrass-and-chilli central broth, louder than phở. Cơm tấm is broken rice with grilled pork, a Saigon plate for people who have somewhere to be. Chả cá is turmeric fish with dill, a Hanoi speciality that still surprises people who think Vietnamese food is only soup. Weekday food is still greens, rice, and a pot of something on the stove.
37 recipes · 1 cuisine
Essential dishes
Checking your allergy settings…
More dishes
Further Vietnam listings, including shorter editorial recipes and imported methods.
Checking your allergy settings…
Regional cuisines
Think you know Vietnam food?
36 quiz dishes. Optional — Passport stamps still come from cooking.
Take the Vietnam food quizFood history
Chinese, Cham, Khmer and French presence all left techniques without flattening the cuisine. Phở likely took shape in the early twentieth century in the north, combining Chinese noodle-soup ideas with Vietnamese herbs and French-influenced beef butchery. Bánh mì is a colonial baguette that Vietnam completely remade with pickles, pâté and grilled meat. Migration after the wars carried these kitchens abroad; the herbs and nuoc cham logic travelled with them.
Common ingredients
Techniques
- long broth
- charring aromatics
- herb finishing
- pickling do chua
- grilling