The most popular Vietnamese dishes to attract foreign tourists

Vietnamese cuisine shows its simplicity that many of the most popular dishes can be made and found not only in restaurant but also on the side of the road. Vietnam has a special culture – the street food one.

Pho is one of the most quintessential dish of Vietnam

"Gat gu", a strange pancake

If you ate it once time, you would never forget it as well as Quang Ninh.

Quang Ninh cuisine’s style has the characteristics of people here - fishers, and it is very special.

 “Gat Gu” pancake is similar with steamed rolled rice pancake. It is made from rice flour. When making this kind of cake, the maker have a secret to make it more delicious by adding cold rice. After being done, when we take this kind of cake, it nods repeatedly.

Enjoy cha ruoi in Hanoi

Cha ruoi is a popular meal in Hanoi when the autumn leaves turn yellow.

Cha ruoi is not available all year round. Ruoi is a type of sand worm that can only be found from the end of September to the middle of October. The short season is why Hanoians regard cha ruoi as a special but expensive gift from nature.

Food file: Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam's buzzing southern capital offers a taste of the spice of life.

Favourite flavours

Vietnamese cuisine is regional, so while you're in Ho Chi Minh City, be sure to try local southern specialties. Many dishes use similar ingredients but add different flavours. For instance, delicious banh xeo, or pancakes, come stuffed with pork, prawns and bean sprouts; hu tieu soup is also heavy on pork and prawns but the addition of crab, garlic, chives and other goodies changes the taste entirely. Fish fans will enjoy canh chua, a fish soup with tamarind, and ca kho to, which is fish caramelised in a clay pot.

Interesting facts about Vietnam food

There isadmirably a great balance between vegetable and meats, as well as a selectiveuse of spices to reach a fine taste. Vietnamese food can be considered one ofthe healthiest cuisines worldwide. 

Traditional Vietnamese cooking isappreciated for the freshness of the ingredients and for the minimum use of oilwhich makes this cuisine very healthy. Hardly do families use processed foodfor daily meals.

Five-colored Sticky Rice of Tay Ethnic Group

The five colors of the dish symbolize five basic elements including yellow of earth, green of wood, red of fire, white of metal, black of water.

Tay ethnic group mostly live in Viet Bac, north central highland and highland regions in Vietnam. Five-colored sticky rice is a traditional dish of the Tay which is usually made in festivals, ceremonies, 5^th of May, whenever the family has reputable guests, etc.

Tet dishes offer taste of past New Years

Taste of Tet:A tray of Tet dishes. — VNS Photos Hoang Ha.

Tet dishes have special significance as they reflect the Vietnamese tradition of each family member expressing their personal progress, happiness and professional prosperity through the tray of dishes.
But more importantly, children and grandchildren get a chance to sit with their parents and grandparents, no matter which part of the world they have returned from, and reminisce about old stories from their childhood and greet each other a Happy New Year.

Au Tau Gruel - from a Toxic Buld to a Specialty

There is something called Ha Giang interest containing enjoying au tau gruel, contemplating imposing mountains and chatting excitedly with the beautiful Mong girl in the market. The person who has not experienced this interest yet is considered never to visit this mountainous region before.

Ha Giang has a specialty that none of other places can have: au tau (ấu tẩu) gruel. Au tau is a type of wild bulb, looks similar to bulb of caltrop in the delta region that has hard, black, sharp cover.