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Vietnam, but that doesn’t mean they will conquer the hearts and palates of the Vietnamese people, explains long time expat, Connla Stokes. Photos by Boaz Zippor
20th century and people asked me if I thought
the belief that if they did, they would fail. But that was another time and another place. More recently I too began to wonder what was taking And then, in July, after years of speculation, it
The shift in perspective has a lot to do with the very, very young demographic – about two 30. Add to that the increasingly cosmopolitan the emergence of other fast food outlets all across
The response to this news has ranged from the broadly pessimistic (Vietnamese cuisine is doomed, all the kids will be fat), to the overly
obesity. This time next year, a Big Mac meal will be just another option for those keen on burgers and fries. And, yes, many people are keen but,
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The stock answer for a Vietnamese person invited to eat unfamiliar food is “không ” – a wonderfully diplomatic expression that
And I have heard of Vietnamese people going to much greater lengths to stay in their culinary comfort zone when abroad. A friend
out of a few pickles in my day (“Dog brain sauce? Thanks but
once travelled with a deputy prime minister of Vietnam, ministerial heads and a troupe
Many Vietnamese don’t know how to eat foreign food. I have Vietnamese friends who didn’t know how eat a bowl of Japanese noodles in Tokyo so they brought their own dried noodles, pouches of sticky rice and own mì chính (MSG), which they smuggled into restaurants where everyone else gorged on far-from-unusual-dishes like unagidon or ramen with pork and egg. From 1975 to the early 1990s, Vietnam endured a long period of political, economic and cultural isolation so obviously, there has been a lack of exposure to overseas cuisine, but even now, people tend to be wary. to travel abroad with a ‘taste Whenever my brother returns to black pudding, for example.
to Paris. The deputy prime minister was put up in the ultraFour Seasons hotel no less. To avoid eating downstairs in the swish restaurant – or anywhere else for that matter – the travelling party brought condiments and a camping embassy staff were dispatched daily to buy meat and fresh veg so one and all could enjoy a home-cooked Vietnamese meal in the presidential suite (the dishes were washed in the bath); hugely déclassé behaviour in the eyes of the hotel staff, no doubt, but pure common sense in the eyes of the Vietnamese delegation. Even domestic travel was rare until the 21st century and so many Vietnamese don’t even know how to eat food from other parts of Vietnam. When
a bag of Irish spuds but my wife brings Vietnamese rice when holidaying in Ireland as a motion to go eat some local street food (too sweet). When
Market.
all the street food they tried
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(not sweet enough)—the diplomatic compromise: pork, rice and rau family home. Everyone knew how to eat that.
show, Iron Chef director, Tracey, had to talk her out of packing a chicken (presumably a dead one). Why? Because the chef would taste good. I can also imagine a concerned relative spooking her out
me about eating street food in the south. In Vietnam, the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side (but it could be dirtier). After over a dozen years in Vietnam, I remain convinced that this is a country that loves its own food too much to be overtly troubled by low-end Western fodder (which is actually quite expensive here – a Burger King Whopper whereas a bowl of
costs on
The Vietnamese planet orbits around food with an infectious intensity. I have seen colleagues and in-laws gather around a kilo of lychee or mangosteen with a desire and excitement I would reserve for
sat on my plastic stool as two local men arrived. They sported shaved dish they ordered was a neat pile of perfectly boiled tofu with sprigs of mint and diced spring onion. The second dish was a plate of stir-fried Let me repeat: Grown men (pretty rough looking ones too). At a street side bar. Eating tofu and spinach. Happily. Maybe norm would be 10 pints on an empty stomach followed by a kebab or a punnet of curried chips, but that scene blew me away. “The destiny of nations depends upon the manner in which they feed themselves,” said Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a 19th century French philosopher and gastronome. That line is open to interpretation, but for now, in Vietnam, my take crap food and regret it in future.” Thankfully, many Vietnamese know this intrinsically. Middle-class
thousand miles south of her family
to choose, but hopefully one day
when her mother informs her that
else in Vietnam didn’t know how to eat bowl of instead.
shallow water worm found where
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a river meets the sea, and is best served up fried in an omelette with minced pork). Indeed, I have seen seasonal specialties lift the mood across an entire city. Eating healthily is also deeply ingrained. Once at a restaurant (the very basic, very cheap, draft beer places) on the
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