Peter's Notes | Finding Food in Vietnam

Peter is 70, well-travelled, and not remotely done yet. These are his Notes — small observations from the road.

“We went to buy fried fish here (in India) and we simply went to the stall which had the longest queue; that’s how I can tell. You let the locals vote for the food.” – Keith Floyd.

Floyd wrote this in the 80’s but in this internet connected world I do wonder sometimes what he would have made of the numerous online reviews. I think he would have approved of explorations into local dishes. He was renowned for scribbling notes and, like mine below, perhaps took a while to decipher them.

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Fewer tourists the better

If I walked past a place or had it as my target for the evening but there were lots of tourists in the restaurant, I would not go in. I probably missed some excellent meals. But in a country where cooking is generally of a high standard the next less busy place might well be as good, and, if with lots of locals at the tables, then probably better.

Lone wolves or expats with local partners.

After a while one gets to spot the long-term expats living on the local economy. I know that it’s stereotyping but they are usually male, of a certain age, with a pony tail and well-tanned. That they are speaking Vietnamese is also of course a giveaway. If a hole-in-the-wall had such an expat waiting for a street food snack or a banh mi I would usually give it a go.

Groups of locals

Vietnamese drink a lot of beer, but rarely solitary. Groups of guys with empty beer cans in a pyramid usually means reasonably priced beer and great snacks cooked on a table brazier. If there are girls at the table as well then I found that the guys would often want to talk to show off their English.

Such instances lead to some interesting conversations and insights to being young and working or in further education in Vietnam. On occasion I found what one might term a working-class bar. I fitted well in these as the age range was closer to my own and my hands and arms bear similar scars and signs of hard usage. There was some serious drinking of the local hooch and, not smoking, as everyone seemed to be, I found an hour or so more than enough. All these bars were well away from the lights of the main streets and if one wanted a snack then a child would nip across the road or around the corner to the nearest brazier meat place. While not craft beer, the canned beer on offer was better than the just-made 30p glass of Hanoi Beer available in the various beer-streets.

Craft beer bars

The beer is excellent, not inexpensive by Vietnamese standards, and very rarely would have locals drinking in the bar. Some bars are quite large but many are no wider than a wide corridor. There are two large brew houses in Vietnam with upwards of twenty different beers ranging from mild IPA types to 9% dark beers with lemon and pomelo beers in the range. Most bars do a taster set of three smaller glasses where you can choose from five or perhaps eight beers from weak and sweet to deceptively strong.

Family groups

My evening explorations usually took me quite some distance from the bright lights of the tourist areas and, in a dusty side street or in partly hidden courtyards, I would find family groups at an early evening meal. I knew then that the food would be fairly plain, from a short menu, not expensive and the beer in bottles less expensive than the bars just half a klick away. As a bonus, being a lone diner, family members were nearly always curious about who I was and why I was in Vietnam.

Long queues, not necessarily good food.

Floyd was writing before Tripadvisor, GetyourGuide and other apps. What was true then is now influenced by social media and professional influencers; but some essence of his opinion remains; that if the queue is long then the food must be good. But if that queue is mainly tourists, then it’s a good bet that it is featured in an online guide and not necessarily an indicator of a good meal. I’d much rather walk around the corner and find somewhere else than wait an age and then be part of a crowded restaurant.

Night markets

Undercover, alongside a river bank or taking up an entire street, night markets are in every town. Food is everywhere. Choose a snack from ladies burdened by massive circular woven bamboo leaf trays of local fruits or one of the hawkers stands along the side of the road or perhaps more of a meal from one of the larger hawker spots in an organised market with benches and tables in the Vietnamese version of a food mall.

Look at what the locals are ordering.

Point and smile works! But in nearly every restaurant in which I ate the menu was with pictures and with descriptions in Vietnamese and a form of English. Most of the waiting staff I met also spoke at least some English so one can easily order a similar dish to that the locals are enjoying at the next table.

Down alley ways

My favourite method of discovering something delicious. One might have to squeeze past scooters and brave the dog tied to a drain downpipe but at the end the alley opens into a space with a kitchen and tables and beer chilled in a plastic box.

Up flights of stairs.

Often with bright neon signs at the entrance, one cannot see into these places but perhaps there is a board with images of dishes at the entrance hall. More than once I climbed perhaps four or five flights of stairs, followed along a corridor and discovered some great meals.

Take a walking food tour early in your stay in the town.

This is an easy way to find some reasonable food but more importantly to orient yourself in the space. Per hour spent with the guide they are quite expensive by Vietnamese standards but in a new town, much like the Big Buses throughout the world, they are an efficient introduction. A small group with an English-speaking guide is a great time saver in the first evening. If only I could remember how to get back to some of those great food spots…………….

There are numerous scooter-based food tours in Saigon and Hanoi. Riding as a pillion is at least some degrees safer than hiring your own scooter and is a great way to see the bright lights and dishes in the cities. Or so I am told by fellow Pioneers; I hate riding pillion.

Try the oddest-looking dishes.

A dessert made with dried, powdered sweet potato with a little sugar, some spices and water. Glutinous and palatable, but maybe not a third helping.

Dried squid. Translucent white and very flat. Slightly fish-flavoured sheets of “Blu Tack” is my closest description. Come to think of it, I never saw any locals eating this dish although it hung from the canopies of many street-food stalls.

Frog, grilled or served in a variation of pho. Frog is available in only a few restaurants and is, well, frog. Frogs hang from the canopies of many street food stalls, especially in Hoi An and Hue markets. From a brazier it is chewy beneath a crisp skin and is best with liberal splashes of sauce. In a stew frog served in a cast-iron pot looks a bit disconcerting half sunk beneath vegetables, herbs and noodles and if not for the fish sauce and the side dishes of chilli and oils would not really taste of anything in particular.

Snails. Not my favourite dish no matter how they’re served. In fact, I only saw them on two menus throughout my explorations, both in a stew with noodles. Along with cockles, whelks and similar they are, as far as I’m concerned “all about the sauce”.

Ice creams. Many of the food shops have ice cream cabinets of recognisable brands but are not inexpensive. Night markets often have ice cream stalls where one is treated to a free show of your rolls of ice-cream being created on a large chilled plate with much chopping and scraping and then the resulting curls are placed in a paper cup.

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This is my top five of Vietnamese dishes.

1. Banh mi, filled with fried eggs, coriander, lettuce and a spicy sauce or the full-on with ham and pâté. I’m of the generation that, an ice-cream excepted, do not eat and walk. Taking a snack lunch into a bar is okay, one can sit and watch the world go by.
2. Chicken and cracked rice with various side dishes and sauces from sweet to “augh, more beer please”.
3. Chicken Pho with blood cake and noodles. My preference to the famous beef Pho.
4. Prawns in a spicy marinade wrapped in banana leaves and placed on a charcoal grill. Discovered during a Red Bridge cooking experience in Hoi An.
5. Spiced pork flat bread. From a large Hole in the Wall close to my hotel in Hanoi. Constantly busy with only a few seats and a roaring takeaway trade.

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And here are a few notes that you might find useful

• Be prepared for an upset stomach. But alas, with local pharmacies well stocked, helpful and often have at least one person that speaks English, you’re never far away from a fix. Unlike the UK they will advise not just some medication but also something to protect your stomach and gut and some other capsules to re-create your gut biome. Just over £6.00 for a course of all three.
• Street food places have low tables, stools or benches. Not conducive to eating large meals.
• Be prepared to eat on the side walk just a few feet from rushing traffic and expect scooters to squeeze between you and the food hole-in-the-wall.
• Spicy and then there’s really spicy.
• There’s a reason the Hanoi beer is only few pence a glass. Stick to craft or draft or even canned or bottled beers. No need to buy the international brands, local bottled or canned beer is good and many of the craft beers excellent.
• Avoid hotel restaurants if possible; good for a gentle breakfast to start off your day if that is where you are staying, but nothing more.
• Packets of wet wipes / napkins are charged in many restaurants but not at street-food places who just have paper serviettes.

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Food is never boring in Vietnam. It can be a simple black tea with fresh ginger, the spiciest of chicken or an ice cream or yoghurt from a vending machine. As a DECADES Pioneer you do not have the pressure of getting back on the coach by a certain time or being herded into a “hot spot” restaurant with your group.

DECADES people take time to look, watch, savour and enjoy.