Vietnamese Food and restaurant ?

Vietnamese Food and restaurant ?

Regional Cuisine

Cuisine in this country of 80,000,000 people differs strikingly
between the north, south and central regions, but two key features
stand out. First, rice plays an essential role in the nation's diet as
it does throughout southeast Asia. But this is also a noodle-crazy
population, regularly downing them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, in
homes, restaurants and at roadside stands. Noodles are eaten wet and
dry, in soup or beside soup, and are made in different shapes and
thicknesses of wheat, rice and mung beans. Secondly, no meal is
complete without fresh vegetables and herbs. A key portion of every
meal, north, south and central, is a platter containing cucumbers,
bean threads, slices of hot pepper, and sprigs of basil, coriander,
mint and a number of related herbs found principally in southeast
Asian markets.

As in any country, Vietnam's cuisine reflects its geography and
history. Geographically, it consists of two great river deltas
separated by a belt of mountains. Vietnamese describe their country as
two great rice baskets hung on either end of a carrying pole. The Red
River Delta surrounding Hanoi provides rice for the residents of North
Vietnam. The tremendously fertile Mekong Delta, centered by Ho Chi
Minh City (formerly Saigon) produces rice plus a wide variety of
fruits and vegetables both for itself and the central strip of the
country whose principal city is the former imperial Hue.

Vietnamese Soup Customs

Soup is customarily served for breakfast in Vietnam--big bowls of
steaming noodle soup, with meat and any number of ingredients added at
the last minute, like bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, chili peppers,
lime slices, and green onions. All, of course, spiced with with plenty
of fish sauce (nuoc mam), chili-garlic sauce, and/or hoisin sauce in
nearby dipping dishes. It's an unusual melange of cooked rice noodles,
raw vegetables and herbs, and shaved raw meat or seafood that cooks in
the broth just as it's brought to table.

Phó, as it's known, people line up at the doors of Phó restaurants
night and day to sit at trencher tables and feast on the soup til
sweat pours down the backs of their heads. The term phó translates as
"your own bowl," since it's one of the few meals where the food is not
passed around and shared.

"Small" soups, by contrast, are served as first courses--they
generally don't have noodles; they're served in small portions; and
they're called sup. The famous Sup Mang Tay, or Crab and Asparagus
Soup is in this category--so is Sup Nam Trang, a fascinatingly complex
soup of crab, shrimp, and dried white fungus (mushroomlike).

Finally, the class of soups known as Canh are generally served family
style, out of one big bowl--often spooned into smaller bowls at table
with rice. And they are generally light--also served as a first course
to whet the appetite. These include Canh Sa Lach Soan (Watercress-
Shrimp Soup), Canh Chua Tom (Hot and Sour Shrimp and Lemongrass Soup),
and Canh Chua Ca (Hot and Sour Tamarind Fish Soup).
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