So far in all our travels, Vietnam has come out on top as our favourite foodie place, so we’ve decided to share some of our best Vietnamese culinary experiences with all of you! Enjoy looking at these pictures and apologies in advance if we make you hungry!
First up the most famous dish of Vietnam, ‘Pho Bo’ (noodle soup with beef). We had many bowls of this on our journey North to South of Vietnam, but this one from Nha Trang was the best! They don’t always add in extra vegetables such as tomato and this made it even tastier!
‘Pho Bo’ (Beef Noodle Soup)
The Vietnamese do all kinds of fish very well, but we particularly loved this steamed coconut shrimp in banana leaves – yum!
Steamed coconut shrimp in banana leaves
Like the Pho soup, the spring rolls varied slightly from one city to the next as we travelled through Vietnam. We particularly loved the Hoi An spring rolls….and served with cold beer made them even tastier!
Hoi An Spring Rolls
‘Cao Lau’ is a local speciality in Hoi An and consisted of doughy flat noodles mixed with croutons, bean sprouts and herbs topped with pork slices and served in a savoury broth.
Cao Lou
As I was not so keen on the pork Cau Lao above, I was delighted to find another version of this local speciality served with shrimp instead of pork – very tasty indeed!
Prawn noodles
These little parcels were another local delight of Hoi An called ‘banh bao’ consisting of steamed dumplings stuffed with minced shrimp topped with crispy fried garlic. They made a lovely starter!
Banh Bao
Now for a speciality from Sapa in North Vietnam – ‘Bo Nuong La Lot’ (Vietnamese Grilled Beef with Wild Betel Leaves), a delicious twist on the traditional spring roll.
Bo Nuong La Lot
As you’ve probably gathered by now, healthy soup is very popular in Vietnam and we particularly loved this Vegetable noodle soup served up as part of our Sapa trekking experience!
Homestay food
Whilst in Sapa, we also had the opportunity to taste some real home cooked food during our homestay with a local family from the Hmong village. They served up these delicious stir fry dishes with chicken and pork, and of course the usual favourite of spring rolls (which I helped to make!) Check out more about this in my post Trekking in Sapa, Vietnam.
Sapa homestay dishes
Another great meal served up in Hanoi pictured below. The dish in the middle is the famous Vietnamese papaya salad served with horseradish, cabbage and carrot vinegar topped with cashews.
Being savoury lovers, we didn’t try too many deserts in Vietnam but this desert soup was particularly tasty consisting of deep fried banana in sweet coconut milk with tapioca pearls and jelly shavings.
This is the inside of the famous ‘banh bao’ fresh white pancake stuffed with delicious marinated minced shrimp – oh how I miss Vietnamese food!
This delightful plate consisted of minced chicken skewers grilled over fresh lemongrass. Simply peel the chicken off, roll it into fresh pancakes stuff with noodles, cucumber, fresh lettuce and herbs and peanut sauce – a fab combo!
Not only did these vegetable springs taste good, but they were probably the biggest portion we had!
We couldn’t finish this picture post without also displaying my favourite Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, the ‘Pho Ga’. This became our hearty and healthy breakfast of choice and we are certainly going to try and recreate it when we get home!
Pho Ga (chicken noodle soup)