The food must try in Vietnam

In the past few years, Russia has become fashionable Vietnamese food - an unusual, rich and varied. Here are the most popular national dishes that are worth a try, once in Vietnam.

As in many other Asian cuisines, in the Vietnamese cuisine at the forefront of standing balance. This use in one dish of contrasting textures (soft and crispy), the balance between the basic tastes: sweet, bitter, salty, sour and pungent - the color balance of ingredients, balance of spices and herbs. Balance is evident even in the harmonious use of warming and cooling elements in accordance with the principles of the yin-yang.

Other features Vietnamese cuisine - fresh food (mostly meals quickly prepared to supply and are not harvested for future use), extensive use of vegetables and fresh herbs, a popular dish with the broth.

Typical seasoning for dishes: lemongrass, ginger, coriander (cilantro), Thai basil, mint, lime, Thai chilies. Widely used fish sauce, shrimp paste, chili sauce and soy sauce.

Vietnamese dishes are mostly not sharp, chili pepper and chili sauce usually separately fed, as additional condiments. How many dishes are served accompanied by a plate of fresh greens. In Vietnamese cafes and restaurants made for any drinks and meals served chilled green tea as a welcome drink (welcome drink, for which no money come from). White bread is very popular with Vietnamese as a vestige of the French colonization, but it is not usually served with soups.

Vietnamese lunch

fish sauce and shrimp paste

Fish sauce (Nước mắm) and shrimp paste (mắm ruốc, mắm tép, mắm tôm) are used in virtually every Vietnamese dishes. That's a pretty specific seasonings, based on fermented seafood. They are hard to spot "by eye", so they can become a problem for people with food allergies or vegetarians, but that does not mean that you can put a cross on Vietnamese cuisine. Due to the wide spread of Buddhism among the Vietnamese, there is a whole layer of monastic cuisine, which proclaims itself as a pure vegan, that is, does not use any animal products, including dairy products, eggs and animal fat. The menu of the cafe you can find the word "chicken" (gà), "beef" (bò), "fish" (cá), "shrimp" (tôm), but here we have in mind their vegetarian substitutes.

Identify cafe vegetarian Vietnamese food is quite simply an inscription Cơm Chay (tyay com), which translates as "vegetarian food". Often such places can be found next to a Buddhist temple.

What to try Vietnam

Once in Vietnam, it is easy to get lost in a variety of exotic dishes. Let us examine the most popular and interesting Vietnamese dishes that are worth trying.

Phở (pho, pho) - a symbol of Vietnamese cuisine

Noodle soup pho

Business Card Vietnamese cuisine and is probably one of the most famous Vietnamese dishes. In truth, Phở - is the name of the flat rice noodles, based on which the cooked noodle soup Phở. Other dishes with noodles that also contain the word Phở, such Phở xào bò (fried noodles with beef pho). But back to the soup.

Version of pho noodle soup is the most popular as the Vietnamese, and the newcomers. Basis soup pho - strong broth seasoned beef (Phở bò), chicken (Phở gà) or vegetable (Phở chay). Fragrant spicy soup prepared in advance, immediately before the scalding dry noodles, add chopped pieces of meat or tofu, vegetables, and all that is poured boiling broth. Pho plate fed with fresh herbs (usually basil), lime, chilli peppers, sprouts soybeans and sometimes sweet and sour sauce thick. All this must be added to the dish to your liking. Eat pho with chopsticks and spoon. Prepare pho in cafes and restaurants, as well as on the streets in a pot on the coals. Simple outdoor eatery with small plastic chairs and tables - almost as recognizable image of Vietnam as the Vietnamese three-cornered hat. It remains to add that the pho - is not the only noodle soup in Vietnamese cuisine. Each region has its own variation of soups. Among the most popular across the country: Bún bò Huế - spicy soup with round rice noodles (usually beef, but there are vegetarian options), Mì Quảng - yellow soup with thin noodles, sausages and peanut sprinkles.

Bánh mì (banmi, banh mi)

The famous Vietnamese sandwich. It is distinguished from simple bread with meat and made famous a few features. Firstly, the use of a large number of herbs and vegetables (cucumber, coriander, onion, pickled carrots, white radish, green onion, fresh chilli - set may differ slightly), and secondly, the use of one or more sauces (sweet chilli, soy sauce, mayonnaise, oil with green onions, etc.), in the third, before making a correct banmi white bread slightly roasted over charcoal.

Variations of the basic filler for many banmi: smoked meat, pate, sausages and hot dogs, even canned sardines, processed cheese, or a combination thereof. Banmi usually prepare traders in mobile street stalls, but sometimes you can find it in the cafe menu.

Banmi in Vietnamese cuisine is considered to have a bite, it is usually eaten between meals, be sure to wrapping in newspaper. We have adapted over time to make their own banmi home, using only ingredients that we like.

Nem, Cuốn (spring roll, summer roll, it, Kwon, spring roll)

Salad rolls

Spring rolls

Rolls - it rolls of rice paper with various fillings. Different salad rolls (Gỏi cuốn), sometimes called "summer", or summer roll, and crispy fried "spring" rolls (Nem rán or Chả giò - in the south and the north is called differently), known as spring roll (spring- roll). Salad rolls wrapped in moistened rice paper and served raw. The filling uses fresh herbs and vegetables, pasta, shrimp and meat. Vegetable options salad rolls are usually in vegetarian (Cơm Chay) cafe. Served rolls with sauce for dipping. These rolls of a fairly large size, as opposed to the fried spring rolls. Two to four pieces enough for one serving.

Spring rolls fry until crisp and well served with sauce. They are much smaller than the summer, in the usual four to six servings of pieces. Stuffing Spring rolls may contain meat, mushrooms, noodles, cabbage, kohlrabi, local roots. Purely vegetable spring rolls are often found in ordinary cafes. All rolls in the Vietnamese kitchen is usually eaten as a snack, in addition to the main dish.

Bò lá lốt (lalot bo, bo lalot)

Bo lalot - not as famous as the previous instances, but it is very popular among Vietnamese immigrants and Vietnamese cuisine. It's kind of an appetizer, prepared on charcoal. Brazier with strange green rolls you will meet on the streets of Vietnam regularly.

The dish is seasoned ground beef wrapped in pepper leaves of the plant-Lolotoe and baked on coals. Its main feature - the bright burning-spicy flavor leaf Lolotoe: a little tobacco, a little lemon, a little peppery. We met this dish even in a vegetarian cafe (Quán cơm chay Bồ Đề, 62-64 Huỳnh Thúc Kháng, Nha Trang), and it has become one of my favorite Vietnamese snacks. Bo lalot - definitely the dish, which is worth a try in Vietnam.

banh bao

banh bao - steamed buns from yeast dough with various fillings. This dish of Chinese origin, popular in Vietnam. In fact, it is our pies, only steamed. Classical stuffing rolls in Vietnamese cuisine - pork with eggs, but there are also vegetable and sweet options.

Lẩu (lou, hot-pot, lau)

Lẩu or Hot-pot (hot pot) - a dish Mongolian-Chinese origin, known throughout Asia. Interestingly it is not so much the taste as a way to supply and use. Hot pot literally means "hot pot". When applying low in Vietnam on the table center put the burner on which is placed a pot of boiling broth. The broth is cooked in advance, but in addition to serving a variety of supplements that can be thrown into the boiling broth and cook a little longer directly on the table. These may be pieces of meat, mushrooms, seafood, vegetables, herbs. There is also a dish served sticky rice noodles, which do not need to cook, and put themselves in a bowl and pour broth hot pot or just have a bit of sugar with fillers.

Lowe - a dish for the company to cope alone with him pretty hard. For Vietnamese Lẩu - one of the favorite ways to spend time with family or friends, to note an important event.

Bánh chưng (bantyung, bánh chưng, banh chung)

Bantyung, bánh chưng - a roll of sticky rice cooked in banana leaves stuffed with mung bean, pepper, and salt pork. It is a pillar of Vietnamese cuisine, though not as well known outside of Vietnam, pho soup. Bánh chưng - a traditional dish of the Vietnamese New Year Tet (Bánh tét), but can be used at other times of the year. There are vegetarian options and a sweet roll.

Preparation of traditional bánh chưng - a laborious and lengthy process, cooking takes 10-12 hours, approximately the same number - pre-treatment. In addition bánh chưng in Vietnam are often found like Vietnamese food in banana leaves, which are based on glutinous rice (small rolls with fillings, sweets).

Bánh xèo (SEO baths, banh xeo)

Ban SEO - it is fried in butter pancake made from rice flour with shrimp, onion, sometimes mushrooms. Served with lettuce, bean sprouts, greens and sauce for dipping.

Cơm Đĩa (dia com, com dia)

The daily food of the majority of Vietnamese - it Cơm Đĩa, which literally means "rice plate". This dish was worth a try, if you want to understand what the Vietnamese eat in everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, in addition to pho and other soups. Basis Cơm Đĩa - boiled rice, which put a lot of different fillers. Usually it is three or four kinds of vegetables and several types of meat (vegetarian version, soybeans and mushrooms). cafes often arranged on the table type, so that everyone can choose fillings to your liking. By Cơm Đĩa plate usually served warm soup bowl. In the kitchen there are a number of Vietnamese dishes, similar to Com Dia - for example, Cơm tấm (rice with several types of pork and vegetables), Cơm gà (rice with chicken), Cơm vịt (rice with duck).

Chè (che, che)

The drink, pudding, sweet soup - it is difficult to find a precise definition of the Vietnamese Che dessert. In Chè may include beans, jellies, fruit, lotus seeds, sesame seeds, coconut, tapioca, rice, taro, corn and other products, filled with sweet coconut cream or sweet syrup. Most often, Th eaten cold from the glass or plastic cup. Sometimes it is served in a plate with a spoon like soup.

Sinh tố (cin tou, sinh to)

Sinh tố - Vietnamese version of smoothies, thick and sweet fruit drink, shaken with ice. The Sinh tố, in addition to fresh fruit and ice can add yogurt, condensed milk, sweet syrup or all together. Good Sinh tố has the consistency of a gentle melting sorbet and fruity taste.

Cà phê (ka fe, ca phe) - Vietnamese coffee

Last on the list, but not least - it is Cà phê, the famous Vietnamese coffee. If you drink coffee, you should try it out clearly. Vietnam - the second country in the world in terms of production of coffee after Brazil, however, most of the coffee beans of Robusta. The Vietnamese prefer very dark roast, making coffee pretty bitter. But the Vietnamese coffee - it's not as much grain as their method of preparation. Vietnamese coffee brewing using trickling filters (phin cà phê), which are installed on a mug. Sometimes pre-brewed coffee (especially when applying ice), in such cases, a mug or glass is fed directly without filter.

The second feature of Vietnamese coffee as a drink - it is always sweet. Sweetness is used to balance the strong bitter coffee, and is a very good coffee with condensed milk, chocolate and wafer acquires notes, and black - cognac notes. If you want unsweetened coffee, it should be said about this in advance, as always add sugar. It is also worth bearing in mind that a coffee with milk in Vietnam usually means condensed milk. If you want to normal milk, then you need to talk fresh milk ( "fresh Milk", fresh milk). Vietnamese coffee is served with green tea, and pour tea without restrictions. In Vietnam, the not accepted jam coffee, so coffee shops usually do not have food and desserts.

Types of Vietnamese coffee

The most popular types of Vietnamese coffee: Cà phê sữa (ka fe cya, hot coffee with condensed milk), Cà phê (ka fe, black hot coffee with sugar), Cà phê đá (ka fe yes, black coffee with sugar and ice; ice can file separately so you've added it in a glass or coffee mixed with ice in a shaker, which creates a dense crema), Cà phê sữa đá (ka fe cya yes, iced coffee and condensed milk, can also be mixed in a shaker or fed separately with ice).