There is no such thing as a Vietnamese who dislikes food

There is nothing that makes me more happy than food, and I’m not exaggerating.

My Vietnamese parents raised me with an important motto in life: live to eat, not eat to live. They actually mean it as growing up I’ve never been short of good food and was never denied a chance to try out new food. Picky eating was also banned in my family, you either eat it now or you eat it at a later time.

I’m forever grateful to my parents, for letting me understand how fundamental our food is in shaping our culture. Growing up Vietnamese is to spend 2/3 of our lifes in the kitchen whipping up drool worthy dishes. I remember being awoken in the morning to the smell of my dad’s Pho’s aroma. I’m always able to envision the large bowl of rice noodles in clear broth with some juicy beef and a perfect mixture of spring onions on top waiting for me downstairs. After my dad hand me the bowl he would pass me a plate of fresh green herbs, chilli slices and zingy lime wedges.

Description: A variant of the national dish of Vietnam: Pho Bo (beef Pho)

Pho Bo is only one of the many dishes I hold dear to heart. Vietnamese culinary scene is so diverse and it changes very rapidly. I remember going on culinary adventures to different regions in this S-shaped country and there was never a dull day as Vietnam always outdoes itself. Coming from a major city like Sai Gon, I’ve always had the pleasure of trying out various regional dishes which the community who immigrated here from their respective locality recreate. But there’s nothing that matches the authenticity, like when you go to Old Town Hoi An to eat a bowl of Cao Lau cooked from the coal which only exists in the local well. The dish is just so well thought out with its vibrant colour scheme while not forgetting that the taste is most important.

Or when you go to Trang Bang to roll your own boiled pork ribs with rice paper naturally dried in night’s mist dipped in piquant fish sauce.

Our food also represents our people and our culture. We’re known for our perserverance, historically for our gorilla tactics during wars, but also for how much time we spend in perfecting our dishes. Many dishes, with the above famous Pho included, takes hours, if not days, to prepare. To put it into perspectives, a well-made Pho broth takes around 8 hours to prepare, with some choosing to cook the broth for even longer to get more from the bone marrow.

One wrong move can also literally sabotage or change the entire dish. Like how when you forget one ingredient from the extensive list of spices your Pho broth may taste absolutely yucky. Or by putting mung bean paste on top of Banh Beo it gets turned into a completely different region’s dish. The diversity in our food represents the 54 tribes that still exist in the country.

Hospitality is another crucial part of our culture so all our food is made to share. Each person gets a small bowl and one designated person will distribute rice from a pot into these bowls. Side dishes are placed onto plates and each individual would use chopsticks to pick up the food and put it in their respective bowl. We also always try to eat together. Our sharing mentality also stems from the hardships of our past. When the 1945 famine destroyed our country and devastated our community with a large quantity of casualties. Now that we are better off, we treat our meals sacredly and enjoy them to the very last bite.

Our appreciation of our own food doesn’t stop us from loving other cultures’ food. As globalisation comes to Vietnam, helped by our people’s adventurousness, we embrace other culture’s food as another part of our own.

Description: Contents of an all you can eat Thai hot pot in capital Ha Noi

I would never be able to fully express my passion for food. Like many Vietnamese people say: you can take the Vietnamese out of Vietnamese food, but the food stays. We love to share our cuisine, and nothing makes us more happy when other people, be it from the same or different culture, enjoy the dishes we so gleefully have to offer.