Vietnamese cuisine
Flavors and memories from the Countryside of Vietnam
Further
to the post about weird Vietnamese food, in this latest update, I would like to
introduce you additional special Vietnamese dishes, which belong to the
countryside of Vietnam and have existed for hundreds of year but still remain
their popularity and preference by any Vietnamese people. Some dishes may be
somehow weird and difficult to imagine why we can eat them. However, it is
guaranteed that “no money to be paid if it’s not appetizing”.
1. Vietnam Sweetened Porridge
“Chè” is a general Vietnamese word
to describe any traditional Vietnamese thick, sweet dessert soup or sweetened
porridge, which is usually available in the form of pudding, or as a plain
drink. Chè has been a popular beverage for a very long time with many versions
of chè created everywhere in the world. In Vietnam, chè is special in its own
way that incorporates a number of varieties of beans and/or glutinous rice,
cooked in water, and sweetened with sugar.
Other ingredients may include tapioca starch, salt, and pandan leaf
extract.
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| Lotus sweetened porridge with longan |
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| Grapefruit sweetened porridge |
2. Salty/Sugared apricot – Ô-mai
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| Sugared tamarind |
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| Apricot with ginger |
3. Early green rice – Cốm
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| Special gift of motherland - Cốm |
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| Early green rice |
Cốm can be eaten plain or with
banana while enjoying a cup of tea. People also make use of Cốm as an
ingredient for rice flake (chả cốm) where the light green flakes scatter inside
and on the surface of the pale beige meat log. Its natural viscidity (from the
heating of sticky rice) increases the meat’s chewiness and causes the
appearance of gossamer strings woven into the meat when the log is sliced.
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| Green rice sweentened porridge |
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| Rice flake |
4. Street-side grilled corn
Each season, Hanoi has a reason
to make its visitor feel something attached to this land. It is dracontomelum
in summer, early green rice in autumn and especially winter with a variety of
gifts that help take the chill off of the northern zone. Among such cozy gifts,
street-side grilled corn is a very popular pastoral snack closely connected
with red wood stove of street vendors.
Concerning its flavor, this
street food is only young corn grilled over charcoal without adding any spices
or any other special recipes. Once finishing, the corn’s skin is a little bit
hard but its core inside is soft, leathery and smell tastily rich owing to
flavors of corn milk and grilled corn leaves covered outside. Whenever winter
comes, it is grilled corn that comes first into Hanoian’s mind.
Where to eat the best street-side
grilled corn is difficult to define. Sidewalks of Ham Long cathedral, Hanoi
Medical University and Hanoi Architectural University, etc. have street-side
grill corn stalls well worth trying.
However, this kind of snack should not be seriously compared its flavor
because it is the feeling when gathering around a street-side grilled corn
hanger with friends, chewing fresh-baked corns in deep chill of Hanoi winter
that’s enough to warm up your heart.
5. Sweet-potato cake
When winter arrives in Ha Noi,
fried sweet potato and banana cakes along the street of the capital will become
favorite foods of Hanoians and visitors. The main ingredients of the crisp
yellow cakes are sweet potatoes and bananas from the countryside. After being
mixed with flour and sugar, they are deep fried and become a perfect treat in
winter days.
The smell of this street-side cake
makes passersby’s mouth water and the heat from the stoves keeps people warm in
the cold atmosphere.
However, if one wants to find the
most delicious sweet potato and banana cakes in Ha Noi, they are recommended to
go to Lang Street running from Cau Giay Bridge in Cau Giay District to Nga Tu
So Ward in Dong Da District.
6. Crispy rice cracker with finely
shredded pork
If meat of goat raised in the mountain
of Ninh Binh has become a specialty taken to grand cuisine events, Kim Son wine
has become famous with special taste, then crispy rice cracker (Cơm cháy) is a
longstanding specialty and a special snack for visitors to Ninh Binh. Com chay
is crispy and is the essence of rice owing to the fact that it is made from
various ingredients of the homeland. Legend has it that com chay was first made
in the late 19th century by a young man named Hoang Thang who learnt
this dish from Chinese and opened restaurant in Hanoi and Ninh Binh.
The dish is sophisticatedly made
with some secrets and creativity. The most difficult step is choosing rice.
Plump and fragrant grains of glutinous rice will be soaked in water and washed
then cooked and put into moulds before being fried. Salted shredded meat will
be put onto the rice to add flavor to the dish and make it more buttery. The
oil for frying the rice will be heated so that it can absorb into the rice. This
dish is, however, not so difficult to make and you can make use of left over
rice at home but make sure it’s still healthy to turn it into a wonderful and
hard-to-resist snack.
7. Popiah
Bò bía or popiah is a common
street food in Vietnam with two versions namely sweet popiah and savory popiah
both originating from the south of Vietnam. This kind of snack cannot be found
in any restaurant but only seen along roadsides or school gates.
Sweet popiah has long been
regarded as school age memory with a little bit leathery but very soft rice
paper rolling inside deep sweet flavor of malt condensed like a crunchy candy
bar and indispensably fatty flavor of shredded coconut and black sesame. West lake bank along Thanh Nien street is now
well-known for the best sweet popiah in Hanoi.
Savory
popiah from the south (sausage spring rolls and peanut sauce) is a refreshing
crunchy rice paper rolls filled with jicama, eggs, chinese sausages, peanuts,
herbs and lettuce, and served with hoisin, chili and peanut dipping sauce.
Although the word “bo” means beef, there is no beef in this. The stuffing
however can be diverse and include other items such as tofu, and bean sprouts
8. Fermented pork roll
Nem chua is a cured/fermented
pork charcuterie in the form of index-finger shaped cake either wrapped in
banana leaves or plastic wrap in Asian groceries. It has a sweet, sour, salty
and spicy taste that is so addicting.
Made from rustic ingredients,
namely ground pork thigh, minced pork skin, chili, garlic, fish sauce, sugar,
salt, those are mixed, pressed and then naturally fermented by tender fig or
guava leaves, nem chua has a very characteristic sour, acquired sweet, garlicky
and salty taste with a nice crunch of pork rinds. While the fig leaf cover can
be eaten with nem chua, creating a special acrid taste, the banana leaf cover
makes its flavor more subtle and attractive. Both traditional nem chua and
grilled one are served with chutney mingled with squeezed kumquat or spicy fish
sauce added lemon juice.
Besides, it is common to enjoy
the grilled with fruits such as star fruit, green mango, jícama, not only
reducing fatty taste but also whetting appetite. Just a look is enough for guests to salivate
over the thought of savoring each bite of nem chua. More interestingly, while
nem chua of the north in general and of Thanh Hoa province in particular is in
favor of sour taste and has subtle fragrance of fern-leaf aralia, the southern
one prefers sweet and spicy added by powered grilled rice and pepper. Therefore,
there are more choices for gastronomists to enjoy. Another version of nem chua, fried fermented pork roll served hot chilli sauce is a famous appetizing snack among the youth of Vietnam.
9. Organ and rice porridge cooked with pork innards
Organs of pigs or cows have been elevated to a whole new level. Pork tongue, heart, liver and pork blood cubes are well treated, then boiled again before eating and enjoyed by almost all Vietnamese mans. The organs are also cooked with rice, which is then served hot with Vietnamese herb mint leaves, bean sprout and chili paste. After processing, organs’ texture varies greatly from pasty, crunchy, or chewy.
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| Rice porridge cooked with pork innards |
We eat a lot of food that is deemed weird to say the least. Sometimes the reason simply is because it is appetizing and we believe it provides certain health benefits. For example, why take Viagras when you can eat a bull penis? If “cháo lòng” – rice porridge cooked with pork innards is a popular breakfast dish in the north, the Southern equivalent would be “bánh hỏi lòng heo”.
10. Fermented shrimp paste with fried tofu and rice vermicelli – Bún đậu mắm tôm
Bun dau mam tom is a very famous street side food in Vietnam not only owing to its cheap price but also a fantastic combination of fried tofu, traditional shrimp paste and rice vermicelli. As a matter of fact, shrimp paste has long been in the list of "worst smelling foods in the world". Some of you may react to this: "Ewww" but why not give "mắm tôm" a try if one of the reasons why you travel is to see (hear, smell, touch, taste, feel) the world in all its diversity? And you can feel assured because the street vendor always prepare some pieces of chewing-gum to have after eating this very special food.
Traditionally, this dipping sauce is made of heavily salted ground shrimps, left for months of fermentation. The typical aroma comes from an enzyme which is available in the intestine of shrimps. Shrimp paste or mắm tôm can be served, normally with sweet and sour grated water morning glory, salty egg-plants, dog meat and of course, "bún đậu mắm tôm". "Bún đậu mắm tôm" includes rice vermicelli, deep fried tofu, shrimp paste and, last but not least, odoriferous herbs, basil or cockscomb mint.
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