Vietnamese Food Guide: What Dishes to Try

Vietnamese food is a cooking of fresh, original, with only some spices of fish sauce, coriander and lemon. Influenced by the West even some fried or grilled dishes are often served with fresh lettuce, mint, basil, and gherkin. Here is a recommendation for some of the most popular foods you can taste in Ho Chi Minh City.

Noodle Soup - Pho

It is a simple food that is easy to find in any city in Vietnam. Most locals will have a bowl of hot pho for breakfast. Pho is a type of noodle made from high-quality rice, after simple cooking with beef or chicken soup, various vegetables and meat spices. Locals enjoy their delicious pho with fresh vegetables such as bean sprouts, mint, basil, coriander, chili, and hoisin sauce, all of which are served for free in unlimited quantities.

Pho, Noodle Soup

French Baguette Sandwich - Banh Mi

The Vietnamese baguette sandwich is a new flavor created during the French colonial era. The Vietnamese call it Banh Mi. The Vietnamese modified the baguette using locally produced sticky rice flour, which is then cooked over a charcoal fire lightly roasted, cut down the middle, add Vietnamese pork, pork skin, pickles and other ingredients, and coated with mayonnaise or chili sauce, full of local flavor. You can see it on every roadside stall.

Vietnamese Spring Roll - Goi Cuon

Spring roll is one of the most popular dishes in Vietnam and you are likely to see its name on the menu in many places. The wrapper is made of glutinous rice and wrapped around a filling made of bean sprouts, vermicelli, squid shreds, shrimp and scallions, making it a fresh spring roll. If they are fried in a pan until crispy and brown, they are fried spring rolls. You can enjoy it with fish sauce, vinegar, pepper and other spices.

Vietnamese Hot Pot - Cao Lau

The Vietnamese are very fond of hot pot, but hot pot of Vietnam is light, with less oil and salt, and a slightly sour and spicy soup base. Hot pot is made with fresh seafood, meat and vegetables, presumably with a deliberately light soup base to taste the original flavor of the ingredients. Many restaurants and even roadside food stalls in Vietnam have this Vietnamese-style hot pot, the main ingredients are seafood, beef, chicken, duck, etc. Of course, there are more special hot pots with eels. It is quite easy to find a restaurant with Cao Lau, just take a sit and choose your preferred soup.

Sugarcane Prawn - Chao Tom Bao Mia

Sugarcane prawn is a typical Vietnamese dish as same as Goi Cuon. It is made of shelled prawn meat, chopped, beaten into paste, wrapped in a cane branch and deep-fried in a wok. The skin is golden and crispy with a few breadcrumbs on top. The prawn is fragrant, fresh, tender and sweet due to the absorption of sugarcane. Eating it with a small plate of chili plum sauce could be the best way to taste the fresh flavor.

Fried fish on a Hot Pan - Cha Ca

If you know the charm of Fish and Chips, the dish of Cha Ca could be your new dinner table regular. Cha ca means the fish is fried in a Vietnamese cooking style. When the fish is tossed in a traditional charcoal oven, the fresh and smooth fish chunks are fried golden with shallots. The fish chunks are served with herbs, crunchy peanuts and fish sauce, which is a little greasy, but the crunchy and satisfying feeling is really hard to stop.

Vietnamese Coffee

The flavor of Vietnamese coffee lies in the special brewing process, not in a coffee pot, but in a special drip coffee cup, which is tightly pressed with a thick layer of ground coffee, rushed into hot water, and patiently waited for the coffee to drip into the cup, which can take up to an hour. But it is always worth the wait for the lovely aroma and smooth taste. It is common to see local people sitting on low stools around low tables in front of the street coffee shop, chatting and waiting.

Vietnamese Coffee

Local Beer - Bia

The local beer is the must-try drink during your Vietnam tour. Vietnamese beer, also known as bia, has a strong taste of wheat and a fresh smell, and is the perfect accompaniment to seafood barbecues. Locals drink it with a full glass of ice. In the tourist areas of Ho Chi Minh, you can also find street stalls, like open-air bars, where people chat and laugh while drinking chilled local draught beer.

Vietnamese Beers

Have a hot Pho noodle soup with fresh vegetables and beef for breakfast, then order some spring rolls and sugarcane prawns for lunch, prepare some French baguette sandwich for afternoon tea dessert, and enjoy a barbecue in the evening with a cool cup of bia. Come to Vietnam with Odynovo and feed your eyes as well as your stomach.