Vietnamese Food - Illustrated Guide

Vietnamese cuisine uses various types of meat, although beef and pork seem to be more ubiquitous choices. Meat dishes are cooked in a variety of ways – boiled, fried, stir-fried, simmered, and grilled – almost in any way possible, as long as the good taste of the dish is guaranteed and freshness of ingredients is preserved.

Meat can be the ingredient for many dishes – noodles, fried steak or boiled hotpot, various types of dumplings, rolls, pancakes and even sandwiches. There are dozens of different types of noodles alone, and that does not include the regional variety.

See more detailed and well-illustrated guide to many popular meat dishes in Vietnam

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Another famous Vietnamese dish, Bun Bo Hue, has a local flavor to it even in its very name. Originally from Hue, it is now popular pretty much everywhere in the country. Bun Bo Hue is, essentially, a beef soup with thick rice noodles. Pork might be occasionally used instead of beef.

Bun Bo Hue is not really a name of one particular dish, but a common name for many similar dishes in Vietnamese cuisine. Each of these distinct types of dishes comes with its own style of cooked beef, and its own combination of seasoning and vegetables. Lemon grass is often used as a seasoning, as well as chilli pepper and shrimp paste. Bun Bo Hue is, mostly, a spicy dish, although how much spicy it gets depends on the particular type of dish you are going to try, ingredients used, and even the region, where the dish is cooked.

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Some types of snack food, found in Vietnam, are authentically Vietnamese, while many others were adopted from European and Asian cuisines.

Various types of rolls and spring rolls, filled with beef, pork, seafood, mushrooms and vegetables, cooked with diverse variety of seasoning and sauses, are a part of everyday diet. Sandwiches are a more recent addition from French cuisine to a Vietnamese, although it has already become a ubiquitous dish, and, quite predictably, it was later enhanced and modified into a variety of sandwiches with distinct local ingredients.

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Soy sauce is used extensively in Vietnamese cuisine, as much as anywhere else in Asia. Yet, many distinct types of sauces exist in Vietnam – shrimp paste, a variety of local fish sauces, soybean sauce and many others, and all of them are frequently used as components to meat and seafood dishes.

It is not possible to imagine Vietnamese cuisine without the extensive range of seasoning, herbs and spices (strong and mild) – this is what makes Vietnamese dishes so rich in flavor and taste. Coriander is used often in meat and seafood dishes, as well as peppermint, lemon grass, and other herbs.

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Mostly, tropical fruits are growing in Southern Vietnam, where the climate is warm all year round. Yet, sweet and tasty fruits are available in the markets throughout the country. Coconuts and grapefruits are easy to find, as well as jackfruit, bananas, mangoes, papayas and pineapples. Many other fruits, although not tropical, are also very popular in Vietnam – apples and watermelons are only some of them.

See our illustrated guide to tropical fruits in Vietnam

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Alcohol drinks in Vietnam are abundant, both traditional and adopted from European cultures. Local alcohol is made of rice and often includes special flavours from fruits or herbs. Wine is becoming more popular, and the consumption of local beer, in particular, has grown into a big part of the lifestyle in Vietnam.

For those visitors looking for an exotic experience, a snake wine is an obvious attraction, both as a drink and a souvenir.

Get more information and visual impressions about alcohol drinks in Vietnam

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When you find a number of food choices in one particular place in Vietnam to be as various as it gets, consider the fact that most popular dishes also have regional specialties. People may cook them in a different way, and with a different set of ingredients, in various places and regions of Vietnam. The same type of noodles, cooked in Hanoi, Hue or Ho Chi Minh City may have a different taste.

Generally, North of Vietnam is considered to have slightly more salty food than the rest of the country. It is also the original home of nearly all types of pho noodle dishes. Central Vietnam has the largest variety of spicy food, and even typical Vietnamese dishes might taste spicier there. The South of Vietnam is famous for a sweeter taste of many popular dishes, and it also the home of Vietnamese curries. Southern Vietnam, arguably, has a higher variety of fruits, herbs and seasoning, used in local cuisine, than in other regions of the country.

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