50 Culinary Specialties You Must Try When Traveling in Vietnam (Part 1)

One of the main reasons to attract tourists from all over the world is the cuisine. Besides experiencing new landscapes, cultures, and customs of the locals, exploring the cuisine is also crucial. Thanks to the unique characteristics of the cuisine, when mentioning a region, we can immediately think of the specialties of that region.

The following article by Mytour compiles 50 culinary specialties you must try when traveling in Vietnam.

Part 1: 20 Unmissable Culinary Specialties When Traveling in Vietnam in Hue, Da Nang, Dak Lak, Phu Quoc, and Dong Thap

1. Traveling to Hue

Steamed Rice Cakes, Rolled Cakes, Clear Dumplings: These three types of cakes are very characteristic of the Central region of our country. However, when traveling to Hue, tourists will discover the unique characteristics of this imperial land.

Sizzling Snails is a dish of stir-fried snails with lemongrass and chili. Central Vietnam snails are small yet tender. Rice snails, apple snails, bitter snails... abundant everywhere. The rich flavors in the cooking style of Da Nang people create the allure of this dish.

Quang Noodles: Mention Quang Nam Da Nang, and surely everyone thinks of Quang noodles, the renowned specialty of this region. Quang noodles come in various types: chicken noodles, shrimp noodles, meat noodles, egg noodles, beef noodles, jellyfish noodles, and snakehead fish noodles, each with its unique flavor. Paired with smooth white noodles, the broth boasts a distinctive sweet and savory taste from simmered bone broth.

Exploring Dak Lak: Dak Lak offers a wealth of natural beauty and cultural richness. From majestic waterfalls to sprawling coffee plantations, Dak Lak provides diverse experiences for adventurers and tranquility seekers alike.

Bamboo Rice is a fragrant and enticing dish cooked inside young bamboo tubes. Considered the cuisine of mountains and forests, it captures the sweet taste of fresh mountain streams and the aroma of lush bamboo forests.

Ban Don Grilled Chicken is made from free-range chickens, typically weighing over 1kg each, marinated with traditional spices sourced from nature, offering a distinctive and unique flavor.

Buon Ma Thuot Coffee is a well-known brand famous for its long-standing tradition of producing rich and flavorful coffee. Every visitor here wants to taste the bold flavor of coffee expertly brewed by the local Ban Me residents.

4. Explore Phu Quoc Island

Seafood Delights: Returning to the sea is returning to the embrace of the great ocean with its myriad of fresh and delicious seafood. You can easily find various types of fish, shrimp, snails, and exotic squid at the Dinh Cau night market.

Trich Fish Salad: One of the must-try specialties in Phu Quoc is the Trich Fish Salad. Despite its small size, the fish is firm and flavorful, mixed with onions, coriander, shredded coconut, vinegar, peanuts, and a sweet and sour seasoning. A plate of salad for two costs around 100,000 VND on average.

Sim Honey – Sim Wine: Sim Honey (or also known as the essence of sim fruit) is one of the famous culinary specialties of Phu Quoc Island. Sim Honey is fermented from wild sim fruits and white sand sugar, which can be mixed with enriched wine to increase its alcohol content. The sim fruits used for making wine in Phu Quoc are mainly red sim fruits.

Sea Cucumber: In the processing of sea cucumbers, the most labor-intensive step is to remove all the spiny skin around them. After being 'cleaned', the sea cucumber will be left with a rough round sphere the size of a tennis ball. By using a knife to split it in half and removing most of the inside, you will see a layer of yellowish opaque meat clinging along the inside of the 'sphere', which is the precious part of the sea cucumber.

The people of Phu Quoc have three ways to process sea cucumbers. The most elaborate method involves scraping off all the inner meat, lightly frying it with garlic-infused lard, and adding it to a boiling pot of porridge. Sea cucumber porridge has a rich, creamy taste, especially fragrant, and is considered a nutritious food that helps quickly regain strength after beach trips or long exhausting journeys.

However, the most common way to eat sea cucumbers in Phu Quoc is to cut them in half, grill them over a charcoal fire. On the charcoal stove, the sea cucumbers quickly emit a fragrant smell. Simply grilling them lightly, using a spoon to scrape off the meat and dip it in salt and pepper lime sauce... will allow you to enjoy the fragrant, fatty sea cucumber meat.

Ham Ninh Grouper: Ham Ninh Grouper is quite small, but its flesh is firm, very fragrant, and sweeter than other types of groupers. Its flavor is very enticing, not inferior to the sea crabs of Ca Mau or the Emperor crabs of Nha Trang.

There are many ways to prepare Ham Ninh Grouper, but the best is still to boil it and dip it in salt and pepper lime sauce to preserve the original flavor of the grouper. Grouper freshly caught, still alive, choose small to medium-sized ones, (should not choose ones that are too large as they won't taste as good.)

The price of grouper is 200,000 VND/kg.

Ni Shell Shrimp: Ni Shell Shrimp is priced at around 300,000 VND/kg. The shrimp meat is also firm and incredibly sweet. Traveling to Phu Quoc in January gives you the chance to enjoy Ni Shell Shrimp full of eggs.

5. Explore Dong Thap Province

Field Mouse: When visiting Dong Thap, travelers cannot miss dishes originating from field mice, especially Field Mouse cooked with coconut water. The delicious aroma and fatty taste of coconut water blend into the chewy, tender meat of the field mouse. With such a flavor, this dish can win over all travelers, even the most discerning ones.

Green Bean Snakehead Porridge: The porridge has a rich flavor thanks to green beans and coconut milk, the snakehead skin is crispy, fragrant, the meat is sweeter than chicken meat, the smell of ginger, and pepper are intense. Diners must be patient to scoop the piping hot porridge from the pot to ensure its fiery heat. Those suffering from colds who eat a bowl of snakehead green bean porridge may find themselves sweating profusely, sometimes recovering from the illness without needing medicine.

Grilled Snakehead Fish Wrapped in Lotus Leaves: Grilled snakehead fish, a dish that when mentioned, everyone immediately thinks of the Mekong Delta. But what's special about eating this dish in Dong Thap is that travelers will be wrapped in lotus leaves instead of rice paper. The fragrant snakehead fish, wrapped in crispy lotus leaves, combined with tamarind sauce. An irresistible dish of Dong Thap homeland.

By Nguyên Đan

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Reference: Mytour Travel Handbook