Cooking Vietnam

 Gastronomy

Vietnamese cuisine is more varied (500 traditional dishes) and less fatty than Chinese cuisine.
nuoc mâm with a base of anchovy brine (or fish) is the signature condiment.
noodle soup, pho, is the most popular dish. It is made using beef, chicken, or fish and seasoned with aromatic herbs and clove. Most restaurants serve nems, steamed ravioli (banh cuon), and many beef dishes.

Dessert-wise, the Viatnemese enjoy fresh fruit - mangoes, papaya, mangosteen, rambutan and longan, all year round, and special pastries on holidays. Tea is the national drink, served hot in the north and iced in the South. Due to the influence of the French, you'll find a type of bread called 'bahn mi', a sort of small baguette.

Traditional celebration dishes from Tet:

For New Year celebrations (Têt Nguyên Dan normally in mid-january or the beginning of Feburary depending on the lunar calendar), and to celebrate the start of spring, the Vietnamese particularly emphasise the preparation of special meals in order to offer delicious dishes to their visitors.
Each region has a variety of soups and fried, boiled or stewed dishes. In the North, the Tet festival normally includes a stew of pigs' trotters with bamboo shoots, boiled chicken, carp in salted sauce, meat paté and kohirabi - cauliflower or onion fried with pigs skin or lean pork. Don't miss two specialities: Banh Chung (square cakes made with sticky rice, pork and beans, wrapped in dong leaves and boiles) and little onions in vinegar. The latter are supposed to aid digestion.
In the centre of the country, families from Hue (the former Imperial City) eat Banh Tet (round rice cakes), coconut covered in sugar, roast melon seed and different pork dishes. The menu can also include garlic or galingale beef, different meat patties such as gio thu (pig's head pie), cha lua (pork mortadella), shrimp fritters, pigs trotter bones stuffed with meat, nem chua (fermented pork mince), shallots in vinegar, and green bananas in sweet and sour sauce. Candied fruits are also brilliantly done: crystallised ginger, pumpkin, apple, orange, lemon, carrot... all sorts.
Residents of the South make a mixture of salted pork and coconut. Because coconut trees are very common in this region, people use a lot of coconut milk or oil, giving dishes a particular flavour.