Putting the char into bun cha bun cha is a blunt instrument. For all the subtlety engendered by Vietnamese cuisine, bun cha acts as a counterpoint: blackened rissoles of pork teamed with charred slices of pork belly in a thin fish sauce, vinegar and sugar stock with sides of bun
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Vietnamese Food
Oct 26, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 1 Comments
Defeated in Hue
I generally don’t fail when I’m hunting for street food. I take wrong turns, missteps into blind alleys, but for the most part I find something worth eating. Hue in central Vietnam defeated me. My schooling in Vietnamese cuisine is more weighted towards the South than the North, due to
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Oct 18, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 3 Comments
Pimp my regional cuisine: Hoi An
Hội An in Vietnam openly pimps out its regional specialties with flagrant disregard to public taste, be it inferior tailoring, Vina-Franco-Sino-Japanese architecture or local food. The tourist-focussed restaurants that don’t offer bland facsimiles of hoanh thanh (wantons, generally fried), banh beo/banh vac (a steamed rice-flour wonton) and cao lau as
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Oct 14, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 3 Comments
Dalat Market (Chợ Đà Lạt)
Vietnam‘s hill resort of Dalat is a horticultural wonderland. The cool tropical microclimate endows its market with the best of both worlds: tropical fruits from the lower hillsides combined with more European fare from the cooler climes. Fresh strawberries sit alongside avocadoes, artichokes, beetroot and dragonfruit; with vendors keen to
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Oct 12, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 4 Comments
The pleasure of pork skin: Banh Mi Bi
Vietnam is one of the few places on earth that you can eat a sandwich whose prime ingredient is roasted pork skin and feel virtuous for doing so. Banh mi bi must rate as one of the world’s perfect sandwiches: crispy pork skin with a luscious hint of creamy fat,
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Oct 07, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 8 Comments
What Fruit is That?
Oct 01, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 6 Comments
The Street Sausage of Saigon: Thit Nuong
It helps to be obsessed by a single dish when you arrive in Saigon. I usually hit up a few of my favourite restaurants (the upmarket street food specialist Quan An Ngon, commercial pho franchise Pho 24 anywhere about town) and then am lost in a sea of choice. There’s
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