Vietnam

Vietnam’s food is built around fresh herbs, fish sauce and rice in balance: pho, banh mi and a vivid street noodle culture. Look for Pho (beef or chicken rice-noodle soup in star-anise scented broth), Banh Mi (crackly baguette with pâté, cold cuts, pickled carrot and cilantro) and Bun Cha (hanoi grilled pork patties in fish-sauce broth with vermicelli and herbs). Emerged around Nam Dinh and Hanoi in the early twentieth century, joining French demand for beef with Chinese noodle soup; it spread south after 1954. This atlas has 53 Vietnam dishes catalogued below, from everyday cooking to food kept for festivals and special occasions.