4. Rolled rice pancake (Banh Cuon)
If there’s one dish that exemplifies the counter-intuitive, shouldn’t-work-but-it-somehow-does pairing of Vietnamese textures, it’s this. Starchy folds of wide rice noodles stuffed with spicy pork mince and Chinese mushrooms sit next to slices of peppery devon, vermicelli cured pork sausage and pink chili.
Cucumber and herb salad blast the palate with freshness and chunks of deep-fried prawn and soybean cake add a fatty depth. To top it all off, crunchy fried shallot delivers a hit of sweetness. The contrasting textures and flavours of this traditional, work-intensive breakfast dish is washed down by free tea. See more about Banh Cuon.
5. Goi Ga Chay Bo
A chicken salad with clawed chicken feet is, well, a little unnerving. Especially when the chicken in question is goi ga chay bo, or ‘running chicken’, which can only mean well-travelled feet.
But, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and if chicken skin is your thing, then these bony, sabre-like appendages are worth a try. Sinews aside, the salad provides the perfect foil to the chewy free-range flesh and fatty skin –- slivers of pink and green cabbage sparkle with lime and fish sauce.
6. Bun Bo Hue
Pho’s unruly cousin, bun bo hue, is a fiery bowl of lemongrass-edged porkiness. From the jelly-like cubes of congealed blood to the cloudy-skinned trotter lurking beneath the oily, red surface, this is not one for the faint-hearted.
But meaty noodles carry the big flavours and punches of chili cut through the fatty meat. The trotter can even be chewed and sucked with wild abandon. Discover more about Hue.
