My roommate has now spent three months (altogether) living in Vietnam with her friend’s family, and while she enjoys some of the food, her biggest struggle during that time was the food. For that reason, I had low expectations about the food as I prepared to go visit her and her Vietnamese friends.
There were several Vietnamese dishes that I didn’t really like, but I enjoyed most of the food more than I expected. I’ll share some of my favorites with you and some of the adventures that went along with the foods!
The first thing that you should know about my trip is that the Vietnamese people that we visited and all of them who welcomed us into their homes were extremely kind, gracious, and welcoming. I could not have had such a wonderful time without all of them.
Kendra welcomed me at the airport, and we took a taxi that her friend, Kim Chi had arranged for us. The taxi dropped us off on the side of the road, and Fu, Kim Chi’s cousin picked us up and took us to his home. After a long afternoon of traveling, and since it was pretty late by this point, I was quite ready for some dinner, and Kendra had requested that we eat Pho. She requested it when she thought we were going out to eat, but actually Fu’s mom cooked Pho for us, and while I felt a bit bad because it takes a long time to make the soup, I loved it. It was so delicious.
Fu could speak some English, so we enjoyed chatting with him. His mom is a seamstress, and she made traditional Vietnamese clothes. After dinner, she took us up to her workshop on the second floor of the house, and we looked at some of the beautiful clothes that she had sewn.
The next day, we had a full day of adventures planned, and Fu was our tour guide. We traveled all over the city visiting an ancient literature school that was now a museum, a prison that was also turned into a museum, a park with a myth about a turtle coming to bless an ancient king and save the day, and a café across from a beautiful church.
At the prison, there was a tree in the courtyard area, and we read about how the prisoners used the leaves from the tree to make a tea that was good for curing their illnesses. Kendra had told me about the tree before, and I was excited to see it in person. We loved the symbol of hope in a place that was filled with darkness and so little hope. After we left the prison, we found a little drink shop that sold the tea. Kendra bought one, and I drank just a sip. It was bitter, but it was fun to drink something that had helped people during such a difficult time.
After a full morning of adventures, we were pretty tired, so we finally made it to the café next to the church. It was quite crowded since it was a Sunday, but we finally found an empty table on the third floor and Fu left to go find some sandwiches for lunch. When he came back with those sandwiches, I was so tired and hungry, nothing could have pleased me more. Then our ginger tea arrived, and I was completely happy. We spent several hours chatting, drawing, and enjoying the area. Fu invited his friend Anh to come and practice his English. Both boys were getting ready for their IELTS exam, and when they found out that I used to teach IELTS speaking, they were eager for advice and English practice.
After more adventures and shopping, we went to Fu’s favorite place to eat Pho in the city. The dish was simple, just rice noodles, beef, and cilantro with a bit of lime squeezed into the soup. But it was delicious. This time, the dish had so much beef in the Pho I was pretty surprised, but I enjoyed every bite!
The next day we left Hanoi to go to Nam Dinh, Kim Chi’s hometown. It was about 3 hours away, toward the coast. While we were there, Kim Chi’s family was often busy with their shop, so Kendra and I entertained ourselves by going to the café next door and chatting for hours. We both loved their ginger tea, and it was fun to be at tables surrounded by water and fish!
One of our first meals was hot pot, a meal that I always enjoy in China. The soup was a bit different in Vietnam. This soup had a strong tomato flavor, and they put lots more seafood in it (or maybe I just don’t have much seafood in China because my friends don’t prefer it). They also had corn and potatoes, but one of Kim Chi’s younger brothers loved the potatoes, so we didn’t get too many of those. But I did manage to snag a few pieces of corn!
At this meal, they also had a traditional Vietnamese dish that was something slimy with something like bread crumbs on it that you were supposed to wrap in a leaf, dip in a sauce and then eat. The sauces were an essential and often confusing part of the meal. There were different sauces for different foods, but I forgot most of them and just ate the ones I liked. The leaf food was ok, but not my favorite so I avoided it after my first sample.
We had another hot pot meal when we went to Kim Chi’s husband’s factory for a big opening celebration. There was lots of loud music, firecrackers, and a lion dance. It was a fun experience but also very overstimulating! The food was pretty tasty, and they had crabs. I don’t often get the chance to eat crabs, and I’m a little intimidated by them, but someone reminded me how to eat them, and they were pretty tasty.
Another favorite meal was the breakfast food called Bánh Cuốn. We had the meal twice, and both of them were a bit different. The first one was in Hanoi with Fu who took us to his favorite place. That one had a plate of these rice noodle rolls with pieces of ground meat inside them. There were fried onions on top. A soup/sauce was served on the side with pieces of BBQ and pork sticks. There was a plate of leaves on the table, but no one ate the vegetables with it, so I didn’t either.
The second time we had Bánh Cuốn the BBQ was on top of the rice rolls and we put pickled vegetables into the soup/sauce. Again, no one ate the leaves. I was wondering if other people ate the leaves or what to do with them. I enjoyed this Bánh Cuốn even more than the one in Hanoi, but I was also a little more prepared for what it was going to taste like, so that may have helped.
Another favorite meal that we had a couple of times was spring rolls. The first time we had it, we were at Kim Chi’s husband, Long Anh’s, factory. Long Anh brought the spring roll materials and we sat around the table enjoying them. Hanging out with Kim Chi and Long Anh was especially fun because they could speak Chinese, so Kendra and I had someone else to talk to besides just each other. There was also another lady at the factory who could speak Chinese, so we had a fun time chatting.
The second time we had spring rolls was at Kim Chi’s grandparents’ house. The table wasn’t big enough for all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins who had gathered for Kim Chi’s twin brothers’ birthday party, so they spread bamboo mats on the floor and we sat on the mats around the food and made and ate our spring rolls. They were delicious! Afterwards, we watched and played badminton with the other cousins then watched videos of Kim Chi and Long Anh’s wedding celebrations.
One day, we went to Long Anh’s family’s home, but on the way, we picked up some food at the outdoor market. I enjoyed wandering through the market with little areas set up for different people to sell their products. On the food side, they had fruits, vegetables, and all kinds of meat, and other prepared dishes. We got some meat skewers on the way in and ate them while we walked.
My biggest challenge about the food was the time that we ate. I’m used to eating around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. at the latest. This family usually ate around 8 or 8:30. By about 7:30, I was usually having serious blood sugar issues, but once I realized that and made sure to eat a large afternoon snack, the situation improved.
The meat skewer helped me a bit as we waited for dinner that evening. But one of the highlights of the meal was dessert. We had bought it at the street market. A lady sat behind several pots of colorful bean/tapioca mixtures. There was a green one that I originally didn’t choose because I figured any food that shade of bright green couldn’t be very healthy. But then I realized that it looked exactly like Oobleck! (If you have not read Dr. Seuss’s “Bartholomew and the Oobleck,” you should find it and read it right now!) My family loves the Oobleck story, and we read it many times growing up. In the story, a selfish king gets bored with the seasons and wishes for a new season. His magicians say a spell and oobleck, a green sticky substance starts falling from the sky. At first, the king is delighted until everyone in the kingdom, including himself gets stuck and can’t move. Thankfully, I was able to swallow this sweet dessert, and it did not wreak havoc on our little corner of Vietnam.
On my last day in Vietnam, Kim Chi and Long Anh took us downtown for a food crawl. It was rainy and quite chilly, but we still had a fun time going from little shop to little shop. We tried sandwiches with meat inside and fried onions on top. We sat on little stools with our backs to the street as a lady under a tent made us spring rolls. We ate fried snacks at another little shop, and we ended up at the supermarket. In addition to buying lots of candy for the upcoming holiday, Kim Chi bought three different flavors of a sweet cheese dessert. It was kind of like a very small cheesecake that came in vanilla, nuts, and blueberry flavors. The blueberry was my favorite!
At the airport, I had my last bowl of Pho. It was more expensive than I expected, so I couldn’t afford the sliced meat, I had to get meatballs. But it was still tasty. I also finally tried it with the leaves, and they were pretty good!
I had so many adventures in Vietnam, and the food was a huge part of those adventures. If you ever get the chance to go, you must try some of these foods!