Buzz
When traveling to a certain region, tourists are not only interested in its beautiful scenery and famous landmarks but also in its finest local specialties. These are unique dishes yet to be fully explored, characteristic of the region. Especially when visiting Vietnam, foreigners are eager not to miss out on its delicious cuisine. Even Vietnamese locals themselves are keen to sample all the distinctive dishes from their homeland across the country.
Let's explore the delicious cuisine of Vietnam together.
Have you tried all the delicious dishes in Vietnam yet? Let's explore Vietnam's famous cuisine and discover what dishes you should try.
Vietnamese Delicacies Through the Eyes of International Friends
Vietnamese cuisine, deeply rooted in tradition, is a highlight for foreign tourists visiting Vietnam.
Beef Pho
Beef Pho, a famous Vietnamese dish, is beloved by foreign visitors.
When mentioning Vietnam, one immediately thinks of its rich and traditional cuisine. Each region has its own unique characteristics and cooking methods, resulting in distinct flavors. First and foremost is pho, a renowned dish that comes to mind when international friends think of Vietnamese cuisine. Pho is a unique combination of flat rice noodles in a flavorful broth made from simmering bones, complemented by tender, sweet beef slices and a hint of pepper.
Banh Mi
Banh Mi holds the honor of being among the top 10 most delicious street foods in the world. With its crispy outer layer and a variety of fillings including pate, meat, Vietnamese sausage, sauce, and cilantro, which may vary by region, all coming together, some places even grill it over flaming charcoal to enhance its crispiness and flavor. Just one bite of this special treat is irresistible. Banh Mi not only wins the hearts of international tourists but is also a beloved daily dish, a source of pride for Vietnamese people.
Banh Mi Vietnam proudly stands as one of the world's most delicious street foods
Sizzling Pancake
Sizzling Pancake is a traditional dish that has been around for a long time and seems to be present everywhere in the country. It features a visually appealing golden pancake layer resembling fried eggs, but with a subtle aroma of turmeric. The filling typically consists of bean sprouts and either meat or shrimp. However, there are differences between the three regions.
Sizzling Pancake is adapted in the Southern style with larger sizes
Southern Sizzling Pancake is known for its large size, often fried in a large pan with plenty of filling, resulting in a slightly chewy and soft texture when eaten. Meanwhile, Central region's Sizzling Pancake is poured into a smaller mold, with the batter mixed with a bit of rice flour and typically combined with fresh seafood such as shrimp, squid. When fried, it uses a significant amount of oil to create a irresistibly crispy texture. Northern Sizzling Pancake is a combination of pork belly, often with onions and shiitake mushrooms, served with 5 to 7 types of fresh vegetables.
Central Vietnamese Sizzling Pancake with crispy crust combined with various types of seafood
These are the famous dishes when it comes to Vietnam. However, to become a true culinary expert, one must remember the delicacies by region that Vntrip is about to share below.
Delicious Dishes – Vietnamese Cuisine across 3 Regions
Vietnamese Cuisine – The characteristic of each region
To delve deeper into Vietnamese cuisine, one needs to explore the unique characteristics of dishes from each region. It's a blend of traditional and modern cuisine, combining locally sourced ingredients with ancient culinary techniques to create delicious dishes that not only represent each region but also become a hallmark of Vietnamese cuisine.
Southern Cuisine
Let's explore Southern Cuisine with Vntrip!
To explore Vietnamese cuisine across 3 regions, let's first explore the distinctive delicacies of the Southern region. Southern cuisine offers a sense of freedom and openness to its diners, with a touch of sweetness in its seasoning. Its favorable geographical location combined with a diverse natural environment has blessed the Southern region with an abundance of natural produce. It's also a melting pot of various regions and home to many ethnic groups such as Khmer, Chinese... creating a rich culinary landscape.
Saigon Broken Rice
Broken rice with pork chop and shredded pork skin is a familiar dish of Southern people
Broken rice is a familiar and popular dish among Southern people. Along the streets, we can easily find eateries selling breakfast and lunch with signs saying 'broken rice with pork chop and shredded pork skin'. From its name, we can guess the main ingredients of this dish, right? It's a combination of hot, fluffy rice cooked from broken rice grains, creating a smooth and slightly sticky texture when chewed, very enjoyable. The meat is marinated and then grilled over charcoal until fragrant. Add a bit of shredded pork skin and egg cake. And finally, it's incomplete without a bowl of fish sauce made with a slightly sweet taste, all creating a very familiar but delicious dish.
See more: Famous broken rice restaurants in Saigon
Sour Soup
Sour soup is found in every region, but perhaps the most delicious is in the South. To create the sour taste for the soup, people often use ripe tamarind (or better when cooked with tamarind leaves). Combined with fresh and delicious fish meat to create a sweet broth, adding some characteristic herbs, okra, and elephant ear stems... The boiling pot of soup bubbling hot, taking a sip of the soup, eating a piece of fish dipped in sauce will bring a delicious sensation.
Sour soup is a familiar dish in Vietnamese meals
Especially in the Mekong Delta, sour soup is a variation with elephant ear stems during the flood season cooked with snakehead fish, creating the characteristic sweet and sour taste of the elephant ear to balance the sourness of the soup. It's a very famous dish but can only be enjoyed during the elephant ear season.
Caramelized Braised Dish
Caramelized braised dish is a rustic dish that few people know about but is incredibly delicious
Caramelized braised dish is a traditional dish of the South that brings a strange sensation to first-time diners, but for Southern people, it's a traditional dish passed down from ancient times by their ancestors. It's like a side dish to enhance the flavor of boiled vegetables, which originally lacked flavor. Caramelized braised dish has a dark brown color, consisting of a strong salty taste of fish sauce, the sweetness of sugar, a hint of spiciness from green peppercorns and chili powder, and the rich, not overly greasy taste of pork fat, then simmered until the sauce thickens.
Caramelized braised dish served with rice crackers
Nowadays, caramelized braised dish is not only served with boiled vegetables but also paired with rice crackers as a playful dish. The crispy texture of the rice crackers combined with the salty and spicy flavor of the caramelized braised dish, accompanied by the crunchy sound when chewed, makes many people addicted to the point of eating it non-stop. This is a dish worth trying when exploring delicious dishes of the South.
Fresh Spring Rolls
Fresh spring rolls, with their attractive appearance, have a white color that allows a glimpse into the stimulating interior filling, highlighted by a touch of green from herbs, white from fresh vermicelli noodles, ivory from boiled pork, and made prominent by the red of shrimp, expertly wrapped to create visually appealing rolls that entice travelers. The dipping sauce for fresh spring rolls is also diverse, depending on individual preferences, including homemade fish sauce, flavorful fermented shrimp paste, or a bowl of dipping sauce combining the characteristic richness of soy sauce with the light fragrance of roasted peanuts. Regardless of the accompanying dipping sauce, it's a perfect combination that's hard to resist of Southern cuisine.
Fresh spring rolls are not only appealing in color but also in taste
Mam hotpot, mam vermicelli from the Mekong Delta
This is a typical dish of Southern cuisine in general and a famous specialty of the Mekong Delta. Initially, hearing the name 'mam hotpot' many people may hesitate, showing little interest. But when you taste it once, it will surely surprise you with its flavor.
Mam hotpot embodies the rustic essence of the Southern countryside with rich ingredients
Mam hotpot is a diverse combination of broth, seafood, and vegetables. To create the wonderful flavor, two types of fermented fish sauce are usually used: linh fish sauce or fermented snakehead fish sauce, then fried with fragrant lemongrass to remove the smell. When the broth boils vigorously, pork, fish, squid, snails, clams are added... Not to mention dipping various types of garden-fresh vegetables, including over ten characteristic types such as water mimosa, arrowhead, morning glory, water lily, water spinach, water lily bud, purple eggplant, and banana flower... Speaking of the diversity of ingredients used in a dish, perhaps no dish can compare to mam hotpot.
Explore more: Saigon Fermented Fish Vermicelli; a rustic dish of the people in the Mekong Delta
Central Vietnam cuisine
While Southern cuisine is a rich combination with some influence from the culture of long-standing ethnic minorities, Central Vietnam cuisine brings an extremely rich flavor profile. When we mention the phrase 'rich flavor,' we immediately associate it with a slightly salty taste, exactly right, not only that but also the indispensable spicy taste, and once it's spicy, it has to be 'spicy to the end.'
Central Vietnam cuisine with an irresistible rich flavor
It's not by chance that people in Central Vietnam have such a taste palate. Some explain that because the Central region's climate is heavily influenced by nature, the locals here often have a habit of thriftiness, which also affects their seasoning methods, creating flavorful dishes.
Quang noodles
When it comes to delicious Central Vietnamese dishes, countless dishes come to mind, but the most distinctive one must be Quang noodles. In fact, the name Quang noodles is probably a common phrase borrowed from 'noodles' because the main ingredient of Quang noodles is made from rice flour instead of wheat flour like the noodles we usually enjoy, giving it a slightly yellowish-white color. The broth of Quang noodles is usually thick, even very little, unlike noodles or pho, which usually have a lot of broth, with traditional ingredients including pork and shrimp. Accompanying Quang noodles are quail eggs, shrimp, pork, or chicken, and to create the characteristic flavor of Quang noodles, essential ingredients like vegetables, shredded banana blossoms, basil, and broken rice crackers are added.
Quang noodles, a distinctive dish of Quang Nam province
Savoring Quang noodles brings a rustic yet sophisticated sensation, with a rich and flavorful taste combined with various vegetables that are not the least bit overwhelming but rather very enticing.
Hue clam rice
Hue clam rice, the most delicious dish you must try when traveling to the beloved Central region
If you think certain dishes must be eaten hot to be delicious, then when enjoying Central Vietnamese clam rice, you have to think again. Hue clam rice is a harmony of cold rice mixed with boiled clams, finely chopped mint, crispy fried pork skin carrying a hint of richness, a touch of umami from shrimp paste, and the crunchiness of roasted peanuts, plus the spicy kick of chili, all mixed together for enjoyment. Speaking of Hue clam rice, perhaps only the clam broth used as a soup must be hot to be truly delicious.
Tay Son Steamed Rice Rolls
Tay Son Steamed Rice Rolls, a rustic dish of the martial land
Tay Son Steamed Rice Rolls is a traditional dish but with a very simple and rustic charm. Just one roll is enough for a satisfying and nutritious meal. The filling includes crispy fried pork sausage, soft fried tofu, a hint of light fat, boiled duck eggs, grilled meat, Vietnamese pork sausage, and some fresh herbs all combined to create a large and appetizing roll. The outer layer of rice paper is also very special, not soggy at all, just the right amount of chewiness plus a unique dipping sauce that gives a distinct flavor to Tay Son Steamed Rice Rolls, definitely a must-try for travelers exploring Vietnamese cuisine.
Beo Cupcakes
Banh Beo, although not commonly eaten as a main meal, is a familiar dish for breakfast or afternoon snacks. Like most traditional cakes, the main ingredient of Banh Beo is rice flour but it is prepared differently. It is only when we talk about this that we realize the rich creativity of our ancestors who created countless delicious dishes from the most familiar ingredients.
Banh Beo Cupcakes with unique preparations that once you try, you'll be hooked
Banh Beo Cupcakes attract diners because the cake is molded in a small cup, with a filling made from finely ground shrimp, sprinkled with fried shallots, roasted peanuts, chili powder, and spring onions... When eating, add a little fish sauce for extra flavor. This is an affordable dish but is considered a specialty when it comes to delicious dishes from Central Vietnam.
Chive Rice Noodle Soup
Banh Canh He wins the hearts of diners with its unique translucent rice flour noodles, not only eye-catching but also pleasantly chewy. The broth is not boiled from pork bones like other types of noodles but instead uses fish bones to sweeten the broth, reflecting the abundance of seafood in the coastal regions of Central Vietnam. The fish cake accompaniment is made from delicious fresh fish such as tuna, mackerel... These are the types of fish commonly enjoyed in daily meals.
Feast your eyes on the colors, delight in the flavors is what diners think of Banh Canh He
The special thing about Banh Canh He, of course, is the finely chopped chives, floating generously in the bowl creating a visually appealing green surface, accompanied by the steamy aroma and subtle pungent taste of chives that tantalize the senses. What could be more wonderful than after an exhausting outdoor trip under the sun, enjoying a hot bowl of Banh Canh He, sweating profusely, the delicious flavor refreshing the spirit.
Cuisine of the North
Cuisine of the North is known for its delicacy and subtlety
In terms of cuisine, people from the North have their own standards, characterized by sophistication and refinement, perhaps influenced by ancient traditions. They prefer subtle, mild flavors, seasoning their food accurately to a moderate level, not overly sweet like dishes from the South, nor leaning towards extreme saltiness or spiciness like those from the Central region, creating a very distinctive characteristic of Northern cuisine.
Bun dau mam tom
Northern cuisine seems inseparable from rustic, traditional dishes, and Bun dau mam tom is one of the typical dishes of this region. It is not only favored by the people of the North but also nowadays, to please discerning guests, Bun dau mam tom has spread everywhere from the North to the South. However, it is still best enjoyed when prepared by local people.
Bun dau mam tom may sound plain, but its taste is irresistible
Bun dau mam tom is a light dish loved by easygoing people to food connoisseurs who are captivated by the distinctive flavor of bun dau. A delicious bowl of bun dau must have all the components: fresh bun noodles, crispy golden fried tofu maintaining a soft and fatty interior, puffed-up fried fermented pork sausage, crispy pork hock with tender skin and meat, served with herbs. To make an authentic bun dau mam tom, besides the mentioned ingredients, a bowl of good-quality shrimp paste and a layer of fragrant fried shallot oil on top, with optional chili and garlic according to personal taste, are indispensable.
Five-color sticky rice
Five-color sticky rice is a unique traditional cuisine of the Northwest mountainous region
Nowadays, five-color sticky rice is commonly seen in all three regions, especially at parties, with its eye-catching colors. However, few know that this is a specialty of the Northwest mountains. To achieve such unique colors, the maker must use entirely natural ingredients from forest leaves to create five colors: red, yellow, green, purple, and white. Each color has a different meaning symbolizing the five elements. To produce a delicious batch of sticky rice that is both sticky, fragrant, and colorfully standard, the most important stage is the rice preparation and the skillfulness of the cook. Explore Northern cuisine by trying five-color sticky rice; it has a unique flavor unlike the daily sticky rice you're accustomed to.
Bun thang
Bun thang is a dish of exquisite elegance in Northern cuisine
Bun thang is a refined dish, equally sophisticated, with an alluring flavor that makes it a specialty of Hanoi. The name 'bun thang' refers to a bowl of noodles created from various ingredients including scrambled eggs, shredded chicken, wood ear mushrooms, shredded sausage, and coriander arranged skillfully atop the noodles, then broth is added. Making a bowl of bun thang that's appealing to the palate is a meticulous process requiring skill and experience from the cook. What makes bun thang special is the addition of a bit of essence from giant water bug, which perfumes the entire bowl, captivating the senses of those who taste it for the first time.
Grilled fermented pork roll
Fermented pork roll, known as nem chua, is a popular dish in Vietnam, but experiencing grilled fermented pork roll in the Northern region brings a unique sensation.
Hanoi's grilled fermented pork roll, a beloved street food by travelers far and wide
Grilled fermented pork roll is a famous street food when visiting the capital city. It's a combination of pork meat, roasted rice powder, and pork skin fermented with guava leaves and phrynium leaves. It's then grilled over charcoal until the surface is slightly charred, served with chili sauce or garlic chili fish sauce. Enjoying grilled fermented pork roll offers a slightly chewy texture with a hint of tanginess.
Vietnamese cuisine, deeply rooted in tradition yet elegantly adapted to modern life, seamlessly blends the culinary heritage of the North, Central, and South regions. Crafting delicious Vietnamese dishes that reflect the fusion of these culinary traditions creates a unique gastronomic experience that captivates travelers and leaves a lasting impression of Vietnam. It's a source of pride for every Vietnamese.
