Beyond Pho

For many outside Vietnam, phở is synonymous with Vietnamese cuisine. I love it as much as the next guy, but I can get a great bowl of phở five minutes from my house. There is so much more Vietnamese cuisine to discover! From gorgeous, fresh southeast Asian fruit, to coffee made with whipped egg whites, to bánh cuốn served with waterbug-flavoured dipping sauce. Eat it all up! 

Bun Bo Nam Bo
Undoubtably my favourite of the dishes I tried for the first time in Vietnam. Bun (noodle) bo (beef) nam bo (the south) is a beef and noodle "salad" of sorts, originating in the south of the country. It consists of rice vermicelli, stir-fried beef, fried onion, minced garlic, lemongrass, fish sauce, crushed peanuts, sliced green papaya, and vinegar. I ate at Bún Bò Nam Bộ Bách Phương three times while staying in Hanoi's old quarter, enjoying fresh bowls of their namesake dish for only VND 60,000 ($4). 

Cao lầu
This is a specialty of Hoi An in Central Vietnam. The most important element of this pork and noodle dish - and what makes it so specific to Hoi An - is the preparation of the noodles. Real cao lầu noodles are made with water drawn from a specific artesian well and lye made from wood ash brought from the Cham Islands. The result is noodles with a characteristic chewiness. A bowl of Hoi An cao lầu are served with a ladle of broth (not too much!), thinly sliced pork, Vietnamese herbs, chilli, lettuce, bean sprouts, and crisp crackers of fried dough.

Bánh Cuốn
Bánh Cuốn are steamed rice rolls filled with diced pork, jicama and wood ear mushroom. Topped with fried shallots and served with cucumber, chopped lettuce, chilli and herbs. A unique aspect of this dish is that it's served with a nước chắm (dipping sauce) flavoured with a drop of giant water bug essence. You'll find bánh cuốn in Hanoi and other northern cities. See these little delicacies being prepared in the video below by YouTuber Vicky Pham. 

Bánh Mì
This is the snack that perhaps best embodies the fusion of French and Vietnamese cuisines. A good bánh mì is made in a baguette with a unique texture. It results, my Vietnamese friend Trina informed me, from a combination of rice and wheat flours. Common fillings include grilled pork, chicken, Vietnamese sausage, pork pate, cucumber, pickled carrot, onion, daikon, Vietnamese herbs and chilli. I must have eaten twenty bánh mì during my time in Vietnam. All of them hit the spot, but the clear winners came from Madam Khanh's on Trần Cao Vân in Hội An.  

Bánh xèo
The name means "sizzling pancake," but Bánh xèo aren't like any pancake you’ve ever had. These savoury, crispy, crepe-like pancakes are available all over Vietnam but the best I tasted were from Hồ Lô Quán restaurant in Hoi An. The batter contains rice flour, coconut milk, and turmeric. After being pan-fried, pork, shrimp, and a heap of bean sprouts are placed between two layers. Wrap up the pancake with lettuce and herbs and dip in the nutty brown sauce. 

Egg Coffee (Cà phê trứng)
Not like your mom’s coffee. This drink is made with fresh chicken eggs, sugar, milk, and coffee. The yolks are hand-whipped with milk and sugar before being heated in a double-boiler. Hot or iced coffee is carefully combined into the beaten eggs, forming a lovely foam. A small metal spoon is provided in order to eat the foam. Coffee with extra protein. What's not to like? 

Rambutan (trái chôm chôm)
Looking like something that crawled out of a Dr. Seuss book, the rambutan is a relative of longan and the somewhat more familiar lychee. Beneath their dramatic exterior is grape-like flesh surrounding a large seed. The flavour is sweet, also vaguely grape-like, but with more floral notes. Rambutan harvests happen twice per year: July-August and December-January. A bundle should cost no more than a couple dollars. 

Durian (sầu riêng)

If you read more than one Southeast Asia article on this blog, you're going to see durian come up again and again. Never has mother nature created a fruit that people react to more viscerally than the durian. There are diehard fans, like me, and even more people who gasp for fresh air at the first whiff. The fruit's pungent odour is actually very helpful for durian enthusiasts. When a stand is set up on a street corner in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, the whole block knows about it. If you're familiar with the smell, as I am, you can literally follow your nose to the durian. Sure, you can't bring it back to your hotel in Thailand... or on public transit in Singapore... or in shopping malls in Malaysia. But you owe it to yourself to at least give it a try and answer this question for yourself. Are you one of us, or one of the haters? 

Chè
Chè is a category of desserts rather than a single dish. These are sweet dessert soups (some thicker, like puddings), made of shaved ice, coconut milk and a wide variety of other items such as jellied or dried fruit, longans, rambutan, mangoes, jackfruit chips, mung beans, black beans, durian paste, banana, sago pearls, glutenous rice, corn, lotus seeds and more. A few popular varieties are chè ba màu ("three colour" beans and jellies), chè chuối (banana and sago pearls), chè bắp (sweet corn, coconut milk and glutenous rice), and chè long nhãn hạt sen (longan and lotus seed).