Everything that starts with V ...

...expected protocol. I cannot cover everything in this already long review but I do think it is worth highlighting some key points.

First of all it is important, if a guest, to wait to see where you are asked to sit. It is not always important but you need to let your host guide you on that. Next is the question of when to start eating. In formal situations the elder or the most important person (sometimes but not always the same person) ...
...the honoured guest but in this case someone will put the food on your plate and then everyone will wait for you to eat before they start to eat. More likely your host will put food on your plate just because you are a western guest. Of course, as discussed previously there are many weird and wonderful Vietnamese dishes to try and not all will be likely to appeal to you. If the food makes your plate you will normally be expected to eat it so be constantly ... more

Introduction

After my first Vietnam article 'All Things Vietnamese 1 - Families and Noise I invited suggestions for other themes. When I last looked there was only one request which was to cover food and drink. I have decided therefore to cover this as my second topic (it is of course a vast subject and I can only scratch the service).

I intend to structure this article as follows. An overview of Vietnamese cuisine, how it has been influenced and what a typical Vietnamese meal might consist of. I will then discuss popular foods, more unusual dining options (generally only available in Vietnam), Vietnamese drinking preferences, costs if eating out in Vietnam, food related etiquette, what it is like to have your typical bachelors kitchen turned into a Vietnamese kitchen, ideas about where you can go to seek out quality Vietnamese restaurants in London and finally my own opinion of the food.

Please bare in mind that in accordance with what I believe to be the spirit of this community I am basing the content of this article on my own experience and opinion. If you are an expert of Vietnamese food you will find fault, if you read and research it you will find discrepancies, however, what I hope to convey is a taste of my own experiences of eating Vietnamese food and more importantly observing the Vietnamese doing so. If you therefore find yourself in the company of Vietnamese in the UK or in Vietnam (or anywhere else in the world) I hope you will understand a little more about what you see, smell and taste.

What I purposely intend to avoid this article becoming is a menu reader. Vietnamese language is tonal and without a Vietnamese keyboard to insert the relevant tones you will risk being offered very different foods to those you might think you are ordering if you simply ask for food based on the western script. Every guidebook to Vietnam worth its salt (there are even some focused on the food) offers a menu reader.

What is Vietnamese Cuisine?

I am often asked this very question by friends. I suspect some do so in the hope of a dinner invitation, my wife is a really good cook though since the children started to arrived she has almost singularly specialised in Vietnamese gourmet baby meals (a whole separate topic).

My answer to this question is that Vietnamese is somewhere between Chinese and Thai but in most cases spicy sauces or chillies will feature on the side. This is of course a very simplistic definition of a complex cuisine that has been influenced by those of neighbouring countries for many centuries. It also tends to ignore the fact that there are quite marked variations between Vietnamese food from different regions. The northern food (where the strongest degree of Chinese influence is evident) is generally more plain than the southern (where I am sure there are influences from Cambodia and indirectly I guess India), Hue (the former capital in Central Vietnam) has its own unique cuisine said to be based on that eaten by the emperors whilst in some of the highland regions you will find other local specialities.

Some people also focus on the French influence, I mention this separately as for me it is debatable. Yes, there are some decent French style restaurants in Vietnam but to draw comparisons with the cuisine, as wonderful as both can be is, for me at least, rather misleading. It is however true to say that in every Vietnamese city of any size you can usually find a source of French style bread which is wonderful in this part of the world. There is some similarity with certain ingredients but the overlap generally stops there in my experience.

Where Vietnamese differs from many cuisines is the subtlety of its flavours. Thai dishes that are not too spicy can share this but with most Vietnamese food the flavours of all the ingredients come through. This is really nice so long as there is not one particular ingredient you really do not like.

Another important characteristic is that Vietnamese like to buy (and invariably demand) only the freshest ingredients. Until recently very few Vietnamese have had a fridge in their home and a daily trip to the market to by the freshest (sometimes live) produce was essential. This is only changing very slowly, there are not many supermarkets in Vietnam outside the main cities and markets are still a hive of activity and focal point of most communities.

Popular foods

Meat - chicken, duck, beef and pork - is popular with Vietnamese as is fish and other types of seafood for those who live close to its source. Waves of bird flu has meant poultry is sometimes off the menu throughout the whole country; when this has happened pork is probably the most popular meat in Vietnamese homes as this is much cheaper than beef. However, it is beef that is a principle ingredient of the countries most famous dish, pho (though it is also made with chicken.

My first experience of Pho was not pleasant. I arrived in the evening in Hanoi and was collected by friends who drove me 4 hours (including a short ferry crossing) to Hon Gai (the non tourist part of what is collectively known as Ha Long City (the two sides have since been joined by a bridge). It was close to midnight when we arrived but the people who collected us had been out for 9 hours with little food so were keen to eat. Vietnamese tend not to eat out much in this town (something I came to appreciate why after my stay) but in this situation a simple meal from the street was the best option. We therefore went to a street that leads to a famous old temple at the foot of one of the limestone peaks which characterise Ha Long.

We were served a large bowl of been noodle soup. The liquid was thick with grease and could have easily come from the washing up bowl after the posts and pans of ones mothers Sundays roast were scrubbed clean. Floating in this were crudely cut lumps of beef with more gristle than meat, bits of broken bone were also added. Only the addition of fresh coriander mitigated the unpleasantness of trying to consume one of the offering that confronted me. The quick realisation that the establishment we had chosen to eat at (I am sure because it was the only one left open) was infested with rats did little to help matters and, like my friends wife, did not eat much that night. This is poor form in Vietnam but there were nevertheless two other occasions where I repeated this cultural fau pax (more about that later).

Happily, I have eaten pho (initially with some trepidation) countless times since and it is generally an excellent and simple dish that can be found almost everywhere. It is simply beef (or chicken) noodle. The herbs added to this vary from region to region (southerners generally add far more than the northerners) but in general it is tasty and nutritious. It is a popular Sunday breakfast for Vietnamese and you can always judge where it is good by the crowds enjoying it.

Another dish you will have likely encountered whether you have been to Vietnam or no are spring rolls. The deep friend variety are best known to foreigners and popular fillings include pork, shrimp or crab. A vegetarian variety is also invariably available; an increasing number of older Vietnamese, once again at liberty to practice their traditions, are vegetarian at least on certain days for religious reasons. These rolls can range from tasty to greasy and uninspiring but most are good and more than a few places turn out consistently great portions. Sadly deep friend and diet do not go well together but worry not, another variety of roll (known as fresh rolls) also are available. These are encased in a moist white exterior made of rice and are particularly nice with shrimp but come with different fillings. Also there is a second option where the contents are put before you and you mix your own in rice paper. I was once a fan of the fried variety but now I am a convert to the latter two.

Another dish that is ubiquitous in coastal regions (and Hanoi) is squid cake. These are similar to fish cakes but obviously are made of squid. They are usually served with some kind of dipping sauce comprising garlic, chillies, fresh lime and maybe vinegar. More likely (at least if it is only Vietnamese who are eating) you will find ngoc mam. This is brownish-pink coloured sauce which is made from fermented dried fish. It has a distinctive smell, so much so that if a foreign guest is invited it will possibly not be brought to the table. It has a very strong and salty flavour and I like it - many other foreigners hate it but for the Vietnamese it is an essential feature with almost any dish.

I remember being very disappointed not to find it on the table when I first met my wife's family. I had been away from Vietnam for almost 2 years and looking forward tasting it again (my Vietnamese friends in the UK mentioned in a previous article do not tend to have it). I mentioned its absence to my wife who immediately informed the remainder of the guests. They were all delighted because they wanted and expected to have it on the table but my mother in law to be was so scared at my likely reaction to its presence on the table she had not served it. This was quickly rectified and remains a joke in my family to this day.

Another essential item at almost any meal is a plate of leaves. These are of various types, all edible and in 99% of cases delicious. I have eaten huge quantities in Vietnam without ill effect. Likewise there are wonderful salads based on the lotus flower and often including many types of chopped leaf and maybe some prawns (fresh or dried). Another popular salad is made with papaya. I would always order a salad with a Vietnamese meal.

The Vietnamese particularly like their food to be barbequed or cooked before them at the table in a hot pot. There are multiple options here to suit all tastes (especially the hot pot which can be vegetarian friendly). I have had some particularly memorable seafood meals using one of the other of these forms of cooking. Most Vietnamese love all kinds of seafood and enjoy selecting it from the tank alive, a practice my very religious mother in law does not like at all.

Fish is also commonly served streamed (sometimes with various herbs and spices added for flavour and sometimes not), grilled or fried. A particular speciality to be found in Hanoi is Cha Ca which features grilled boneless fish served with dill. There are restaurants that specialise solely in this dish though some aim at the tourist market and are not as good as the less glitzy locals hang outs. Ask around where best to try this.

Crab is particularly popular though there are many varieties. Ask first to see what you are ordering. Soft shell crab is as its name suggest the idea being you eat the shell. It is usually deep friend making it hard to do otherwise. Other crabs can be steamed or cooked with tamarind or chillies. Shrimps are also very common, again, the Vietnamese will eat the shells and the heads more often than not. My father in law swears these are the best bits but my liking for Vietnamese food has yet to reach this level of appreciation.

In major cities vegetarians are well catered for due to the resurgence of religious practices. However, you tend to need to pick your restaurant carefully as those serving meat tend not to provide so well for non meat/fish eating clientele. Tofu is a staple for vegetarians and there are lots of fresh vegetables and fruits to choose from too. Dalat has a wonderful selection of fresh produce but a lot is imported and there seems to be constant anxiety that anything from China has got dreadful chemicals in it. This is a common subject of conversation and some Vietnamese will not purchase produce imported from China (though it is hard to tell). Morning glory, a tough chewy vegetable grown domestically in abundance seems to feature on every menu.

For Vietnamese though the staple ingredient of any meal is of course rice. It is similar in consistency to that you will find in a Chinese restaurant, steamed and glutinous given it a sticky consistency. Vietnamese tend to have this not from the start of the meal but during it, often mixed in part with the soup with which they invariably finish. This might be made from the boiled up bones of the days meat or the liquid remainder of the hot pot. In Ha Long I have often had a special kind of soup made from tiny oysters which is said to be particularly nutritious.

There is certain food served on special days. Top of the list of these are most probably the wonderfully named moon cake. These have an external appearance not dissimilar from our pork pies (but the square variety) and are always sold completely encased in their pastry. You cannot find anywhere to buy it by itself; all or nothing. Content can vary but must common (again emulating the pork pie) is meat and egg. This though is where the similarity ends and as I cannot eat egg I cannot comment much more. One thing to bare in mind though is that if in Vietnam during Tet (New Year) you will find these pies everywhere, often in a larger package of multiple food and beverage. These can prove to be an excellent gifts, especially if your visitors are relatively poor.|

Deserts do not really happen with Vietnamese meals in the way they do in the west. Fruit is the most common and there are endless varieties (though seem my comment about Vietnamese fear of fruit from China, the source country of much of it). An exception to the desert rule is when there is a celebration, particularly a child's birthday. Cakes with a light (almost whipping) cream covering and a light sponge are made; fruit is sometimes added as decoration along with lettering which, if not in Vietnamese, can be almost guaranteed to be incorrectly spelt. Given the supposed French influence some people speak of with regard to Vietnamese cuisine (I personally think this is limited to bread and the use of frogs legs and snails in Viet dishes) these cakes are bitterly disappointing.

For the more adventurous

In Vietnam the world is your lobster (though like the oyster that is fairly mainstream). Sea urchin, sea cucumber or even fish head soup might raise some eye bowers but it is the weird and wonderful offerings of meat that will likely leave many readers squirming just as it has done me on various occasions. Snake and snails are nothing that odd in this context - both are easily available in Vietnam as are frogs legs thanks to the French influence.

To start with the Vietnamese like all the bits and pieces many westerns prefer to discard. I have mentioned gristle and bone, add to this any internal organ you can imagine from the brain to the testicles and you will appreciate that very little goes to waste. However, this is the tip of the iceberg as the nature of beasts that are eaten.

Rather than upset animal lovers I will not go into as much detail as I could here. If you are really upset by stories of humans eating mans best friend or endangered species do please however skip the rest of this section and the first two paragraphs of drinks in the following section and go to the 'Prices in Vietnam' section. However, I must emphasis, go to Vietnam as a tourist and you can avoid all that follows. It predominately exists to cater for the Vietnamese market and it is only because of my close connections with Vietnamese friends and acquaintances that I have experienced the things I have.

First of all there is dog meat. This is popular in the north but reinforcing the point I have made earlier, fido will not feature on your plate as an unwitting westerner. Dog meat is a speciality and like many specialities it tends to be sold in specialist restaurants. These tend to serve a range of dishes where the same meat is used, preparation being in different ways. Possibly grilled, boiled, roast, with certain spices or herbs, as a soup and so on.

In Hanoi there are a whole string of dog restaurants in one street on the outskirts of the city. They are deserted for the first 10 days of each lunar month as during this period eating dog meat is bad luck. However later in the month, and particularly during the winter, they can be busy. At some I believe you can select your dog live, you can certainly hear the poor creatures. I believe they are specially bread in the way we rear livestock here in the UK but again this is what I have been told. The meat itself which I refused to eat (another fau pax in the eyes of my hosts but one that is excusable according to my own morals) is very fatty. I know this because I inadvertently did consume some in China back in the 80s at a time when tourists were few and the prevalence of this meat was more common.

Vietnamese are generally not sentimental about their animals and many love dog meat because of the perceived luck it brings them. Few keep dog as pets in the way we would, they keep them to guard their homes but nothing more. Likewise, not many keep cats and those that do tend to treat them in a manner that you or I would perceive as very cruel. They are invariably tied up and poorly fed and serve as an oddity for children to torment. I am fairly sure cat meat is also eaten (as it is in China) but I did not encounter this, at least in relation to the domestic bread.

More unusual wildlife is difficult to find in much of Vietnam. The reason is that it has died out as people have eaten it. Even birds are few and far between, a source of great disappointment to some amateur 'twitcher' friends of mine who visited. Wildlife does however exist in more remote areas and much of what does will, if caught, find its way into a cage. Sadly though this is not the cage of a zoo but one of a restaurant.

Such places tend to be very expensive and do not tend to welcome foreigners. I only visited one because of who I was with and got to know on my first visit to the country. My wife would never have gone to such a place and for this reason I wished I had met her earlier. However, Vietnamese tend not to tell you where you are going until you arrive and so it happened that after a long and expensive taxi journey into the country side outside Ha Long we came to such a place. It was located in a poor town with little evidence of wealth but the place itself was plush and had what I assume was a minder on the door. At the back were cage after cage of poor creature awaiting their fate. I nearly vomited at the sight of this place but some of my guests took great pleasure in carefully selecting their meal.

By this stage I had already been convinced I was going to pass on the evenings meal, I did not want to eat in this terrible place. Though some would have considered it I was not in a position to walk out, my host would have been deeply offended. So what some might say but if you know Vietnamese well enough you will know the situation was far more complex. So I sat and again abstained from eating and just partook took drink though (see below) I was even wary of some of that.

The unfortunate beast my party selected was some form of civet cat. It was served similarly to the dog meat I described previously and by all accounts is more highly prized as a meal (because no doubt of its rarity value; Vietnamese often love to show off if they have the financial means to do so). It was rather ironic when it emerged some months later that a species of the civet cat was linked to SARS. I forget if this link was ever confirmed but there is surely a moral in there about what you should or should not eat.

I will end this section with a brief anecdote. An old friend of mine once wanted to impress me with her cooking skills and so decided to make me a special salad. I have already mentioned my love for Vietnamese salads and as this was prepared in the UK my guard was down. However, the special ingredient was chicken feet, bad enough for most western readers but I have an irrational hatred for any kind of chicken meat. However, slicing the skin in a single piece form the bony foot is such a slow and intricate process the girl who prepared this delicacy had been working for 3 hours. This was one time I had to grin and bare though I am sure she saw through my feigned politeness and eagerness that on this occasions others present had the choice bits of foot skin.

Drinks

To pick up where the last section ended there have also been direct links between the drinking of blood of freshly slaughtered poultry and the human variant of bird flu. Though this practice is not something I witnessed in Vietnam I have read (in relation to the protracted commentary on bird flu) that the practice does go on. This probably represents the extreme of Vietnamese tastes in drinks but they are also partial to various spirits and liqueurs made with the blood and/or bile of various avenues. There were two such drinks served at the civet cat meal I described that had apparently been made from the same species (though obviously a different animal as spirits take a prolonged period to make. Perhaps even more repugnant is a variety made from the bile of a rare species of bear.

I must confess having drunk this type of spirit when made from snake blood and snake bile. For tourists a hugely popular souvenir is a spirit made from the cobra, this yellow coloured liquid (probably indicating it is also bile based) is contained in a bottle with a complete with the cobra. Anyone in the UK reading this (and probably the EU) should be aware that import is illegal though I would hope few would be tempted on ethical grounds alone.

If you are now cringing at the thought of Vietnamese drinks fear not; like the unusual foods these drinks (aside from my cobra spirit packaged for the tourist market) are unlikely to be encountered by tourists. Instead you have a vast array of delicious soft and alcoholic drinks.

Tea (of countless varieties) is widely available. There are places that serve a range of teas, sometimes more than 100, with all kinds of flavours you cannot imagine. However, traditional green or jasmine teas are about the most common and are delicious hot or cold. However, for every shop specialising in tea there must be 50 coffee houses. Coffee (and I mean Vietnamese coffee) is strong and delicious. It can be served filtered through a small and ubiquitous device made for the purpose or cold with ice and usually milk (sometimes it will be condensed milk). The coffee houses themselves are a Vietnamese institution and the most trendy (or which there are many in big cities) are used similarly to the way western young people might use a fashionable bar. On a weekend night the in places are packed; those coffee houses near universities are packed every night.

An innumerable variety of fruit juices are also available throughout the country. One has to use their judgement when it comes to ice as in any part of the world though touch wood I have had little trouble in Vietnam to date. There is also a wide selection of bottled water of which La Vie is most popular local brand.

Alcoholic beverages are, aside from those already mentioned, of good quality. There are numerous bottled beers specific to different parts of the country (if these I like Halida, most widely available in the north and the Biere Larue sold in the city of Da Nang but sadly, in few places more widely. I do not like Saigon beer (brewed in Ho Chi Minh City) which I find has too much fizz and little flavour; 333 is also from the south and little better. Bia hoi is a fresh beer sold on the street (also mentioned in my last Vietnam review); it is said to be made only of pure ingredients and will spare you a hang over. It is very light but apparently 4% volume so do not be fooled, Vietnam traffic is such that you would not want to be a tipsy pedestrian. Bia hoi is however phenomenally popular with the masses, a consequence perhaps more linked to its price than its properties. It is ridiculously cheap and this is why it is drunk in such copious amounts by so many locals.

A total of 19 friends of mine attended my wedding in Vietnam. Many were real ale fans and they were thrilled to discover a number of micro breweries exist in Hanoi and, to a lesser extent, in other parts of the country. I have had limited experience myself of these as I am usually too busy with families but I promise that whenever I do explore this aspect to my complete satisfaction I will write a review or update this one.

Various varieties of rice and fruit based wine and spirit can also be found. Some are better than others but the wine produced in Dalat tends to be good, if quite strong compared to wine produced by western methods and more like sherry in its taste. Nevertheless, the female contingent of my wedding party particularly enjoyed it and consumed half a dozen bottles in one evening at my in laws house. What that told them about western women I do not know. A 'good' Vietnamese girl would apparently never drinks though I know plenty of exceptions to this.

Food related etiquette

This is a cultural minefield but as in many other countries people are mostly familiar with westerners and will forgive any lapses in the expected protocol. I cannot cover everything in this already long review but I do think it is worth highlighting some key points.

First of all it is important, if a guest, to wait to see where you are asked to sit. It is not always important but you need to let your host guide you on that. Next is the question of when to start eating. In formal situations the elder or the most important person (sometimes but not always the same person) should eat first. It could be you are perceived as the honoured guest but in this case someone will put the food on your plate and then everyone will wait for you to eat before they start to eat. More likely your host will put food on your plate just because you are a western guest. Of course, as discussed previously there are many weird and wonderful Vietnamese dishes to try and not all will be likely to appeal to you. If the food makes your plate you will normally be expected to eat it so be constantly aware of well intentioned hosts (and sometimes other visitors) and have a convincing reason why you do not want the choicest slice of that pigs intestine.

Be aware that food is often not very warm, especially when you go to a formal occasion like a wedding or even a big party in a private house. In fact it can stand on the table for hours on end in the worst case scenario and you can imagine the potential risks this poses. However, be aware and do not criticise. It is bad not to eat but it is worse to remark on the manner it is served. Most Vietnamese work out of tiny kitchens when they prepare food and few will even have an oven so it is difficult to prepare and co-ordinate servings form multiple cases at the appropriate price.

During the meal, however formal, Vietnamese are, as explained in my last review, not the quietest of people. This extends to their eating; much slurping and lip smacking ensure and conversation is often (or at least appears to be) animated. In less formal circumstances burping and belching will also go almost entirely unnoticed by other Vietnamese guests. You can also expect the noisy presence of any children,

It is interesting that the more difficult to extract a morsel of food, especially from things like crabs, the more tasty the Vietnamese consider it to be. It can be an amazing spectacle watching them pock and pry out the tiniest slithers of food from a claw of a spiny crab, not a creature you would want to have an accident with. Obviously you should not stare at them too much but to a degree you need to or all the best food will be gone and you will still be hungry.

Where you are sat at a large table Vietnamese food is often served in more than one dish and these can be spread out. It is very important you only take from the bowl nearest to you and are not tempted to stretch to the further one because you perceive it has the best cut of meat. To do so is very rude in the Vietnamese view. You should also avoid taking the last of anything. Occasionally you will be strongly encouraged to do that and in some cases it might seem OK but the message it can send is that your host has not prepared enough food. When you finish eating do not stick your chopsticks vertically in a bowl of rice or any other food. This resembles what people do with insense and to replicate this is deeply offensive to the more religious Vietnamese.

Pouring tea is an art that I am not overly familiar with but could probably research and write about extensively. Though not a patch on the rituals in Japan there are certainly rituals people go through and these do differ from situation to situation and region to region.

With alcoholic drinks toasting is very important. However, it often goes further as Vietnamese men love to challenge westerners in drinking games. I am no hardened drinker but invariably win without difficulty if it is a matter of who can consume a glass of beer or shot of spirit fastest. However, the Vietnamese often do this to get the westerner drunk in a business situation as lots of men will individually challenge one or two westerners. In some situation where there is just one or two Vietnamese and one or two westerners it is however the Vietnamese who become very drunk and on occasion (as I have witnessed) the men concerned can become quite aggressive. Believe me, this is a scenario you want to avoid; you have been warned.

Prices in Vietnam

After years of a very stable economy Vietnam is suffering from quite significant inflation; devastating for the poorest members of society but a 'necessary' cost of World Bank membership and the associated demands that places on the countries economic membership. Consequently prices have risen at an alarming rate in recent times and whilst western visitors would still regard the country as cheap locals will tell you differently. As an example my wife often buys a simple rice dish from near our usual hotel in Hanoi. In the last 2 years the price of this dish has risen from 5,000 Dong to 15,000 Dong. The upper price is still little more than 50 pence (sometimes less) but for poor Vietnamese it is an unbridgeable differentiation and food that was once a formality at the end of the day is now a rare luxury.

Modern chains offering a sanitised and expensive version of Pho have recently sprung up in Hanoi. They offer a very simple dish at about 10 times the cost old women cook it on the street for but are very popular places and still cheap eateries for middle class Vietnamese and a perceived safe option for foreigners.

However, you can eat very well at a mid range Vietnamese restaurant for less than £3. You can of course easily spend 10 times this in top end restaurants (much more if you drink imported wines and spirits) but the food will seldom increase in quality by proportionate worth. However, in the £7 - £12 bracket you can dine at some very charming middle to upper class Vietnamese restaurants in a beautiful ambiance; if you have the disposable income this experience will be worthwhile; however do not neglect the cheaper options which can be some of the best Vietnamese experiences.

Remember to that it is not just dog meat that is sold in a specific location in Hanoi, there are many so called food streets offering particular specialities (just as there are streets in many Asian cities selling a specific item). In many cases these streets will have (generally Vietnamese geared) eating places that are fiercely competitive and offer whatever speciality you seek at a very reasonable price.

Pure street food is stunningly cheap. Be sure to check what the locals are paying, most vendors are very honest but a few will take a tourist for whatever they can extract from him or her money wise. It is possible to eat very well for under £1 on the street and providing you pick a place with a high turnover of customers and where you can see they prepare food freshly your chances of stomach ailments are relatively low. It is not however Singapore standards.

Seafood is usually sold by weight and you need to be very careful to confirm prices when ordering. Again, a few restaurants rip customers off; most are however very good value and offer up delicious platters of almost every kind of seafood you can imagine (and many you can't). I have fed 8 people well for just over 1,000,000 Dong (around £30) on my most recent trip in a mid range place in Hanoi and an even greater number for a similar price in Ha Long where there are several floating restaurants seldom visited by tourists on the Hon Gai side of the water.

Finally in this section the menu must be mentioned. In some places there is not one - most places do now have them but if there is not one you need not necessarily be alarmed. There are places that charge according to what you eat from different dishes - though in general you go into the kitchen or to a serving area and point at what you want on your plate (like a buffet). There are also places with menus displaying different prices for the same thing. Sometimes this happens (especially in Saigon) as prices vary during the day. Do check before you sit down. If in doubt ask another customer if language allows.

A Vietnamese kitchen in Croydon

Yes, my kitchen is very much a Vietnamese kitchen these days and the smell in drifts through the entire flat and, more often than not, the whole block. This is achieved without using ngoc mam; I fear if we did we would risk eviction!

In a Vietnamese kitchen you will find a wok or two, a mortar and pestle, a sturdy chopping board, meat cleaver, an array of fresh herbs and spices some which will be familiar to you and many not, a constantly packed fridge and larder with all kinds of peculiar items and (when there are visitors) lots of people. My kitchen is tiny but I have known 5 people working to prepare a meal in there.

Not being unkind I would say Vietnamese have no idea how to properly use a freezer or oven. The latter can rarely be found in a house in Vietnam and, to be fair, before I married I had only used it to heat meals so I admit to not being proficient in its use either.

However, before we had children out small kitchen churned out some amazing meals. Now it prepares gourmet baby food only and I have reverted to fending for myself. We do however enjoy the odd wonderful meal at home or, perhaps more often, go and eat out at one of London's growing number of Vietnamese houses.

Eating Vietnamese food in London

This is a business that has taken off big time in recent years. A little bit like the early stages of the Thai food revolution of the 80s it started off with Chinese places claiming to offer Vietnamese food but not really doing so. These places can be easily spotted with a close look at the menu and maybe a couple of questions to the proprietor before you sit down - ask about the style of Vietnamese, what specialities they offer and maybe even (if you are blunt like me) whether they are Vietnamese. If they are not my advice is forget it. Do however remember, Chinese is very popular and many Vietnamese run successful Chinese restaurants and offer a small selection of genuine Vietnamese items on the side. In many cases these places will be delighted to make you a special Vietnamese meal of you plan ahead.

However, there are now a substantial number of well established pure Vietnamese restaurants. Some specialise in northern food but most seem more southern focused. Kingsland Road (north of Old Street) probably has the best selection of genuine eating places. Several are BYO booze which can save a fortune on the meal cost.
Not far from here there are also a number of establishments on a stretch of Mare street some ¼ mile south of the Hackney Empire. These places are a little more spread out and interspersed with several Vietnamese mini markets offering many hard to find ingredients if you want to try your hand at cooking.

Other places you will find Vietnamese places in less numbers include Camden Town, New Cross/Deptford and Bermondsey/Surrey Quays. Quite recently a large Vietnamese place opened in the Wing Yip Centre in Croydon; this hosts a Vietnamese karaoke night every month which you might want to experience or more likely would want to avoid; other than that it serves not bad (Southern) food.

My opinion of Vietnamese food

Well, this has been an epic review and I hope you can tell that I am very keen on Vietnamese food despite my negative comments about certain culinary practices. I am hardly one to chalk as a native of the land where the deep friend mars bar is a speciality!

So do I really love Vietnamese food? Well, I really like it, I like it a lot and probably some of my all time favourite meals have been Vietnamese. However, I would say Thai and Japanese both pip it for me. I do however think Vietnamese is more healthy than Thai and offers a more complex array of flavours than Japanese (I am just a raw fish junky).

Do try Vietnamese if you have not; when good it can be delicious. I am sure it will continue to grow in popularity here to the extent it has in Australasia and Canada. Be sure, the Vietnamese in the UK will need to find something to do when the bottom falls out of the American style nails market!

In should I like Vietnamese

I hope, if I receive favourable reviews, to write other Vietnamese focused articles but I understand I will have to post these in different sections of Ciao as I can only post one review in each folder. You will of course find links to future articles via the list of my reviews. 

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