Draft

Banh Xeo (Hoi An Pancake):

Banh Xeo was without a doubt my favourite Vietnamese dish. It's a savoury pancake made with rice flour that's traditionally stuffed with prawns & beansprouts.  With some fresh greens the pancakes can then be wrapped in rice paper or lettuce leaves and dipped in a sauce. The sauce is usually a sweet chili fish sauce or a peanut dipping sauce. I fell in love with this dish and hope to try and make it myself for my housemates this year!


Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwich):

Who doesn't want lunch for 15,000 VND (45p)? Banh Mi is usually a meat-filled baguette, although you can get cheese-only versions, which you can get at street stalls. The sandwiches are made fresh in front of you, and they don't skip on the fillings! They're crammed full of meat, pate, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, cheese - definitely enough to keep you full until dinner.


Spring Rolls (Fresh or Fried):

The fresh spring rolls (also known as summer rolls) were another one of my favourite dishes. Rice paper filled with vegetables, herbs, vermicelli noodles & prawns - I ended up preferring them to the fried versions. Although the fried spring rolls were also incredibly tasty!

Besides from the famous pho which you can get on almost every street corner there were so many other yummy foods. In Hoi An, our homestay owner introduced us to Hot Pot full of fresh fish, as well as White Rose which is white dough filled with spiced prawns.

When we reached Ho Chi Minh City we found an amazing little restaurant that cooked up Bun Cha, grilled pork with vegetables and noodles, as well as fried beef in green rice & grilled beef wrapped in guiseleaves. Our whole meal cost under £4. Even so, by this point we were reaching the end of our trip, running out of money and were looking for even cheaper ways to eat. We found a street food stall cooking up BBQ skewers for 30p each and water spinach cooked in garlic. It was incredible!


I also thought I'd briefly mention a couple of drinks in this post too. Vietnam is famous for it's delicious coffee, and even though I'm not usually a coffee drinker I fell in love with their iced coffee! Made with condensed milk, it was sweet and incredibly refreshing. I had it almost every morning during my travels.

And I can't forget about the beer! At its cheapest you can find a glass of fresh beer for 5000 VND (15p). A couple of glasses certainly did a great job of cooling me down from the heat and humidity. Alcohol seems so expensive now I'm back home.

It's such a shame Vietnamese food is so hard to find here in England!