Vietnamese cooking is regional in a way that catches visitors out. The north is restrained and salty, the centre is spicy and built on small dishes, and the south is sweet and generous with herbs. Eating your way north to south is the most reliable way to understand the country.
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Beef broth with rice noodles, herbs and lime. Breakfast food, eaten early, and different in Hanoi and Saigon.
The Hanoi version is clear and austere — long-simmered bone broth, minimal garnish, no herbs piled on top. In the south it arrives sweeter, with basil, bean sprouts and hoisin on the side. The broth is simmered overnight with charred ginger and onion, which is where the depth comes from.
Grilled pork patties and pork belly in warm fish-sauce broth, with cold rice noodles and herbs. A Hanoi lunch.
The pork is grilled over charcoal and dropped straight into the dipping broth, which sweetens it. It is served as separate components rather than a bowl of soup — you add noodle, herb and meat to your own bowl as you eat. Obama ate it in Hanoi with Anthony Bourdain, which is how most visitors hear about it.
A baguette with pâté, cold cuts, pickled carrot and daikon, coriander and chilli. The best sandwich in the world, arguably.
The baguette is the French layer; the pickles, pâté and coriander are the Vietnamese one. The bread is baked with rice flour, which makes it lighter and crisper than a French baguette. It is sold from carts and is the cheapest good meal in the country.
Thick noodles, pork and greens from Hoi An, made with water from a specific well. You cannot get it properly anywhere else.
The noodles are made with water from the Ba Le well and lye water from wood ash, which gives them a chewy, slightly alkaline texture. The dish is genuinely local — Hoi An restaurants will tell you the recipe does not travel, and the town is protective of it.
A crisp turmeric rice-flour crepe folded over prawn, pork and bean sprouts, torn up and wrapped in lettuce with herbs.
The batter is rice flour with turmeric and coconut milk, fried thin and loud — the name means sizzling cake. It is eaten by hand, wrapped in mustard leaf or lettuce with mint and dipped in fish sauce. The southern version is larger and the central one smaller and crisper.
Broken rice with grilled pork chop, pickles and a fried egg, eaten for breakfast in Saigon.
The rice is broken grains, historically a by-product that became the point — it absorbs the fish sauce better than whole rice. The pork is marinated in lemongrass, garlic and sugar and grilled over charcoal, and the dish usually comes with a small bowl of nuoc cham.
A spicy beef noodle soup from Hue, with lemongrass and chilli oil in the broth. Sharper than pho.
The broth is built on beef and shrimp paste with lemongrass, and the red oil on the surface comes from annatto and chilli. It is the central region's answer to pho and it is bolder — if pho tastes thin to you, this is the correction.
Egg coffee: a thick whipped yolk-and-condensed-milk foam over strong coffee. A Hanoi invention, and closer to dessert.
Invented in Hanoi when milk was scarce, the yolk is whipped with condensed milk into a dense custard that sits on top of the coffee. It is served in a small glass over hot water to keep it warm, and you eat it with a spoon before drinking.
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