A Basic Introduction to Vietnamese Food. Pho in Hanoi. After an eating tour with Intrepid Travel*—traveling through Hanoi, Hoi An, Saigon, and the Mekong Delta—I can't un- smell the fresh herbs and pungent fish sauce in just about every dish. Each dish could really have its own bottled fragrance. L'eau de Pho (care for a spritz?) would be redolent of mint, cilantro, lemongrass, long- simmered beef bones, and, of course, fish sauce. Despite the varied landscape of Vietnam, all of the cuisine contains this brilliant balance of aromatics, heat, sweetness, sourness, and fish- sauciness. As with other Asian cuisines, it's all about the yin and yang; the sweet and the salty, the cooling and the warming, the fresh and the fermented. Shaped like an elongated S, the skinny country is about the size of Italy, with China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and the South China Sea to the east. Culture of Vietnam - history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family To-Z. 2 HISTORY AND FOOD Neighbors have influenced the Vietnamese people in regards to what they eat and how they cook. People from Mongolia who invaded Vietnam from. The 3,0. 00- kilometer coastline snakes down, marked by Hanoi in the north, the rugged central highlands, the sprawling Hoi Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) in the south, and the fertile Mekong delta (. As you move south, there's more flavor- blending with nearby Thailand and Cambodia. The tropical climate down south also sustains more rice paddies, coconut groves, jackfruit trees, and herb gardens. The food in southern Vietnam is typically sweeter: sweeter broths for pho, more palm sugar used in savory dishes, and those popular taffy- like coconut candies made with coconut cream. What makes Vietnamese food so special? After an eating tour with Intrepid Travel*—traveling through Hanoi, Hoi An, Saigon, and the Mekong Delta—I can't un-smell. Back in 2007, I took a trip to Vietnam. Upon leaving, I swore I’d never go back. The only way I’ll give this place a second chance is if I meet a girl who really. Nepal's culture is greatly influenced by its music, architecture, religion and literature. Your first sight of Nepal may leave you speechless, the great quantities of. Multicultural America: A-Br, Bu-Dr, Du-Ha, Ha-La, Le-Pa, Pa-Sp, and Sr-Z. 32,516 people have joined the best Vietnamese dating site! VietnameseLove.com has ladies from all over Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh! Join for free and start. French Influence. Banh mi outside of Saigon. It's hard to talk about Vietnamese food without mentioning French colonization, which began with missionaries arriving in the 1. Clearly it had a lasting effect on the country, the people, the architecture, the land, and the flavors. Most obvious might be the banh mi, with its crusty French baguette as the foundation. But the Vietnamese have taken this sandwich and made it entirely their own with grilled pork, fish patties, sardines, cilantro, chili- spiked pickled carrots and other fillings. Pho (pronounced fuh, like . One theory contends that pho is a phonetic imitation of the French word . Some say French colonialists slaughtered a bunch of cattle in Vietnam to satisfy their appetite for steak, and the ever- resourceful Vietnamese cooks used the scraps, bones, and any other rejected bits to create pho. A quick note on broths: While we're talking about pho, our Intrepid Travel guide Hanh (a wonderful guy! A mother judges her son's significant other on broth- making skills. Lackluster broths could mean no approval from the mother, according to Hanh. He cited some personal examples. A true broth- master knows exactly what stage the broth is in just by sniffing it. This is all to say, the Vietnamese are serious about broth. Talented filmmakers Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine created this whirlwind of a video after their tour of Vietnam, also hosted by Intrepid Travel. Basic Elements: Rice and Fish Sauce. Rice field in Hoi An. Travel all over Vietnam and you'll quickly find two universal themes. Rice and fish sauce. Vietnam is the second- largest rice exporter in the world (after Thailand). Rice is grown all over the country, most bountifully so in the Mekong Delta down south, which can grow enough rice to feed all 8. Vietnam, with plenty of leftovers beyond that. There's regular ol' rice of course as well as rice noodles, rice paper wrappers, rice porridge, sticky rice, fried rice, puffed rice snacks, and rice wine. I don't think I ever went more than a few hours in Vietnam without consuming some form of rice. One local told us that instead of saying gesundheit in response to a sneeze, you can say c. Most salt intake in the Vietnamese diet is delivered in the form of fish sauce. Salty, funky, fermented fish sauce, or n. The national condiment is n. The waters around Phu Quoc are rich in seaweed and plankton, keeping the local anchovy population very happy. While any kind of fish can be used to make fish sauce, anchovies supposedly produce the ultimate fish sauce and Phu Quoc sauce only uses anchovies harvested around the island. I spent a few minutes in a fish sauce factory in the Mekong Delta (it was a challenge to breathe in there, oh boy!) and saw the huge wooden barrels where the little fishies and salt are aged for at least six months. I felt like fish sauce and I reached a new dimension in our friendship together at that moment. It was like visiting the childhood home of a friend for the first time and understanding them better—it was a powerful moment in that stinky room. Herbs and Aromatics. Vietnamese food makes extensive use of fresh herbs, spices, and aromatics. Sometimes they go into a steamy pot of pho, sometimes wrapped into spring rolls, sometimes enclosed with a banh xeo pancake. The freshness of each ingredient is crucial. When we met a popular chef in Hoi An, Trinh Diem Vy, she said her highest- paid employee (and she has 2. There's a lot of pressure on that market shopper's nose to whiff through the chaos of the market to locate the very best and brightest ingredients. Widely used as the finishing touch garnish. Depending on your genetics, might taste soapy. Mint: Several varieties grow in Vietnam. Some are fuzzy, some taste lemony, some spearminty, others are spicy.. Fish Mint or Fish Leaf: Ever tried fish mint? Wow, it's really fishy. Appropriately named, this leafy herb has an awfully pungent smell and taste. You'll think you wrapped actual fish into your spring roll, but really it's just this sneaky leaf. Basil: More popular in Thailand but still makes an appearance in pho and on herb plates. Lime Leaf: Bright green and shiny. Somewhat bitter oils. Lemongrass: Tastes and smells, not surprisingly, like lemon. Used in both sweet and savory dishes. Green Onions and Scallions. Garlic Chives: Flat leaves with a delicate onion and garlic flavor. Perilla Leaf: Green on top, purplish on the underside with a complex flavor that combines licorice, mint, and lemon all in one leaf. Dill: Hardly associated with Southeast Asian cuisine but used in a famous Vietnamese fish dish called Cha Ca, where it's treated more like a veggie than an herb. Turmeric: Sometimes called poor man's saffron, it adds a vivid goldenness to fried foods and some peppery flavor. Ginger and Galangal: Both knobby rhizomes, both pervasive in Vietnamese cooking. Saigon Cinnamon: There are different species of cinnamon in the world, and this one is indigenous to Vietnam. Woody, earthy flavor and aroma. Important in pho. Tamarind Pulp: Maybe this doesn't belong on this list, but it needed to go somewhere. The sweet- sour pulp is used in noodle soups and curries. No Fresh Dairy, But Lots of Sweetened Condensed Milk. Egg coffee in Hanoi. That top layer of sweetened condensed milk is whipped up with a raw egg! The French colonists didn't seem to leave behind any wheels of Brie or Camembert. You're not going to find much cheese, butter, or cream in Vietnam but the people still get their calcium fill by way of fish bones and shells. No need to de- shell that shrimp tail- -just pop the whole thing in your mouth. Mmm, crunchy. In lieu of fresh milk, you'll see cans upon cans of sweetened condensed milk, famously used in . Usually there's more sweetened condensed milk than actual coffee in that cup. Unapologetically sweet and amazing, it's also dangerously strong. I wasn't sure why I couldn't fall asleep in Vietnam for several nights and then realized, oh right—might have been all those cups of coffee. Fruit: As Vegetables and Dessert. Unripe fruits are considered more like vegetables in Vietnam. A green papaya or banana flower, for example, becomes the base for salads in lieu of leafy greens. Usually a bit sour, the unripe fruit pairs nicely with fish sauce, chili, garlic, dried shrimp, and finely chopped peanuts. Ripe fruit, on the other hand, is sweet and wondrous. Instead of cakes or cookies for dessert, usually a meal ends with a hot teapot and big platter of indigenous fruits. Slices of banana, mango, pineapple, watermelon (the redder the insides, the more good luck awarded to you!), dragonfruit, papaya, rambutans, and lychees. Stay tuned for more favorite bites and sips from my trip in the coming weeks. Please chime in with your own Vietnamese food experiences! They just recently launched special food- themed journeys (both long and shorter day trips) to many destinations. Check out the itineraries here. I was able to preview the Vietnam trip and was immensely impressed at how much we were able to see, do, and learn; how many real- life experiences we had with locals, and just how non- tour- group it felt. They keep the groups small, the itineraries interesting, and the meals delicious, often at local joints and family- run homestays. Vietnamese Cultural Profile — Ethno. Med. Vietnam. Geography. Vietnam occupies the eastern coast of the Southeast Asian peninsula. It is bordered by the South China Sea on the west and south, China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to the west. The terrain of Vietnam is varied, with mountainous regions, thick forested areas, and lowlands leading down from the rugged mountains to coastal plains and river deltas. Major Vietnamese cities include Hanoi in the north, Da Nang in the mid coastal region, and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) to the south. Population. of Vietnam. In 2. 00. 0, the population of Vietnam was 7. The other 5. 3 ethnic. North. to the South. These groups include the Tay. Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, Nung, Hmong, Mien, Cham, Brau, Roman, and Odu (Embassy. Vietnam, London/United Kingdom, 2. History and Politics. Early history. Vietnamese culture is very complex, in part due to the participation of many groups in Vietnamese history. The earliest known inhabitants of the Indochinese peninsula were Austronesian tribes that migrated north from the islands of the South Pacific. The Khmer (people of Cambodia) are thought to have migrated east from India, the Laotians came from the highlands of China's Yunan province, and the Vietnamese came south from the lower Yhangtze valley. The newer arrivals settled in the rich delta areas and coastal regions, forcing the Austronesian peoples into the mountains. Their descendants formed the diverse mountainous tribes. Many of these exist today. The first Vietnamese believed they were the descendants of a dragon and an angel. They brought their economy based in rice farming with them from China. Rice production requires complex irrigation and collective farming, which led to the development of a strong sense of community in Vietnamese villages. Their first recorded history begins in 2. B. C. Later, in the 1st century B. C., the Han dynasty expanded and incorporated Nam Viet into the Chinese empire as the province of Giao Chi. This was the beginning of a long Chinese occupation and domination. Despite more than a millennium of Chinese occupation, the Vietnamese retained a strong and separate identity. There were numerous revolts against the Chinese (two of the most legendary in 4. A. D and 2. 48 A. D. This campaign depleted the Vietnamese kingdom's resources, and they again fell to the Chinese, this time to the harsh rule of the Ming dynasty. Again the Vietnamese revolted and won independence under Le Loi, a Vietnamese cultural hero. This independence lasted for the next four hundred years. The initial years of this period saw the establishment of unusually liberal legal codes that protected ordinary people from mandarins and allowed women to own property. A lack of political cohesiveness between the north and south is not a recent development. The Mekong delta, which had been under Cambodian control, was seized in the sixteenth century by a Vietnamese clan who was constantly fighting a clan to the north. This conflict divided Vietnam at about the seventeenth parallel (the same division between North and South Vietnam in the twentieth century) and lasted for the next two hundred years. Colonialism. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to sail to Vietnam in the mid- sixteenth century. Later the Dutch and English established small trading centers. The Catholic church, first through the Portuguese and later through the French, won many converts among the Vietnamese, despite many emperors' efforts to eradicate the religion. Significant French influence in Vietnam started in the seventeenth century. In 1. 62. 7 a French missionary adapted the Vietnamese language to the Roman alphabet to create a writing style called quoc ngu. By the mid- nineteenth century, the French had gained control of Vietnam. Throughout French occupation there were pockets of Vietnamese resistance, but the efforts were not unified. Under French rule, Vietnamese were second- class citizens. Even the highest ranking Vietnamese made less than the lowest ranking Frenchman. Many people were displaced from their lives as rice farmers and forced to work under horrible conditions in rubber plantations and coal mines. Though a Confucian system of education was well established, this was replaced by a French system where students had to read and write French or quoc ngu (even though about 8. Chinese ideographs). It was during this time that resistance to French occupation solidified, and a young man named Ho Chi Minh formed his nationalistic ideals. The Vietnam Conflict. In 1. 94. 1, Ho Chi Minh formed the Vietminh in northern Vietnam to fight both the French and Japanese for control of Vietnam. During this period, the French backed emperor, Bao Dai, recanted allegiance from France to Japan and proclaimed independence. Loyalties were rapidly shifting, and Japan soon transferred support from Bao Dai to the Vietminh. Bao Dai abdicated his throne. When Japan surrendered to the Allies following World War II, Ho's Vietminh declared independence. This independence was brief as the British soon landed in Saigon and returned authority to the French. With the Japanese retreat, the Chinese had invaded the North, but withdrew in 1. While France was planning to reoccupy the North, Ho proclaimed a separate government for Vietnam, violating a previous agreement with France. Fighting broke out in Hanoi. Ho then retreated to create a rural northern base. Bao Dai, with the support of France, returned to Vietnam, but by 1. French withdrew following defeat by the Vietminh. In an attempt to end the conflict, the 1. Geneva accord divided Vietnam along the seventeenth parallel into North and South. Bao Dai's government in the south denounced this division. Ngo Dinh Diem, prime minister under Bao Dai, recruited U. S. Soon, the US was training the South Vietnamese army. In 1. 95. 5, Ho began accepting Soviet aid in the north, heightening the U. S. During this time, Diem held a referendum to defeat Bao Dai and declared himself president of the Republic of Vietnam (the South). In 1. 96. 4, the Tonkin Gulf resolution was passed by the U. S. Congress, leading to increased U. S. Among the chaos, many isolated groups arose in opposition to both the Vietcong and Diem. Eventually Diem was murdered by his own staff. Duong Van Minh, who staged the coup against Diem. The final leader of the south was Nguyen Van Thieu. With no permanent end in sight, U. S. Fighting soon resumed, and in April 1. Thieu fled to Taiwan. Communist forces took Saigon days later. Three . In 1. 97. Vietnamese fled to the U. S. They escaped with the help of the US, and were mostly young, well educated, English speaking, urban dwellers. Fifty- five percent were Catholic, and many were able to bring their families intact. Most were kept at relocation centers on U. S. This is referred to as the first wave of immigrants. The second wave of refugees was a more diverse group. It included people with differing ethnicity's, nationalities, religions, and languages. As a group, these people were less educated, less literate (in Vietnamese and English), less familiar with Western ways and ideas, and more rural than those in the first wave. Due to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, military offenses against the hill people of Laos, and the continued anti- Sinitic policy of the new Vietnamese government, 4. SE Asia settled in the U. S. With relations between China and Vietnam deteriorating, and with the ethnic Chinese remaining in Vietnam being persecuted, at least 5. During the second wave, escape attempts were long and arduous; only half those attempting escape are thought to have survived. Hoards of people attempted escape by boat. Travel by boat was filled with peril, many died due to disease, mishaps on overcrowded boats, or at the hands of pirates. Those in Northern Vietnam boated to Hong Kong or to nearby Chinese provinces. From these destinations, many came to the U. S. Others stayed in Hong Kong. People escaping Vietnam from the south boated to Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Some spent years in internment camps in these countries prior to entering the U. S. Of those who survived, many suffered malnutrition, disease, and horrible treatment at the hands of camp guards. A third wave of refugees arrived from 1. This group included both Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese people who were brought to the U. S. Additionally, in 1. U. S. Many people in this wave spent years in camps under devastating conditions. Rural people of the second wave are less likely to speak languages other than Vietnamese. Some have difficulty learning to read and write a second language because as farmers, many were not literate in their native Vietnamese. If they had learned to read and write, they seldom used these skills. Local Vietnamese- American Associations and others have established ESL programs in the Seattle community. Ethnic Minorities. Refugees from Vietnam. Vietnamese. The divisions. U. S. Chinese: The Chinese. Vietnam for almost. Chinese population in Vietnam. By the turn of the. Chinese had settled in the cities of Saigon and Cholon, playing a major role in trade. Many Vietnamese harbor anti- Chinese sentiment. Chinese as untrustworthy, especially in business. Cham: With a pre- war. South Central Vietnam, the Cham had. Hindu and Islamic influences. In Vietnam they were associated with. Malay people and looked down upon. This has continued in the U. S. Montagnards: (French. This group was made up of an estimated thirty tribes, or. They lived in the mountains of Northern and Central Vietnam. The groups were migratory hunters who. During the war they were often linked to the. CIA by the Northern army, and were marked for annihilation by the North. Vietnamese government. Many fled to the U. S. Khmer: (Mostly. Cambodia). Most lived in the south around the Mekong delta and adopted Vietnamese customs in addition. They were generally accepted by mainstream Vietnamese. Current U. S. Immigration Trends. In 2. 00. 9 there were. Vietnam. designating them as the fifth largest immigrant group.
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