Vietnam Street Food: Dishes from Morning to Night

How Vietnam eats on the street

You sit on low plastic stools at a small table, often right on the sidewalk. On the table are herbs, lime wedges, fresh chilies, fish sauce and chili sauce, and you season your bowl yourself. Almost every dish comes with a plate of rau sống: lettuce leaves, mint, Thai basil, cilantro, perilla and bean sprouts.

For home, keep three things in your pantry: fish sauce, dried rice noodles in several widths and rice paper. With herbs, limes and garlic, they cover most of the dishes below.

The basic table sauce is called nước chấm. For a basic version, stir 2 tbsp sugar into 8 tbsp warm water, add 3 tbsp fish sauce and 3 tbsp lime juice, then 1 chopped garlic clove and 1 chili in rings. Taste and adjust with sugar or lime. The sauce keeps about a week in the fridge.

The food tastes different by region. In the north around Hanoi, cooks season with restraint and let the broth and meat speak for themselves. In central Vietnam around Huế, people eat spicier food, such as bún bò Huế with lemongrass and chili oil. In the south around Saigon, more sugar, coconut milk and herbs come to the table. The recipes below come from all three regions, and you can adjust the seasoning at the table to your taste.

Morning: soup, sticky rice and coffee

Many Vietnamese eat breakfast out, and between six and nine o'clock the soup kitchens are full.

• Phở bò: beef broth with star anise, cinnamon and roasted ginger, with flat rice noodles and thinly sliced beef. The broth cooks for several hours, so you can start it the day before and freeze it.
• Bánh mì: an airy baguette from the French colonial era, filled with liver pâté, meat, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber and cilantro. At home, use light baguette rolls with a thin crust and toast them briefly in the oven. Contains gluten.
• Xôi mặn: steamed sticky rice with pork, egg and fried shallots. Vendors hand it over wrapped in banana leaf or paper. At home, soak the rice overnight and steam it for 25 minutes.
• Bánh cuốn: paper-thin steamed rice flour rolls with ground meat and wood ear mushrooms, served with nước chấm.

To drink, have cà phê sữa đá: strong filter coffee from the phin, sweetened condensed milk and ice.

Midday: rice, noodles and grilled meat

Around eleven, the stalls with charcoal grills fill up. At midday you eat fast and filling, usually rice or cold noodles with warm meat.

• Bún chả: Hanoi's lunch. Grilled meatballs and pork belly slices float in diluted, sweet-sour fish sauce, and you dip cold rice noodles and herbs into it.
• Cơm tấm: broken rice with grilled pork chop, shredded pork skin and steamed egg meatloaf, typical for Saigon.
• Bánh xèo: crispy pancakes of rice flour, coconut milk and turmeric with shrimp and sprouts. You wrap pieces in lettuce and herbs and dip them in nước chấm.

Bún thịt nướng is similar to bún chả but comes as a bowl with everything together. Instead of pork, you can use chicken thighs for the grilled dishes. The marinade of fish sauce, sugar, garlic and lemongrass stays the same.

Afternoon: snacks and sweets

After school and before the end of the workday, students and office workers line up at the snack stalls. The portions are small and cheap.

• Bánh tráng nướng: a rice paper sheet that the vendor toasts over charcoal and tops with quail egg, scallion and dried shrimp. At home, it works in a dry pan.
• Bánh tráng trộn: rice paper strips mixed with mango, herbs, peanuts and chili, a kind of salad in a bag.
• Gỏi cuốn: fresh summer rolls with shrimp, pork, noodles and herbs. A hoisin peanut sauce goes well with them. Contains crustaceans and peanuts.
• Chè: sweet soups and puddings of beans, sticky rice, jelly and coconut milk, warm or with ice. A good start is chè đậu xanh made from mung beans.

To drink, there is freshly pressed sugarcane juice, avocado or mango smoothies and trà đá, iced green tea, which many stalls set out for free with a meal.

Evening: skewers, hot pot and beer

After sunset, vendors set up grills and gas burners, and the eating gets more social. You order several plates for the table and drink light beer with ice.

• Nem nướng: grilled sausages of spiced ground pork, which you roll up with rice paper, cucumber and herbs.
• Bò lá lốt: ground beef rolled in betel leaves and grilled. You find betel leaves at an Asian grocery store, and grape leaves are a workable substitute.
• Ốc: sea snails and clams, boiled with lemongrass or fried with tamarind and chili, a typical dinner in Saigon.
• Lẩu: hot pot in many variations, sour with fish, spicy with seafood or with chicken and herbs.

The adventurous try hột vịt lộn, a fertilized duck egg with Vietnamese coriander, salt and pepper. Many visitors skip it.

Common mistakes when cooking at home

• Too few herbs: One bunch of cilantro is not enough. Count on a handful of mixed herbs and a few lettuce leaves per person.
• Noodles cooked too long: Thin rice noodles for bún need only a few minutes. Then you rinse them cold so they do not stick together.
• Undiluted nước chấm: Pure fish sauce with lime tastes too salty. The water belongs in it.
• Everything at once: Plan two dishes for an evening, such as summer rolls and bún chả. More turns into too much chopping at home.