Cuisine · Vietnam

Vietnamese cooking

Herbs by the fistful, pho broth that takes 12 hours, fish sauce instead of salt. Cooking that feels bright even at its richest.

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Banh Cuon (Vietnamese Steamed Rice Rolls) with rice flour, tapioca starch and ground pork — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Breakfast and Brunch

Banh Cuon (Vietnamese Steamed Rice Rolls)

Banh cuon are the silkiest thing in Vietnamese cooking — sheets of rice batter steamed paper-thin, so soft they're almost translucent, wrapped around minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. A northern Vietnamese breakfast staple, they're piled with fried shallots, fresh herbs, bean sprouts, and slices of cha lua, then dipped in nuoc cham, the sweet-sour-salty fish sauce dressing. The tapioca starch in the batter is what gives the wrappers their gentle chew.

75 min430 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free

Bánh Mì with pork, baguette and daikon — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Bánh Mì

Bánh mì (banh mi, bánh mỳ, バインミー, 越南法包) is a Vietnamese sandwich: a crisp baguette filled with fried pork, quick-pickled carrot and daikon (đồ chua), cucumber, cilantro and chili sauce. The pork is sliced thin and marinated with lemongrass and shallot, as for thịt nướng (grilled pork), then seared in a hot pan instead of over charcoal. Active cooking takes about 25 minutes, and the pickles stand for 30 minutes while you prepare the pork.

25 min640 kcal2 serves

⚡Quick💪High protein🌶️Spicy

Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese Sizzling Crêpes) with rice flour, turmeric and coconut milk — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese Sizzling Crêpes)

Golden turmeric crêpes fried until shatteringly crisp, filled with pork belly, shrimp, mung bean, and bean sprouts — then folded and eaten wrapped in lettuce with mint and cilantro, dipped in nước chấm. The name means 'sizzling cake': the xèo is the sound the rice flour batter makes the instant it hits the smoking-hot oil. Without that sound, the pan is not hot enough. Getting the crêpe genuinely crisp rather than soft and chewy requires three things: a thin batter, very hot oil, and patience — the crêpe needs 4 to 5 minutes undisturbed before it is ready to fold.

50 min380 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Bún Bò Huế (Spicy Vietnamese Beef and Lemongrass Noodle Soup) with beef shank, lemongrass and mắm ruốc huế — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Soups

Bún Bò Huế (Spicy Vietnamese Beef and Lemongrass Noodle Soup)

Bún bò Huế is a fiery red Vietnamese noodle soup from the central city of Huế, the former imperial capital. The broth is built on a long simmer of beef shank, pork ribs, beef bones, lemongrass, charred aromatics, and pineapple, then finished with mắm ruốc (Huế-style fermented shrimp paste) and a separate annatto-lemongrass sate sauce that gives the soup its signature crimson colour and heat. Thick round rice noodles, sliced beef shank, and herbs (Thai basil, Vietnamese coriander, mung bean sprouts, banana blossom) finish the bowl. Compared to phở, bún bò Huế is bolder, spicier, and more aromatic — phở's louder cousin from central Vietnam. Active work 30 minutes, simmer 3.5 hours. Serves 8 generous bowls.

240 min580 kcal8 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Bún Chả with ground pork, pork belly and fish sauce — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Bún Chả

Hanoi's most iconic street-food dish: smoky grilled pork patties (chả băm) and caramelized pork belly slices (chả miếng) submerged in a warm, sweet-sour dipping broth, served alongside cool rice vermicelli, pickled carrot and daikon, and a heap of fresh Vietnamese herbs. The components arrive separately and each diner builds their own bite — a tangle of noodles and herbs dipped into the broth with a piece of pork and pickle, all in one mouthful. Gained international fame when Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain ate it at a Hanoi street stall in 2016. The version that gained that fame is a Hanoi recipe, distinct from the southern bún thịt nướng: no lemongrass in the pork, the sauce served warm not cold, patties alongside sliced belly.

60 min480 kcal4 serves

💪High protein

Canh Chua (Vietnamese Sour Soup) with catfish steaks or firm white fish, tamarind concentrate and pineapple — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Soups

Canh Chua (Vietnamese Sour Soup)

A southern Vietnamese sour soup from the Mekong Delta: a tamarind-based broth balanced with pineapple sweetness and fish sauce umami, filled with fish steaks or shrimp, tomatoes, okra, and bean sprouts, finished with crispy fried garlic and a crown of fresh herbs. The soup's defining quality is the precise calibration of four tastes — sour (tamarind), sweet (pineapple), salty (fish sauce), and savory (the fish) — in a broth that is light but deeply flavoured. Catfish is traditional; salmon, snapper, or tilapia all work.

40 min400 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Cơm Tấm (Vietnamese Broken Rice) with broken rice, pork chops and fish sauce — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Cơm Tấm (Vietnamese Broken Rice)

Cơm tấm (com tam, Vietnamese broken rice) is a southern Vietnamese plate built on broken rice — gạo tấm, the grains that fracture during milling and were once discarded — and it is most closely associated with Saigon. The usual order is a lemongrass-marinated grilled pork chop (sườn nướng) with a fried egg, cucumber and tomato, pickled carrot and daikon (đồ chua), scallion oil, and a bowl of nước chấm to spoon over everything as you eat. The small grains soak up sauce better than whole rice. Plan on about an hour of work, plus 2 hours for the marinade.

60 min560 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free💪High protein

Gỏi Cuốn (Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls) with pork belly, shrimp and rice vermicelli — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Gỏi Cuốn (Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls)

Translucent rice paper rolled around poached pork belly, boiled shrimp split lengthwise, rice vermicelli, soft lettuce, fresh mint and Thai basil, with garlic chives trailing from one end. The shrimp is placed at the top before rolling so it shows through the paper like a window — pink, curved, vivid. Everything inside is cooked, cooled, and assembled cold. The roll is eaten with a rich peanut-hoisin dipping sauce. Gỏi cuốn translates literally as 'salad rolls' (gỏi = salad, cuốn = to roll), not spring rolls — the name reflects the herb-forward lightness of the filling rather than the season. They are served fresh, at room temperature, within minutes of rolling; the rice paper hardens and the roll becomes difficult to eat if it sits more than 20 to 30 minutes.

50 min220 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy

Nuoc Cham with fish sauce, lime and garlic — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamEasy

Sauces and Dips

Nuoc Cham

Nuoc cham is the essential Vietnamese dipping sauce — a bright, balanced mix of fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chili that ties together spring rolls, grilled meats, rice bowls, and noodle salads with sweet, sour, salty, and spicy notes in every drop.

5 min35 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup) with beef, rice noodles and ginger — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Soups

Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup)

Pho bo is a Vietnamese noodle soup from Hanoi built around a clear, richly spiced beef broth — bones and spices simmer for hours with charred onion and ginger, while the bowl itself is finished with rice noodles, thin beef, fresh herbs, lime, and chili. Both cooked and raw beef go into the bowl: a well-done cut simmered in the broth, and paper-thin raw slices that cook the instant boiling broth is poured over them.

210 min520 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free💪High protein

Vietnamese Iced Coffee (Cà Phê Sữa Đá) with coffee and condensed milk — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamEasy

Beverages

Vietnamese Iced Coffee (Cà Phê Sữa Đá)

Cà phê sữa đá — coffee, milk, ice — is what happens when French colonial drip culture meets Vietnamese pragmatism. Fresh milk was scarce, so sweetened condensed milk became the standard. Robusta beans, grown abundantly in the Central Highlands, gave the coffee its distinctive strength and slight bitterness. The phin filter slows the brew to a deliberate drip, concentrating the flavor. The result: a drink that is simultaneously very strong and very sweet, poured over ice so the heat of the day doesn't stand a chance. You can replicate it at home without a phin — a strong espresso or French press shot works — but the ritual of watching it drip is worth the five minutes.

15 min165 kcal1 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Nearby flavors

Four kitchens with overlapping ingredients and similar rhythms to Vietnamese cooking.

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