Vietnamese Food:
More Than Just Phở
I visited Vietnam and loved every minute of it. I will come back to write a full destination guide, but one thing that stood out immediately was the food.
If you go to a Vietnamese restaurant in the UK, the dishes you are most likely to see are Phở (a beef or chicken noodle soup), Bánh Mì (a filled baguette), and Gỏi Cuốn (fresh, translucent spring rolls). While these are all excellent, they only scratch the surface of what Vietnamese food has to offer.
There is so much more variety, and much of it you are unlikely to come across unless you visit Vietnam itself.
A Country of Regional Flavours
Vietnamese cuisine varies significantly by region, and this is something you notice very quickly when travelling.
In the north, around Hanoi, the food tends to be more delicate, with lighter, more subtle flavours. Dishes such as Phở and Bún Chả are simple but incredibly balanced.
Central Vietnam, particularly around Hoi An, offers something quite different. The region is rich in both agriculture and seafood, and the food is more complex and bold. Dishes such as Cao Lầu and White Rose dumplings are distinctive to the area, and you will also find an abundance of fresh seafood.
In the south, around Ho Chi Minh City, the food becomes sweeter and more herb-heavy. Street food is a big part of daily life here, with dishes such as Bánh Mì and Bánh Xèo widely available and eaten at all times of day.
Eating in Vietnam
Some of our best meals were not in restaurants you would plan for in advance. They were in small, local places — sometimes in the countryside, sometimes right on the edge of a paddy field.
We visited markets, including floating markets, and took part in a cooking class where we shopped for ingredients, cooked everything ourselves, and then sat down to eat it. It was one of the highlights of the trip and gave a much better understanding of how simple, fresh ingredients come together.
I have a number of food allergies, which I expected to be a challenge, but it never was. Because so much of the food is made fresh, it was easy to explain what I could not eat, usually with the help of Google Translate or a quick conversation. Nothing was ever too much trouble.
Food across Vietnam feels naturally healthy — fresh herbs, simple cooking methods, and very little that feels heavy or over-processed.
The freshest food we’ve ever eaten
