Published:  19:47 Tuesday - March 05, 2013

There isadmirably a great balance between vegetable and meats, as well as a selectiveuse of spices to reach a fine taste. Vietnamese food can be considered one ofthe healthiest cuisines worldwide.

 Traditional Vietnamese cooking isappreciated for the freshness of the ingredients and for the minimum use of oilwhich makes this cuisine very healthy. Hardly do families use processed foodfor daily meals.

Vietnamese recipes make use of arange of herbs, including lemongrass, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander andThai basil leaves. Interestingly each dish isaccompanied by a kind of herb.

Vietnamese cuisine is all about four distinct flavors, which arefish sauce, rice vinegar, salt, and sugar. Hardly do families in thecountryside use pepper although Vietnamexport of pepper ranks the second in the World.

Vietnamesecooks use almost all parts of an animal for food, including meat, bone,internal organs and skin.

Decorationis essential in any dishes, ranging from simple herbs to complex flowers madefrom veggie, sauce, pastes, etc. In the North, decoration is most complex in Vietnam.

Rice isthe key and most important dish throughout the day. Vietnamese cuisine dependsheavily on rice grown in water paddies throughout the country, with dishesvarying from simple everyday meals to most complex dishes designed for Kings.

There is no preferred meat in Vietnam.Instead, all beef, pork, chicken, fish and various kinds of seafood are used inmost dishes.

The most favorite dish for familyevents is Spring Rolls. Vietnamese spring rolls are made with rice flour, meat,veggie, eggs, pepper and seasoning and are very light on the palate.

The most well-known Vietnamese dish worldwide is in fact not Spring rolls, whichranks the second, but Pho. Almost all visitors to Vietnam have ever tasted Pho.Almost all of them like the dish.

The most terrifying dish for foreign visitors is Blood soup, made from blood andinternal organs of pigs, ducks, goats and even dogs! It is however considereddelicious and nutritious by both men and women in Vietnam.

The flavor for foreign visitors is shrimp paste, a liquid paste made fromshrimp and used for various dishes including Bun Dau Mam Tom, dog meat.

The most tempting dish for male visitors is snake wine, which is considered veryhelpful for your bone system. It is one of the most popular traditional winesacross the country. However rarely can you see young men drink this type ofwine as it is believed not good for sexual ability.

The most popular Vietnamdrink is tea. There are hundreds of tea brands but the most favorite one isThai Nguyen tea. Interestingly only few women drink tea in a day, as tea is notgood for their sleep.

Vietnamese use different ingredients to cook different dishesduring different months of the year. During summer, the food is lighter and a lot of vegetablesare used in dishes, while in winter pork and beef are used a lot.

In Vietnam, there is sweet dessertsoup that is usually prepared with beans or sago and served with diced seasonalfresh fruits.

Vietnamese cooks use lotus. Every part of the lotus is used to prepare different dishesand root plants are used a lot in different dishes.


The most traditional recipe to curea cold is not medicine but a hot rice soup containing lots of onion and foliumperillae.

Goi Cuon and Pho are among the top50 best dishes in the world voted by CNN Travel. Goi Cuon is as attracting andpopular to foreign visitors as Pho. The dish is made from beef, lettuce, herbs,and noodle and rolled into a rice paper, then used with a special sauce.

Vietnam streetfood is among the most delicious in the world, ranging from simple to complexdishes.

Hotpotis the most popular family meal during weekends in the winter. Interestingly itis not the original Vietnamese dish but is copied from Korea and China.

Beerhoi or cheap street beer is the most favourite drink in the summer. Hanoi beer hoi is the most popular in Vietnam.

Source:Vietnamnet