Vietnamese cuisine utilizes various fresh herbs and vegetables as condiments. Dishes are paired together based on flavor profiles, such as pairing chicken with lime leaves. Popular noodle soups include phở, bún riêu, and bún bò Huế. Other dishes include bánh xèo, bánh cuốn, and lau. Vietnamese desserts include chè, a sweet drink or pudding made with beans and rice, as well as traditional cakes like bánh flan and various dumplings. Natural food colorings are used including turmeric, pandan leaves, and gac fruit.

1. Continuation to
Introduction to
Vietnamese
Cuisine

2. Condiments
• Vietnamese usually use raw
vegetables, rau song, or rau ghém
(sliced vegetable) as condiments for
their dishes to combine properly with
each main dish in flavour.
• Dishes in which rau song is
indispensable are bánh xèo and hot
pot.

3. Condiments
• The vegetables principally are
herbs and wild edible vegetables
gathered from forests and family
gardens. Leaves and buds are the
most common parts of vegetables
used. Most of the vegetables have
medicinal value

4. Pairing
• Chicken dishes are combined with
lime leaves.
• Crab and seashell dishes are
combined with fishy-smelling herb and
perilla.
• Dishes reputed as "cold" or "fishy-
smelling", such as catfish, clams, or
snails, are combined with ginger or
lemongrass

5. FOOD COLORINGS
Traditionally, the colouring of Vietnamese
food comes from natural ingredients,
however today there's an increase in the use
of artificial food dye agents for food
colouring, in Vietnam

6. • Red - usually from beetroot or by
frying annatto seed to make oil (dau
dieu)
• Yellow - from turmeric
• Green - from pandan leaf or katuk
• Dark brown - for stew dishes, uses
nưác màu or nưác hàng, which is
made by heating sugar to the
temperature above that of caramel
(170 °C)

7. • Black - in gai cake is from ramie leaf (Chinese
grass) (lá gai)
– In Vietnam, ramie leaves are called "cây lá gai," which is
a main ingredient in making "bánh gai" or "bánh ít lá
gai," a Vietnamese glutinous rice cake. The leaves give
the cake its distinct color, flavor and fragrance.

8. • Purple - from magenta plant (lá cam)
–An extract of its leaves is used as a food dye, and
imparts a magenta tone to some Vietnamese
foods, particularly in a taro-filled cake called bánh
da Iạn and glutinous rice dishes such as xôi lá
cam, a sweet dessert.

9. • Orange - for sticky rice, comes from gac
– Gac is a fruit produced by Momordica cochinchinensis,
which is found throughout the Southeast Asian region
from South China to Northeastern Australia, including
Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam

10. Herbs and spices
• Coriander and green onion leaves
can be found in most Vietnamese
dishes.
• A basic technique of stir-frying
vegetable is frying garlic or shallot
with oil before putting the
vegetable into the pan.

11. Herbs and spices
• In northern Vietnam, dishes with fish may
be garnished with dill.
• In central Vietnam, the mixture of ground
lemongrass and chili pepper is frequently
used in dishes with beef.
• In southern Vietnam, coconut water is used
in most stew dishes.

12. Herbs and spices
• The pair culantro (ngò gai) and rice
paddy herb (ngò om or ngo) is
indispensable in all kinds of sour soups
in the southern Vietnam.
• Spearmint is often used with strongly
fishy dishes.
• Perilla is usually used with crab dishes.

13. POPULAR DISHES
When Vietnamese dishes are referred to in English, it is
generally by the Vietnamese name without the diacritics.
Some dishes have gained descriptive English names, as well.

14. Phá
• A noodle soup with a rich, clear broth made from
a long boiling of meat and spices, its many
varieties are made with different meats (most
commonly beef or chicken) along with beef
meatballs.
• Phá is typically served in bowls with spring
onion, (in phá tái) slices of semicooked beef (to
be cooked by the boiling hot broth), and broth.
• In the south, bean sprouts and various herbs are
also added.

15. Bún mǎng vịt
•Bamboo shoots
and duck
noodle soup

16. Bún Oc
• Vermicelli with snails (sea
snails similar to the snails
in French cuisine).
• Bún oc ("snail vermicelli
soup") is a dish of Hanoi,
Vietnam. Roasted snails, oc
luҾc, may be eaten first as
an appetizer.

17. Bánh canh
• A thick tapioca/rice
noodle soup with a
simple broth, often
includes pork, crab,
chicken, shrimp,
spring onions and
fresh onions
sprinkled on top

18. Bún riêu
• A noodle soup made
of thin rice noodles,
topped with crab and
shrimp paste, served
in a tomato- based
broth and garnished
with bean sprouts,
prawn paste, herb
leaves,
tamarind/lime, tofu,
water spinach, and
chunks of tomato

19. Mì bò viên
• A Chinese-
influenced egg
noodle soup
with beef
meatballs and
raw steak, with
chives and
roasted shallot

20. Mì vjt tiem
•Yellow noodle soup
with roasted duck
and Chinese broccoli

21. Bún bò Hue
• Spicy beef
noodle soup
originated from
the royal city of
Hue in Central
Vietnam.

22. Bún bò Hue
• Beef bones, fermented
shrimp paste,
lemongrass, and dried
chilies give the broth
its distinctive flavors.
Often served with mint
leaves, bean sprouts,
and lime wedges.

23. Bún bò Hue
•Pig's feet are
also
common
ingredients
at some
restaurants.

24. SOUP AND CHÁO (CONGEES)

25. Súp mǎng cua
• Asparagus and crab soup typically served as
the first dish at banquets.

26. Lau (Vietnamese hot pot)
• A spicy variation of the Vietnamese sour soup
with assorted vegetables, meats, seafood, and
spicy herbs

27. Cháo
• A variation of congee, it uses a
variety of different broths and
meats, including duck, offal, fish,
etc. When chicken is used, it is
called cháo gà.

28. Cháo lòng
•Rice porridge with pork
intestine, liver, gizzard,
heart, and kidney

29. Bò kho
•Beef stew with carrots,
usually served with
toasted bread or rice
noodles

30. Canh chua
• Vietnamese sour soup −
typically includes fish,
pineapples, tomatoes, herbs,
beansprouts, tamarind, and
various kinds of vegetables

31. STICKY RICE DISHES

32. Bánh chwng
• Sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and
stuffed with mung bean paste, lean pork and
black pepper, it is traditionally eaten during
the Lunar New Year(Tet). Bánh chvng is
popular in the North, while the similar bánh
tét is more popular in the South. Bánh tét has
the same content, except is cylindrical in
shape, and lean pork is substituted with fatty
pork.

33. BÁNH
The Vietnamese name for pastries is bánh. Many of the pastries are
wrapped in various leaves (bamboo, banana, dong, gai) and boiled or
steam. One of the historic dishes, dating to the mythical founding of the
Vietnamese state is square "cake" (bánh chvng). As it is a savory dish
and thus not a true pastry, bánh chvng and the accompanying bánh dày
are laden with heaven and earth symbolism. These dishes are
associated with offerings around the Vietnamese New Year (Tet).

34. Bánh bèo
• A central Vietnamese dish, it consists of tiny,
round, rice flour pancakes, each served in a
similarly shaped dish. They are topped with
minced shrimp and other ingredients, such as
chives, fried shallots, and pork rinds.

35. Bánh Nam
• A Hue food, it is a flat steamed rice
dumpling made of rice flour,
shallots, shrimp, and seasoned with
pepper. It is wrapped and cooked in
banana leaves and served with fish
sauce.

36. Bánh xèo
• A flat pan-fried cake made of rice flour with
turmeric, shrimp with shells on, slivers of fatty
pork, sliced onions, and sometimes button
mushrooms, fried in oil, usually coconut oil,
which is the most popular oil used in Vietnam.
It is eaten with lettuce and various local herbs
and dipped in nvác cham or sweet fermented
peanut butter sauce. Rice papers are
sometimes used as wrappers to contain banh
xeo and the accompanying vegetables.

37. Bánh bҾt chiên (fried rice flour cake)
• A Chinese-influenced pastry, it exists in
many versions all over Asia; the
Vietnamese version features a special
tangy soy sauce on the side, rice flour
cubes with fried eggs (either duck or
chicken), and some vegetables. This is a
popular after-school snack for young
students in southern Vietnam.

38. Bánh bҾt Ioc
• A Hue food, it consists of tiny rice
dumplings made in a clear rice-flour
batter, often in a small, flattish, tube
shape, stuffed with shrimp and ground
pork. It is wrapped and cooked inside a
banana leaf, served often as Vietnamese
hors d'œuvres at more casual buffet-type
parties.

39. SANDWICHES AND PASTRIES

40. Bánh mì kep thit
• Vietnamese baguette or French bread is
traditionally filled with pâté, Vietnamese
mayonnaise, cold cuts, jalapeños, pickled white
radish, pickled carrot, and cucumber slices. While
traditional cold cuts include ham, head cheese, and
Vietnamese bologna, varieties of stuffing such as
eggs, canned sardines, shredded pork, fried tofu,
and grilled meats are common. Sandwiches are
often garnished with coriander leaves and black
pepper.

41. Bánh Pâté chaud
• A French-inspired meat-filled
pastry, it is characterized by flaky
crust and either pork or chicken
as the filling.

42. MEAT DISHES

43. Bò kho (meat soup)
• A beef and vegetable stew, it is
often cooked with warm, spicy
herbs and served very hot with
French baguettes for dipping. In
northern Vietnam, it is known as bò
sot vang.

44. Bò lúc Iac (shaking beef)
• French-influenced dish of beef
cut into cubes and marinated,
served over greens (usually
watercress), and sautéed
onions and tomatoes, eaten
with rice

45. DESSERTS

46. Chè
• A sweet dessert beverage or pudding,
it is usually made from beans and
sticky rice. Many varieties of chè are
available, each with different fruits,
beans (for example, mung beans or
kidney beans), and other ingredients.
Chè can be served hot or cold and
often with coconut milk.

47. Rau câu
• This popular gelatin dessert cake is made with
agar and flavored with coconut milk, pandan
or other flavors. Because the gelatin is firm in
texture compared to American gelatin,
Vietnamese gelatin can be layered and shaped
into intricate cakes. The gelatin is often called
svang sa.

48. Bánh flan
•Influenced by French
cuisine and served with
caramel or coffee sauce

49. DUMPLINGS

50. Bánh rán
• deep-fried glutinous rice
sesame balls filled with
sweetened mung bean paste;
from northern Vietnam

51. Banh Phu
• literally "husband and wife
cake"; a sweet cake made of rice
or tapioca flour and gelatin,
filled with mung bean paste;
also spelled bánh xu xê