Vietnamese Food » Pho, Rice and Meat … but No Dog

August 19, 2009

|In Everyday Life, Food, Travel Journals, VietNam

Local soup, known as pho, is the most common dish in Vietnam. Made with chicken or beef broth, it also contains noodles, simple veggies, chilies and some kind of meat. These bowls are slurped down at every corner and restaurant and usually cost less than $1…unless you’re a Western tourist of course.

A traditional bowl of vegetable Pho in Vietnam

Street Stalls and Amazing Sandwiches

As is the case with most of our trip, a large percent of meals are eaten on the go from street vendors…and none were as satisfying for me as the sandwiches. Unlike Cambodia and Laos, these were not Western in taste at all. Still on a baguette, they usually contained meat pate, cucumber and tomato slices, chopped greens, laughing cow cheese, a variety of mystery meats that had been sitting out in the sun all day, mayo, chili sauce and soy sauce.

The meat may have been pork, beef, rat…who knows, but the sandwiches were my favorite and I searched them out every time I was even the slightest bit hungry. Oh, and for breakfast the same ladies usually made a mean egg sandwich too.

Street vendors sell the most amazing egg sandwiches in Vietnam

Inside a sandwich stall on the streets of Hoi An, Vietnam

Spring Rolls, Rice, Noodles and Other Yummies in Vietnam

Another dish readily available was the spring roll. We ordered a plate at pretty much every place we ate and always had a completely different result. The best ones were usually the fresh and hand rolled veggie spring rolls that had rice and vegetables wrapped in a thin rice paper. A couple of times the fried versions were delicious, but they usually were overcooked and the taste of fried overwhelmed the taste of the spring roll.

The rest of the time eating was spent with some combo of fried rice, fried noodles, duck, fish, meat, steamed rice with soy sauce or, every once in a while, a Western dish. I never did see any dog or cat on a menu, though I did see a cage on the street with around eight little dogs inside that had to be there for dinner. I also saw frogs and snakes for sale at the market as well as brain, liver, heart, head, ears and all the other parts of animals that one doesn’t usually see at home.