Vietnam Tourism » Vietnam Travel

VIETNAM – CUISINE & FOOD
Exotic ingredients, contrasting flawours, rice, noodles and fish sauce… Vietnamese cuisine – in all its avatars – is grabbing the world’s attention, tastebud by tastebud.

It has been many harvests since Vietnam as shaken off the dark shadow of a wartorn country. A country blessed by nature’s abundance, this little – S shaped landform holds within its boundaries, verdant forests and deltas bountiful rivers and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. But perhaps, most well-known of all its attributes is its remarkable cuisine. Through centuries of foreign rule, from the Chinese to the French, this cuisine has been infused with myriad foreign influences, but far from losing itself, it has managed to craft a unique and wondrous individuality.

Uniquely Vietnamese:
Vietnamese food is light, fresh and delicious, and is considered among the healthiest in the world Flavourful yet delicate, simple yet masterfully created, Vietnam’s cuisine is highly original even though it bears strong influences of Chinese, Thai and French cuisines. Perhaps the biggest difference between Chinese and Vietnamese food is the usage of oil, which, while quite liberal in the former, is used conservatively in the latter.

In general, Vietnamese cuisine is known for its use of rice, fish sauce and the freshest of herbs and vegetables. Ingredients as wide-ranging as lime, lemongrass, coconut milk, vinegar, basil, coriander, tamarind and sugarcane are far from strange bedfellows in the delicious recipes offered by this cuisine.

While rice or com is the cornerstone of a typical Vietnamese meal, noodles made of wheat, rice and even beans feature prominently as a Vietnamese staple. A standard meal includes rice (boiled or steamed) that is eaten together with a host of other dishes. Most meals are accompanied with a platter of farm-fresh vegetables like bean sprouts, cucumber and herbs like mint, basil and coriander. No Vietnamese meal is complete without the presence of nuoc mam a spicy, fermented fish sauce. Commonly used meats in Vietnamese cooking are prawns, bee pork and chicken.

Three times the flavour Vietnam’s cultural and topographical vibrancy has given its cuisine three wonderfully unique vanama that make travelling th Vietnam an unmatched culinary exploration. Divided by region north, central and south each variant is a precise blend of indigenous spices and meats and vegetables that are singularly so delectable that choosing your favourite might prow a formidable task.