Arm yourself with this mini Vietnamese to English Food Dictionary before stepping into any Vietnamese restaurant. Save the site or download the PDF.
Eating in Vietnam on a budget is as easy as going to a corner and pointing to some food. For less than a dollar you can eat a full meal. Have a look at this article to see just how much you get.
Cha, or gio in the north, can be found in many foods in Vietnam, including the extremely popular banh mi sandwiches. But what exactly is that strange meat?
A Vietnamese noodle soup with a bit of funk. Dried bamboo shoots are used to add flavour and a soft tender texture. The most popular versions are chicken and duck, but you can also find interesting takes on this popular northern dish.
A combo of pork, chicken, egg, and whatever else is floating around the fridge. This light, slightly sweet broth is soaked up with vermicelli noodles and a variety of vegetables. Traditionaly, it's eaten during Tet, but don't worry, nowadays a tasty bowl can be found all year round.
A popular dish in the Mekong Delta, this sweet and sour broth soup is made with tamarind and usually comes with pineapple, elephant ear stalk, bean sprouts, tomato, okra, and fish from the Mekong River. When accompanied with rice, it makes a great meal. Check out the dish's profile to see popular variations of canh chua.
Chopped up chicken wings are fried in oil until crispy. Garlic, ginger, and/or shallots are sometimes used in a marinade, or served sprinkled on top. These crunchy wings are often served with nuoc mam, a Vietnamese spicy sweet fish sauce dip.
You've probably had many versions of fried rice, but Vietnam's version has something that you just can't get in the western world -- freshness. Vietnam is one of the top five largest producers of rice in the world. The quality of rice here is top-notch.
A common lunch in Vietnam, chicken, usually a leg, is grilled up and served over broken rice with some vegetables.
If you're looking for chicken noodle soup in Vietnam, miến gà is a great option. The noodles are a cellophane or glass noodle type made from the starch of canna, a flowering plant. The soup's broth is chicken based, and thick, juicy hunks of chicken breast come floating in it.
If you're new to Vietnamese food it's probably best to start here. This is Vietnam's most widely recognized dish. Noodles in an incredibly flavourful broth with chicken or beef.
A very popular breakfast, lunch, or snack in Vietnam. Sticky rice is steamed and topped with a variety of savoury or sweet toppings. During lunch, schools will empty and students will head to their nearest xoi street food stall to fill up on this cheap but tasty concoction.