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After traveling around Thailand for a week, my family collectively grew tired of eating Thai food. I thought I loved Thai, embracing papaya salad everyday, but I think the endless buffets (thanks to the pre-booked tours) quickly bored our palates. I never tired of mango & sticky rice though, but it never really occurred to me that Thai cuisine isn’t as diverse as Vietnamese cuisine. SHOTS FIREDDDD. Jaykay. Such a first world problem, right? It wasn’t until flying into Hanoi did I truly appreciate the cuisine of my peoplez. It’s exponentially more diverse than Thai food, especially due to its influence from its colonial French past & its Chinese neighbors. We’ve got similar desserts based in coconut milk & then we have these amazing cakes & pastries thanks to the French. We have dozens of various noodle soups, while Thailand only has a handful. While most other Asian countries embrace soy sauce in nearly every dish, Thai & Viet food is similar in that both cuisines embrace fish sauce, a highly pungent & salty fermented fish sauce. It’s often mixed with sugar, water, salt, & vinegar as a dipping sauce or dressing. Fish sauce (concentrated, not mixed) has always been my mother’s secret weapon in enhancing any meal whether it was spaghetti or Banh Canh Cua. Also, MSG. She used a lot of MSG, but the point is, whenever her meals needed a major kick in umami, she pulled out a bottle of fish sauce & measured out a tablespoon of it into her dish. Never fails.
We were excited to finally get our hands on some Vietnamese food, exciting our tastebuds with new combinations of flavors & spices we grew up with. I learned that Hanoi’s goi cuon tom (aka summer rolls) is made with a much thinner sheet of rice paper & honestly, it’s more annoying to eat & make. I love summer rolls. I make them at least 3 times a month, no matter the season, because it’s so healthy, fresh, filling, & low in calories. While Hanoi’s (Northern Vietnam) cuisine is much lighter than Saigon’s (Southern Vietnam), it still has some of my personal favorite dishes: Bun Cha & Cha Ca Thang Long. See all of our eats & travel photos below!
Hanoi, Vietnam
Holy side note: I love WordPress’s mosaic tiles option in the gallery. THIS WHOLE THING TOOK MINIMAL EFFORT & it looks amazingly organized. Props to the person who came up with this code, man. Major props. Okay, tell me about your favorite Vietnamese dish (that’s not just pho) &/or one you’ve always wanted to try!
Relevant Vietnamese Recipes & Hanoi Photos
- Baked Cod Summer Rolls Recipe
- Veggie Summer Rolls Recipe
- Cha Ca Thang Long Recipe
- Banh Canh Cua Recipe
- Pho Chay Recipe
- Vietnam: Day 1
- Vietnam: Day 2
- Vietnam: Day 3
- Vietnam: Day 4
- Vietnam: Day 5
- Vietnam: Day 6
I need to expand my Vietnamese food option because the only thing I know are pho, banh mi, and spring/summer rolls LOL
You bring up an interesting point about Vietnamese cuisine being more diverse than Thai due to its French colonisation background. I hadn’t thought about it like that until now, but it makes a lot of sense. I am also glad you mentioned the bit about Hanoi’s and Saigon’s cuisine being different from one another. It does make sense that there would be regional differences. The fish sauce titbit also caught my attention!
Your photos are on point, girl! They’re making me hungry just like your Thai ones did. The mosaic feature is really nice on the eyes, and it’s even better that it’s a time-saving plugin for you!
Like your Thailand entry, I loved looking at your food and vacation photos! I think it’s interesting how Vietnamese food has French influences. (There’s a French/Vietnamese restaurant here that is sooo good.) I know you said to list my favorite that isn’t pho, but I think pho is actually my favorite, haha. I also really like banh mi with pate in it.
By the way, the green mountains you saw by the water makes me think of when I went to Guilin, China! The view you saw at Halong Bay is gorgeous!
Yummy! I havent been to Vietnam but Ive tried some of their dishes already. The spring rolls, I make them myself too, with what is available in PH, its just, I dont do mine with shrimp. I am allergic to that, and I know it isnt vietnamese if it doesnt has shrimp. so too bad for me 🙁
Anyways, I so love all of the pictures here. Someday, I would love to visit Vietnam and try their rich cuisine. 😀
LOVE from MYXILOG
Your photos leaves me breathless and craving Vietnamese food!! We’re Vietnamese, but my mom is in another city, and so homemade viet food is hard to come by these days. I love your variety spread and how relaxing your vacation seems!
Ahh Thanks, Tess! Homemade viet food is easy to come by if you try your hand at making some yourself! You can do it. 🙂
#FoodPorn
Your post has made me so hungry! I’ve never had Vietnamese food but it’s definitely on my bucket list.
Ahh you’ll have to make sure you get some quality Viet food one day 🙂