Essential Vietnamese Foods
- Madeleine Knight
- Mar 26, 2017
- 2 min read
Welcome to Vietnam! The land where language is made up of 6 different tones... yes, 6. This makes learning the language pretty difficult if your native language is not tonal - such as English. So, unless you plan on spending a lot of time here, I've put together a list of the most important things to know in Vietnamese... Food!*
Bun cha - white noodles and barbeque meat/soup - add the noodles to the soup
My van than kho - egg noodles, samosa type, fried with meat and egg
Bun bo nam bo - beef noodle salad
Pho bo - beef noodle soup
Pho ga - chicken noodle soup
Nem ran - fried spring rolls
Nem chay - vegetarian spring noodles
Lau - hotpot
Banh xeo - fried pancake with pork and veggies eaten with rice wraps
Pho cuon - mushroom and pork filled rolls with dipping sauce
Cha ca - fried fish with dill and veggies
Bun dau - noodles with deep fried tofu
Bit tet - beef served on a hot plate with egg and french fries
Sinh to - fruit smoothies
Our favourites for quick and easy foods were:
-- Com bo/Com ga - rice with beef/rice with chicken. Simple, quick and cheap... usually around 25,000VND/$1 for a decent sized portion.
-- Banh Me - street food, baguette with either meat and vegetables or egg and cheese. Great if youre on the go, in a rush or fancy taking your food to the beach with you... usually around 10-20,000VND/$0.44-0.88
-- Pho bo - beef soup. Not my favourite but very easy for morning food as it's light and served absolutely everywhere in the mornings... usually between 20-40,000VND/$0.88-1.78
Road-side Com Bo with egg and sweet chilli sauce - 15,000VND.
So good luck on your food adventure! Though be warned, just because you feel like you're saying these things perfectly, you could very well be saying the completely wrong tone and mean something very different than you planned to!
If there is anything you think I have missed, or anything you think I should add to this list of essential Vietnamese foods, please let me know!
*This list was created after speaking with a wonderful American lady who has been living in Vietnam on-and-off for the last 6 years. Trust me, she knows her Vietnam foods!
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