Regional Cuisine
Cuisine in this country of 80,000,000 people differs strikingly between the north, south, and central regions, but two key features stand out. First, rice plays an essential role in the nation's diet as it does throughout southeast Asia. But this is also a noodle-crazy population, regularly downing them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, in homes, restaurants, and roadside stands. Noodles are eaten wet and dry, in soup or beside soup, and are made in different shapes and thicknesses of wheat, rice, and mung beans. Secondly, no meal is complete without fresh vegetables and herbs. A key portion of every meal, north, south, and central, is a platter containing cucumbers, bean threads, slices of hot pepper, and sprigs of basil, coriander, mint, and a number of related herbs found principally in southeast Asian markets.
As in any country, Vietnam's cuisine reflects its geography and history. Geographically, it consists of two great river deltas separated by a belt of mountains. Vietnamese describe their country as two great rice baskets hung on either end of a carrying pole. The Red River Delta surrounding Hanoi provides rice for the residents of North Vietnam. The tremendously fertile Mekong Delta, centered by Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) produces rice plus a wide variety of fruits and vegetables both for itself and the central strip of the country whose principal city is the former imperial Hue.
Vietnamese Soup Customs
Soup is customarily served for breakfast in Vietnam--big bowls of steaming noodle soup, with meat and any number of ingredients added at the last minute, like bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, chili peppers, lime slices, and green onions. All, of course, are spiced with plenty of fish sauce (nuoc mam), chili-garlic sauce, and/or hoisin sauce in nearby dipping dishes. It's an unusual melange of cooked rice noodles, raw vegetables and herbs, and shaved raw meat or seafood that cooks in the broth just as it's brought to table.
Phở, as it's known, people line up at the doors of Phở restaurants night and day to sit at trencher tables and feast on the soup til sweat pours down the backs of their heads. The term "phở" translates as "your own bowl," since it's one of the few meals where the food is not passed around and shared.
"Small" soups, by contrast, are served as first courses--they generally don't have noodles; they're served in small portions; and they're called sup. The famous Sup Mang Tay, or Crab and Asparagus Soup, is in this category--so is Sup Nam Trang, a fascinatingly complex soup of crab, shrimp, and dried white fungus (mushroom like).
Finally, the class of soups known as Canh are generally served family style, out of one big bowl--often spooned into smaller bowls at the table with rice. And they are generally light--also served as a first course to whet the appetite. These include Canh Xa Lach Xoan (Watercress-Shrimp Soup), Canh Chua Tom (Hot and Sour Shrimp and Lemongrass Soup), and Canh Chua Ca (Hot and Sour Tamarind Fish Soup).
See the Vietnam Restaurant list
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