Tom Chua (Hue Sour Shrimp)

When Hue natives living outside the city return to their homeland, they usually have sour shrimp. Tourists also make sure to buy some jars of sour shrimp before leaving Hue.

This dish can be prepared with any kind of shrimp. The recipe includes a number of steps that must be performed in a specific order. First, the fresh, clean, and dry shrimp of approximately the same size are put in wine along with dry bamboo shoots, garlic, and chili. The ingredients are kept in a closed container at room temperature for three days. Then the container is put in a cool, dry place. After five or seven days, the sour shrimp are ready.

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Com Hen (Hue Mussel Rice)
Hot white rice is part of every meal in Vietnam, but only Hue mussel rice is served cool. Hue people, after deciding that no food should be wasted, have designed this dish using leftover rice.

This dish includes Chinese vermicelli, bamboo shoots, lean pork meat, and an assortment of green vegetables (banana leaves, mint, star fruit, etc.).
The broth obtained after boiling the mussels is used to flavour the rice. Ginger, sesame, and chili are also added to the broth. This dish is very spicy and it is not rare to see people with watery eyes and sweaty faces while eating it; nevertheless, everyone congratulates the cook for such a delicious meal.

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Quang Noodle

As “pho” is to Hanoi and beef rice noodles is to Hue, Quang noodles is very popular in Quang Nam and Danang.
This dish's ingredients include rice, vegetables and meat. After being soaked in water, the rice is ground to a fine powder and made into attractive smooth white noodles. Accompanying vegetables are water morning-glory, cress, young banana flowers and herbs. Especially, the famous Tra Que savory of Quang Nam Province will give the dish more flavour. You can use pork, chicken, fish, crab or shrimp to make the broth. If chicken is chosen, the meat is separated, seasoned and stir-fried while the bones are stewed. Finish the stock by adding cooked chicken meat.
Arrange the noodle on a bed of vegetables and a cover with enough stock to moisten the noodles. Don’t use as much stock as when making “pho” or beef rice noodles. Serve with crushed dried peanuts, oil from fried onion, chopped spring onion, lemon, chilli, and grilled "banh trang".

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La Vong grilled fish pie

This is a specialty of Hanoi and more precisely of Cha Ca Road (fried fish road). Hanoi now has several shops selling this dish, but no one of them can equal the Cha Ca Road shop in terms of quality and flavor.

In ancient days, this was a street where were sold paints, and therefore was named as the Paints Street. By the end of the,19th century, the Doan family, located at house No,14 of this Street, hit upon a new idea: to sell fried fish pie served with soft noodles and seasoning. Encouraged by the appreciation of customers, the family specialized in this trade, and the shop was called as "Cha ca La Vong shop" as a wooden statue of an old fisherman (La Vong) holding a fishing rod and a string of fish stands at the door. As the specialty grew famous with every passing day, the street was renamed by the people as Cha Ca Street (fried fish pie street).
While the guest sit down at the table, the waiter starts laying there some seasonings: a bowl of well - stirred shrimp paste sauce mixed up with lemon and a few drops of liquor to give it flagrancy, and decorated by a few slices of red fresh pimento (chilli), a plate of grilled ground nuts of gold yellow color, various species of mint vegetables from Lang village; onions in small white slices having the form of tuberose.
Added to this is a plate of soft noodle in thin small and white threads. To many customers, the sight of such seasoning already greatly stimulates their appetite. A few minutes later, fried fish, yellow in color and flagrant in smell, put on a plate of anethum vegetable is brought in. But that is not all. A few seconds more a cauldron of boiling fat is brought in and the waiter start pouring some boiling fat on each bowl of grilled fish, thus producing a flagrant smoke and sputtering noise.
Further, some drops of coleopterous are dropped on the bowl giving it a special smell which is unforgettable to connoisseurs. Grilled fish are usually chosen from certain species of fish: pimelode, sturgeon,etc.
The flesh of sturgeon fish is not solid, that of pimelode fish lacks flagrancy, ohter fish has too many cones which make it difficult to take out all the flesh. Only the lang fish (dwarf catfish) is ideal for the dish as its flesh is sweet and tasty, solid and flagrant.
The fish must be carefully prepared before grilling. Galingale and saffron must be ground mixed with water and filtered through a piece of clean cloth in order to obtain a solution to which is added some drops of rice ferment and fish sauce of good quality. Then, the fish meat is immersed in this solution for two hours before grilling. Grilling must be done by means of pairs of bamboo tongs placed on a stove of burning charcoals. The fish meat must be grilled on oath sides and brought in to the guests when it is duly grilled.
As a dish, La Vong grilled fish pie is indeed a remarkable culinary invention.

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Banh cuon (rice flour steamed rolls)
A breakfast of banh cuon is a favourite of the Vietnamese. It is made of rice flour, from thoroughly selected grains. The rice is soaked overnight, and ten ground with stone mortar.

Food preservatives are added to the flour to make the sheets of rice softer and smoother. A screen of cloth, used to mould the rice sheets, is placed over the opening of a pot of boiling water. Flour is spread on the screen and then covered with a lid. After a few minutes, a bamboo stick is used to strip the thin layer of flour off the screen, and it is rolled up and sprinkled with fried anions.
A small village in suburban of Hanoi is famous for its banh cuon. People there serve it with a dressing of lean meat, shrimp, mushrooms, dried onions, fish sauce and pepper.
All of the ingredients are stir-fried, put into a banh cuon, and then rolled up.
The dish is tastiest when it is very thin, white and sticky. It is even better when dipped in a sweet, sour and spicy sauce.

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Noodle soup (Pho)
Pho, a traditional Vietnamese dish, has been around for approximately 100 year. More than 17 different varieties can be found throughout the country.
It is extremely popular and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Less fortunate Vietnamese also eat pho, but unfortunately without meat.
More often than not, it is made with beef, although other kinds of meat may be substituted. Chicken also makes a popular dish.
Pho is sold everywhere in Vietnam but originated in Hanoi, and this is where the best pho can be found.
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Spring roll (Nem)
This dish is called Nem Ran by northerners and Cha Gio by southerners. In Hanoi, the introduction of Nem Ran dates back to a time when Cha Ca had not existed. Although it ranks among Vietnam's specialty dishes, Nem Ran is very easy to prepare. Consequently, it has long been a preferred food on special occasions such as Tet and other family festivities.

Ingredients used for Nem Ran comprise of lean minced pork, sea crabs or unshelled shrimps, two kinds of edible mushroom (Nam Huong and Moc Nhi), dried onion, duck eggs, pepper, salt and different kinds of seasoning. All are mixed thoroughly before being wrapped with transparent rice paper into small rolls. These rolls are then fried in boiling oil.

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Grilled green rice (Banh com)

Every autumn, around September and October, when the cool north-westerly wind brings a cold dew, the sticky rice ears bend themselves into arches waiting for ripe grains because these rice grains are at their fullest and the rice-milk is already concentrated in the grains, predicting that the com season has arrived.

Better than any other person, the peasant knows when the rice ears are ripe enough to be reaped to begin making com. Com is made from green sticky rice that is harvested in blossom period, roasted in many times, crashed and sieved.

Com is a speciality; at the same time, it is very popular. One can enjoy com with tieu ripe banana. When eating com, you must eat slowly and chew very deliberately in order to appreciate all the scents, tastes, and plasticity of the young rice.

Com is an ingredient also used in many specialities of Vietnam, including com xao (browned com), banh com (com cakes), che com (sweetened com soups), etc.

Com may be obtained anywhere in the North of Vietnam, but the tastiest com is processed in Vong Village, 5km from Hanoi, where com making has been a professional skill for many generations.

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Gio lua (Silky lean meat paste)

By itself, the name “silky lean meat paste” evokes thoughts of the silky aspect of this speciality. Gio lua is made with lean pig meat, which is pounded with a pestle until it becomes a sticky paste. Fresh banana leaves are tied very tightly around the paste, and then it is well cooked. Good gio lua has a fine white colour, is firm, and has a perfumed and sweetish taste.

Gio lua may be obtained anywhere in Vietnam, but the best gio lua is from Uoc Le Village (Hanoi), where the know-how for Gio lua is strictly kept so as to allow no secrets of the job to flow out from Uoc Le. Slices of Gio lua are slightly pink, moist, and sweet-smelling meat, fish sauce and banana leaf.

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Bun thang ("Ladder" soft noodle soup)
Dishes made of soft noodle soup are diverse such as vermicelli and fried chopped meat, Bun Thang, vermicelli and sour crab soup, stewed vermicelli and boiled lean meat, etc. The popular dish is vermicelli and sour crab soup whilst Bun Thang is for con-noisseurs, unique and available in Hanoi only. A bowl of Bun Thang includes lean pork paste, thin fried egg, salted shredded shrimp, chicken, onion, shrimps paste, and a little Belostomatid essence. Especially, Bun Thang bouillon made from shrimps and meat must be very sweet and pure. Without enjoying Bun Thang when arriving to Hanoi, it somewhat seems to lack of a part of taste of Hanoi.

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Mon oc (Snail dish)

Snail dish is a popular but unique dish of Hanoi people. It is easy to order some dishes like snail steamed with ginger leaf, gingered snail, snail sauted with carambola, snail boiled with lemon leaf, snail steamed with Chinese herbs, and so on, in many small restaurants, restaurants, and even hotels.
However, vermicelli and snail sour soup is the most attractive to young ladies because of brittleness by snails, the slightly sour taste by snail soup, and hot by chilly boiled down, making even gorged people keep eating. 

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 Banh tom Ho Tay (Ho Tay fried shirmp cake)
All people who used to live in Hanoi are familiar with Banh tom Ho Tay Restaurant on the Thanh Nien (Young) Street. The cake preparing process includes wheat flour mixed with potato fibres, placing on shape with shrimps upper, then fried with oil. The cake is brittle, soft, sweet-smelling, and served with vegetable pickles and sweet and sour fish sauce for best taste.

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Banh beo xu Hue (Hue bloating fren-shaped cake) 

Banh beo is a specialty and indispensable in Hue City. Banh beo is delicious with its core stuffed with small shrimps and sauce made from a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, garlic, chilly and fresh small shrimps, watery grease. Therefore, it offers customers with sweet, buttery and smelling flavors. Without delicious sauce, the cake would become worthless. When serving, it is required to use a tool called Que Cheo (bamboo folk) to pass through the cake, cut into pieces, prick and eat. Customers would be impressed forever with having Banh beo in a green garden while listening to Hue folk song coming from the Perfume River.

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Bun bo gio heo (Beef and fork soft noodle soup)

Preparing Bun bo gio heo is very skillful. Pig leg is clean-shaved, chopped into even slices with adequate bone, meat and skin, mixed with lean beefs, and soaked with salt, pepper, fish sauce, dry onion and spices. 

Bun bo gio heo is proper with all appetites. Even diet people could enjoy the sweet-smelling of beef with less fat of pig leg so as not to be fed up with as serving. Bun bo gio heo is delicious anytime you have it. You could enjoy this specialty of the Central region on Hue City.

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Banh la cha tom (Grilled rice cake with Cray fish)

Anyone who used to experience the dish would never forget such simple cake made from grilled rice cake and Cray fish only. The cake must be as thin as a leaf but flexible enough. Cray fish must be brittle and sweet. Serving with long jawed anchovy sauce.

Banh la cha tom does not as heavily smell as the majority of the other dishes but gentle, elegant and attractive to customers

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Cao lau Hoi An (Hoi An vermicelli)

Cao lau as a dish has its "own kingdom", therefore, customers are likely to be served with it only in Hoi An.

Cao lau noodles are carefully made from local new rice not stocked one. Water used to soak rice must be taken from wells in the Ba Le Village; noodles thus will be soft, enduring and flavored with special sweet-smelling. In addition, meat used to prepare for Cao lau must be loin or trotter.

Dry pancakes used must be thick and have much sesame. Greasy coconut quintessence and bitter green cabbage are also indispensable. The so-called genuine Cao lau Hoi An must satisfy all above requirements.

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Banh trang cuon thit heo (Dry pancake roll with pork)

Coming to the Central region, you are offered with the service of Banh trang cuon thit heo. A big plate of fresh vegetables with a peppery-hot red chilly, a plate of boiled lean and fat meat, a bowl of fish sauce, and a plate of dry pancakes are displayed on the dining table. Customers have to serve themselves with all of the 10 substances mentioned above.

Banh trang cuon thit heo is considered as not only a daily dish but also likely an artistic specialty of the Central citizens.

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Xoi chien phong (Bloating fried sticky rice)

A round plate of Xoi chien phong, placed next to a plate of buttery roasted chicken, is always attractive to anyone. A lump of sticky rice will become a plate of Xoi chien phong as big as a grape-fruit by talent chefs. In the past, Xoi chien phong was offered only in the Binh Duong Restaurant, Dong Nai Province. At present, you can taste the dish in star classified hotels in Ho Chi Minh City.

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Lau mam (Mixed vegetable and meat hot pot)

At present, Lau mam folk dish in the past hundred years - become a luxurious specialty in the South. Chau Doc fish sauce made from fresh-water fish, a kind of sweet- smelling and greasy fish, which must be as required to have a delicious Lau mam dish.

Substances to prepare for Lau mam, including fresh food-stuffs such as snake-head fish, "keo" fish, pork, peeled shrimps, eel, beef, and so on, accompanied with at least 10 kinds of vegetable, sometime amounting to 24 kinds of vegetable. They include water-lily, egg-plant, balsam-apple, straw mushroom, bean sprouts, chilly, etc.

When boiled, the flavors of the sauce, which is mixed with citronella, chilly, vegetables, fish, shrimp and meat, are very sweet-smelling. Lau mam roam is scoop out into bowls and served with soft noodle soup, simply but deliciously.

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Goi Buoi (Salad of shaddock)

Goi buoi is available at the majority of famous restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City. The major substances to prepare for the dish include shaddocks mixed with fresh shrimps, pork, and dry cuttle-fish. The dish is originated in Miet Buoi, Bien Hoa City. Goi buoi dish is especially flavored with slightly sour, sweet, peppery-hot and buttery tastes. It is also added with spice vegetable, white sesames, coconut and dry cuttle-fish. Therefore, the dish will be appeared on dining table as a fresh colorful picture and attractive to customers.

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Ca tai tuong chien xu ("Tai tuong" bloating fried fish)

"Tai tuong" fish is classified as a kind of luxurious food-stuffs.
The fish is as white as chicken, delicious and sweet smelling but not crushed. There are two ways to prepare for the dish: Boiled down or bloating fried.
In bloating fried way, pour plenty of oil into pan, wait for the oil to boil before placing the fish in. In boiled oil, fish scabs would be raised up as porcupine's feathers. As serving, place the fish on to the plate, arrange boiled quail eggs around with, fried potato, fresh onion and tomato slices at the edge, season with chilly.
Finally, pour soup and sprinkle fried peanuts and crashed onion on to the fish. The dish is served with sour and sweet sauce of fish. Ca tai tuong chien xu is an unique and luxurious specialty in the South.

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Ca nuong trui (Bare fried fish)

The Southern villagers in countryside areas usually have fried fish in the field. They use a bamboo piece to cross through the fish. Pitch the head side to ground, pile up rice straws at the wind-swept place to smoke fish.
As serving, use hand to remove the burned fish scabs. Fish will become as white as chicken. Place the hot fish on a lotus leaf, take up each piece of fish and dip it in peppery salt, squeeze with some lemon drops, roll in fig leaf or sesame young shoot to experience the dish. Bowl and chopsticks are not necessary. At home, the dish can be served with dry pancake, soft noodle soup and vegetables. Ca nuong trui is a dish that accompanies drinking. It is popular and exciting.

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Ca kho to (Dry-boiled catfish)

Fish, which used to prepare for the dish, can be catfish, anabas or snake-head fish. Necessary spices include dry garlic, fresh lemon, onion, chilly, sugar, glutamate, fish sauce, grease, and a spoon of pepper and wine.
Although Ca kho to is a popular dish in the South, it is also a cheap specialty. As serving, pick up fish to other bowl, boil the bowl of fish on a low fire and sprinkle some peppers to have sweet-smelling: Keep fire when serving, Ca kho to can be served with such boiled vegetables as shallot, white cabbage, spinach to dip in Ca kho to sauce. It is more convenient to serve it with pickles such as vinegary beet or green pineapple. 

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 Cua rang muoi (Fried salted crabs)

The Westerners, especially those in land-locked countries, usually appreciate the dish as soon as they firstly experience it.

At parties, a plate of bright red Cua rang muoi is usually acted as aperitif. Customers suddenly feel sweet-smelling of spices and delicious buttery flavor of crab at the same time. Highly qualified chefs in Vung Tau coastal area usually select brackish water crabs with much meat and liver-pancreas. A delicious crab dish also depends on the soup, added to frying crabs in pans, including star aniseed, cinnamon, cardamom.

The connoisseurs immediately experience the dish as it is still very hot, mixed with some lemon drops.

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