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Eat &
Travel
In Viet Nam
Restaurant Foods
Most of dishes that you find in restaurants are available in U.S., Australia
and European countries such as:
- Phở is a traditional Vietnamese
noodle dish
- Cơm tấm is grilled pork
(either ribs or shredded) plus a Vietnamese dish called bi (bě) (thinly
shredded pork mixed with cooked and thinly shread pork skin) over broken
rice
- Bánh mě (pronounced "bun me"),
sometimes
also referred to as a "Vietnamese hoagie", is a Vietnamese
submarine sandwich, made with a French-inspired baguette
- Goi Cuon (Spring Roll). Vietnamese
fresh spring rolls are essentially nifty little self-contained
salads-to-go
- Cha Gio (Vietnamese Egg Roll: Fried Spring
Roll)
- Bun (Noodle
Salad)
- Banh Cuon (Rice Crepe), is
stuffed rice film pancake
- Nem Nuong (Grilled Vietnamese Meat
Ball).
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In vietnam, you'll want to experience a Bo Bay Mon or "Beef Seven
Ways" restaurant. Beef dishes include beef fondue (bo nhung dam), grilled
beef-stuffed leaves (bo la lot), beef pate steamed in banana leaves (cha dum),
and beef rice soup (chao thit bo). Another restaurant specialty, often eaten for
lunch in the south, is banh xeo, a kind of crepe filled with finely
chopped vegetables and meat.
Market Foods
Market food is at its best, and offers the greatest selection in the morning
before the day gets hot. While breakfast in the south and north is generally
soup, in rural areas it can be xoi—sticky rice steamed in a leaf wrapper.
Often peanuts or mung beans are steamed with the rice.
Street Foods
You will never have to look very far for food in Vietnam - restaurants (nha
hang) of one sort or another seem to be in every nook and cranny. Unless you eat
in exclusive hotels or restaurants, Vietnamese food is cheap. The best
varieties, authenticity and bargains can be found at street stalls, most of
which are limited to the amount of ingredients they can carry, so tend to
specialties in a couple of particular dishes. Wander around until something
takes your fancy.
From hawkers with cauldrons of soup hanging from shoulder poles, to push
carts, market stalls and makeshift "street kitchens", Vietnam's street
food is unsurpassed. Often superior in quality to what's found in the country's
restaurants, it's much cheaper, a lot more fun and there's always some tempting tidbit
on offer. Though the choice is enormous, most vendors are highly specialized,
serving one type of food or even just a single dish, but they cook it to
perfection. All you need is a bit of judicious selection – look for places
with a fast turnover, where the ingredients are obviously fresh, then dig in.
Beverages
Freshly pressed sugarcane juice is available from vendors in the afternoon
and evening. Vietnamese beer is good; try Saigon Beer or 333. Vietnam grows its
own tea in the region around Dalat. Tea is consumed morning to night; it's
served before or after but never during a meal. For another caffeine hit, try
Vietnamese coffee black and hot or iced with condensed milk, gafe suda—our
favorite. The coffee is made in individual slow-drip filters and can be very
strong.
Vietnamese wines
- Rice alcohol. Alcohol
has been called spirit because it symbolizes for men willingness in the old
time. Besides tea, plain rice alcohol is also offered respectfully on the
ancestor altar in rituals or ceremonies to show deep gratitude such as
wedding parties, ground - breaking, Tet holiday... Vietnamese also
drink alcohol to celebrate joy to reduce sadness or wish for blessings.
However, the way Vietnamese drink alcohol is worth mentioning. Unlike
Western countries where bigger cups or glasses are frequently used, buffalo
- eyed cup is more preferred to serve in Vietnam.
- Can wine.
The name can wine comes from the reason that Vietnamese call a stem
- a small bamboo straw- to consume wine from the jar. This kind of wine is
the most special one in Vietnam even it belongs to minority groups in
highland and some other places in Vietnam. Can wine is special for the way
it is made and served. Firstly, simple available local materials such as
cassava, tapioca, sweet potato are altogether fermented by wild herb in a
pottery jar for days. Of course, its taste is total different from rice
alcohol or any kind of wine - can wine is so bitter or strong that
may lead you dizziness. Its sweet taste would make you drunk - a sweet and
slow drunk - without any predictable consciousness.
- Snake Wine. It
is an alcoholic beverage that can be found at Snake Village near Hanoi, any
major city of Vietnam as well as other countries across South East Asia. The
snakes are immersed in 100% rice wine in special glass bottles and then,
they are sealed and stored in a cellar for five years. The wines which
contain substances necessary for the human body are high quality tonics.
Bizarre Food of Vietnam
If you are more adventurous, explore the Bizarre Food of Vietnam
Eating
Adventure in Vietnam Vietnamese
Street Food
"5:45 am at the fish market in Nha
Trang, Central Vietnam: I’m sitting at a low wooden table on a tiny blue
plastic stool on the sand. Opposite me a woman is smearing three small
round blackened pans with pieces of pork fat. Once the fat has
sizzled, she removes it with wooden chopsticks then throws in some
chopped-up pieces of squid which are fried until golden on both sides.
The cooking smells are irresistible.
....."
Now she ladles in a thin stream of rice
flour batter and swirls it around. When the mixture begins to
bubble, she covers the pancakes briefly with three small lids, then folds
the pancakes in half, grabs a plate and serves them to me with a wide
smile and sparkling eyes. (read
more)
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Mekong Delta food adventure with a
Vietnamese friend
Raw duck meat swimming in congealed duck blood is a
delicacy in Vietnam. It may also top the list of what not to eat when
you're seven weeks' pregnant. But what to do when my obliging host proudly
dollops some of the sticky substance into my dish and waits impatiently
for feedback?
The table of our host is laden with a feast fit for
Vietnamese royalty. My two travel companions and I are guests in the Long
Xuyen home of Mr Ly. The family congregates in the living room that
doubles as the main port of call for their four businesses: three dealing
in motorcycle parts and the fourth in water purification. (read
more) |
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