Vietnamese Food: 45 Traditional Dishes To Look For In Vietnam

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For us, Vietnam is one of the world’s best countries for food. We’ve been lớn Vietnam several times now & Vietnamese cuisine always leaves us wanting for more.

My most recent visit to lớn Vietnam was a month-long stay in which I explored the country’s diverse cuisine from north to lớn south. I ate my way through Sapa, Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon, và the Mekong Delta with the goal of writing a traditional Vietnamese food guide that showcased the best & most interesting dishes Vietnam had to offer.

If you’re wondering what to eat in Vietnam, then this Vietnamese food guide will be very useful khổng lồ you. It lists 45 of the tastiest Vietnamese dishes you can have throughout the country. In trying these dishes, I hope you fall in love with traditional Vietnamese food as much as we have.

This Vietnamese food guide advises you on what dishes to lớn eat, but if you’re looking for the best Vietnamese restaurants and street food stalls in key cities throughout Vietnam, then be sure to check out our Hanoi, Ho đưa ra Minh đô thị (Saigon), Hue, and Hoi An food guides as well. Enjoy!

VIETNAMESE FOOD QUICK LINKS

If you’re planning a trip lớn Vietnam and want to lớn learn more about Vietnamese cuisine, then you may be interested in joining a food tour or taking a cooking class.

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17. Gio Lua / phụ thân Lua

Known as gio lua in northern Vietnam and cha lua in the south, this is a common type of Vietnamese pork sausage that’s often served in many Vietnamese dishes lượt thích bun thang and banh mi. It’s made by pounding pork until pasty, then seasoning it with spices and nuoc cham.

After being seasoned, the mixture is then tightly wrapped in banana leaves & boiled. The cylindrical banana leaf parcel is submerged vertically in boiling water & typically left to cook for about an hour. A common way to lớn tell if the sausage is ready is to drop it onto a hard surface. If it bounces, then it’s good.

Aside from finding it in many Vietnamese dishes, we bought phụ thân lua at Gio cha Minh Chau in Saigon upon the recommendation of our homestay host. We were looking for interesting Vietnamese souvenir food items to bring back home and she suggested phụ vương lua.

The sausage is already cooked so all you have to vị is slice it and pan fry before eating. If you like SPAM, then you’ll probably enjoy this. It has a slightly gummy và chewy texture that’s reminiscent of fish cake.

Traditional Vietnamese food is quite a challenging concept in itself. Vietnam has such a diverse food culture that continues khổng lồ grow and develop to this day. The Vietnamese have their own regional identities when it comes to all aspects of life. Whether it is the traditional clothes they wear, khổng lồ the language dialects they speak, the differences are all too plain lớn see. It’s no surprise then, that the food should follow suit.

It’s not just the internal regional differences either that have affected ‘tradition’, neighbors, & colonizers, have also had a significant impact. From the Chinese Dynasties who brought noodles lớn the people of Vietnam, khổng lồ the arrival of the French in the 1800s, which saw additional influences hit Vietnamese cuisine. One is certain – discovering local food adds greatly to lớn your Vietnemese adventures.

So where vày we begin when talking about traditional Vietnamese dishes? Well, we asked some close friends of ours about their favorite dishes, figuring it was perhaps best to lớn ask the locals what to lớn eat in Vietnam. So here is the list, in no particular order – you just need to try them all! 

Surprisingly tasty with coconut flakes and coconut milk on top

9. Xôi

Glutinous Rice or Sticky Rice

Finally, a well-known staple in Vietnamese diets, that comes from the more mountainous areas of Vietnam. Xôi has found its way into virtually every town và city across the country. Often eaten for breakfast, there are so many different versions of this dish it’s quite hard khổng lồ keep up.

With over trăng tròn sweet versions made with things like coconut milk, mung beans, & even the dreaded durian, the dessert options are almost endless for this sticky/glutinous rice dish. On the savory side, there are perhaps around 10 to 15 options. Whichever way you go, you will be sure lớn find satisfaction khổng lồ keep you going until lunchtime!

With so many interesting dishes to lớn try in Vietnam, this danh mục of 9 Typical Dishes You Need lớn Try is more of a beginner’s guide, allowing you khổng lồ explore the more common dishes, more suited khổng lồ Western palates, which are eaten by the majority of Vietnamese people on a daily or weekly basis.

There are, of course, far more adventurous and shocking dishes lớn try also such as Balut (Trứng vịt lộn), which is a fertilized duck embryo that is steamed whilst still in its shell, but they are not for the faint of heart!

Whether visiting the highlands of central Vietnam, the rice fields of Sapa, or the wetlands of the Mekong Delta, there is one thing you can be sure of – Vietnam is most definitely one country in Asia, where you will never go hungry.

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