Vietnamese cuisine

       Looking at these pictures, I can smell the delicate perfume from the soup phở or imagine the taste of grilled meats accompanied by its rice and fish sauce. Undoubtedly, these pictures titillate my taste buds.

I’m certainly not objective, but I’m in love with Vietnamese cuisine, which I appreciate practically each dish.  

At home, I often eat Vietnamese food and sometimes I afford to go to a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris. I must say I’ve missed Asian food in general since I’m in Vancouver because my host family is Canadian, from Britain, even though dinners they prepare for me are usually good.

Vietnamese cuisine has many serious qualities to attract people. First, it tastes good :). Then, thanks to the localization of Vietnam between lands and seas, and its influences coming from China or France, Vietnamese cuisine is varied, using a lot of ingredients: vegetables, rice, meats, fishes and sea foods. This variety provide beautiful colors in your plate (or bowl).

Adding to its variety, another argument is that cuisine is globally a healthy cuisine! Indeed, Vietnamese cuisine employs a lot of vegetables, is often not oily or filled with sauce. For example, I like Cantonese cuisine, notably fried flat rice noodles with beef, but this dish is sometimes very fat.

So in this post, I will introduce some famous Vietnamese dishes that you maybe already know.

I begin with the phở : it is considered as a “national dish”, it is I think an equivalent of Japanese’s Ramen: this very popular noodle soup can be enjoyed everywhere in Vietnam, at every time. It is typically served during breakfast by Vietnam..

I keep some sweet memories from phở we can eat in Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh City) which is very tasty. One of the best I've ever eaten.

The soup includes noodles made from rice, usually served with beef, or chicken, garnished with Thai basil, soybeans, onions, lime, or chili. The broth is made by simmering beef bones for several days. 

Now, I would like to present the Vietnamese fish sauce used in multiples dishes in Vietnam, called nước mắm.This fish sauce could seem to smell particularly strong, because it is produced by anchovies fermentation. Anchovies and salt are arranged in wooden boxes to ferment and are slowly pressed, yielding a salty, fishy liquid. This sauce is used as a cooking sauce, nevertheless it exists a sweet and sour version commonly used as a dipping sauce.

These following dishes notably used  nước mắm as a dipping sauce:

Bánh cuốn : These are rice flour rolls stuffed with ground pork, prawns, and wood ear mushroom, garnished with chả lụa (Vietnamese ham or sausage) and fried shallots.

               

Gỏi cuốn or Vietnamese summer rolls: these are rice paper rolls that often include shrimp, herbs, pork, rice vermicelli and other ingredients wrapped up and dipped in nước chấm or peanut sauce. These rolls are very popular too.

Canh Chua or Vietnamese sour soup: I like this soup which accompanies marvelously a bowl of rice. It typically includes fish, pineapples, tomatoes, herbs, bean sprouts, tamarind, and various kinds of vegetables. No need to say it is very good.

Bánh xèo: this is a type of crepe made out of rice flour with turmeric, shrimps with shells on, slivers of fatty pork, sliced onions, and sometimes button mushrooms, fried in one or two teaspoons of oil, usually coconut oil, which is the most popular oil used in Vietnam. It is eaten with lettuce and various herbs and dipped in nước chấm or sweet fermented peanut butter sauce. 

Of course, I'm not exhaustive, more dishes would deserve to be known. But I only hope this would encourage you to test these delicious dishes coming from Vietnam.
Have fun!