What makes street food something truly special? Can sitting on stools around a crowded plastic table – over steamy bowls of soup or a stir-fried medley of meat and vegetables – be as memorable as dining at a Michelin star restaurant?
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| Photo by southeastasiabackpacker.com |
According to visitors who have experienced street food around the world, Southeast Asia is a place not to be missed. From Jakarta to Bangkok, tourists only need to spend a few dollars is enough to have a delicious and attractive meal.
In Southeast Asia, there are quite a number of ideal places for enjoying street food, in which, Vietnam is a great place to experience.
While pho and banh mi are a few dishes many are familiar with, the reality is that Vietnamese street food is incredibly diverse and complex.
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Some examples include: Cha Ca and rolls cake. Cha Ca is a dish made from fish combined with a little turmeric and popular only in Hanoi. Rols cake is a dish made from rice flour that is stuffed with ground pork. And the famous "broken rice" of Saigon is served with grilled ribs and sausages ...
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| Photo by chacahathanh |
Really, you can’t go wrong if you just follow the locals.
You should follow local people to find good food. "If there are many people eating at a restaurant, it is very possible that the food there is delicious," Holliday said. “Give up the suspicion and shyness because you will miss the best food in this country if you don't eat street food. Items like bun Mam, banh xeo and hu tiu are delicious in the South. But bun cha is the best in the North.
There's more,
One of the highlights makes the Vietnamese cuisine even more distinctive, which is the flavor of Herbs Vegetables.
In cuisine, herbs or spices vegetables are general concepts used to refer to types of edible vegetables, grown or picked from the wild that have a characteristic aroma depending type due to the essential oils in the volatile vegetables.
Whether in the North or the South, a feature that can help distinguish Vietnamese cuisine from its neighbors is "the use of herbs in dishes", according to Culinary expert Graham Holliday, author of the famous culinary book "Eating Vietnam".
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| Photo by tayninh.tintuc.vn |
“There are many types of herbs used in Vietnamese cuisine. Some types are so special that they can only be found in certain localities that cannot be found elsewhere. Herbs are an important ingredient in every Vietnamese meal, "he said.
Holliday explains that, in the South, dishes with more herbs are more common in the North. For example, the dish "Banh Trang Phoi Suong" in Tay Ninh province is accompanied by about 8 to 10 different herbs.
Mr. Mark Lowerson shared on Hanoi Street Food Tours that: “The use of many herbs brings Vietnamese dishes with strong but balanced flavors. These aromatic vegetables appear seasonally in certain localities. Vietnamese dishes use less oil and have more unique flavors than the culinary culture of other countries in the region ”.
According to Lowerson, the salty, sweet, sour and spicy flavors are the main flavors in the cuisine of Southeast Asia. “But in Vietnam, diners can taste their own food. For example, if you want to eat spicy, you give chili or chili sauce to your dish.
Have you ever experienced street food culture in Vietnam? Which special thing from those street food makes you most impressed?
It is a pity if you know Vietnamese cuisine only stops at social media or travel magazine pages. It is well worth the experience, a street food tour of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh or Hoi An, will make you more surprised than you imagine.
