Eats

It wouldn't be hard to say that Vietnamese food is my favorite cuisine. Every bite contains an explosion of flavors. Not only did I not have a single bad meal, I had very few things that weren't special. Its hard to pick my favorite, so I'll just write a long list of dishes and flavors:



Bowls of "pho"/"bun", both kinds of rice noodles served in soups with meat/seafood/veggies/cilantro. From a street stall or a restaurant where locals eat, a large bowl goes for about $0.60.

Lemongrass & chili. I had this sauce on chicken (perhaps 5 times?), beef, and squid. Absolutely fantastic. Fireworks in the mouth.

Beef, and lots of it. Living in Japan, I rarely eat beef, even though it is my favorite flesh, mostly because it is quite expensive. Thus, I was overjoyed to see wonderful and cheap beef dishes on every menu in every restaurant. I ate beef at least once a day while I was in Vietnam. Yum.

Vietnamese sandwiches. Served by street vendors, 8-10" fresh French baguettes are sliced and stuffed with unidentifiable pork meats, sliced cucumbers, onions/peppers, sometimes cheese, cilantro, and sprinkled with hot sauce and/or MSG infused black pepper. At 30 cents a pop, they make for a quick and easy breakfast or lunch, and even better bus stop or late night snacks.

Ginger. Another one of my favorite flavors. Used liberally in a lot of dishes.

Thai/Asian basil. Ditto. Especially good in the bowls of noodles.

Fresh spring rolls. Bigger and better than the fried kind, of which we also ate plenty. The best fresh ones we had were from a streetside vendor, stuffed with leeks, rice noodles, fresh shrimp, pork, thai basil, and cilantro.



Asian greens. Bok choy, kang kong, and others I don't know the name of are good in anything.

Fish Sauce. Smells putrid, especially when you pass through a town with a factory that makes this stuff. But, it tastes quite nice on white rice with a few hot peppers for added zing.

Fruit. You can't beat dirt-cheap tropical fruit, especially lychees (the best I've had), mangoes, guanabana/soursop, pineapple, and dragonfruit.

Finally, rice. I've been spoiled on Japanese rice, which must be the best in the world, but Viet rice was still wonderful and the best thing to soak up the rest of the flavors.

Any culture that bases every meal around rice, noodles, and fresh bread gets 5 stars from me.