Vietnam

Phở

Beef Noodle Soup

The iconic soup—aromatic broth, rice noodles, rare beef, fresh herbs.

Ingredients: For broth: 1kg beef bones, 500g oxtail, 1 charred onion, 50g charred ginger, 3 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 5 cloves, 3 cardamom pods, 45ml fish sauce, 30g rock sugar. 400g rice noodles, 200g thinly sliced raw beef. Herbs: Thai basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, lime.

Preparation: Char onion and ginger over flame. Simmer bones 6+ hours, skim often. Toast and add spices last 30 min. Then season with fish sauce and sugar. Cook noodles separately. To finish, assemble: noodles, raw beef, ladle hot broth, add herbs.

💡 The broth should be clear—skim constantly and don't boil hard.

Bánh Mì

Vietnamese Sandwich

Crispy baguette with pâté, meat, pickles, and cilantro—French-Vietnamese fusion.

Ingredients: 4 Vietnamese baguettes, 60g pâté, 300g sliced pork or grilled meat, 100g pickled carrots and daikon, 1 cucumber (sliced), fresh cilantro, 2 jalapeños (sliced), 60ml mayonnaise, 15ml Maggi sauce.

Preparation: Toast baguette until crispy. Spread with pâté and mayo. Layer sliced meat. Then add pickled vegetables. Top with cucumber, cilantro, jalapeño. Finally, drizzle with Maggi.

💡 The bread must be light and crispy—Vietnamese baguettes are special.

Gỏi Cuốn

Fresh Spring Rolls

Rice paper rolls with shrimp, pork, herbs—fresh and light.

Ingredients: 12 rice paper wrappers, 12 cooked shrimp (halved), 200g sliced pork belly, 100g rice vermicelli (cooked), lettuce leaves, fresh mint, fresh cilantro, 120ml peanut dipping sauce.

Preparation: Dip rice paper in warm water briefly. Lay flat, add lettuce and herbs. Add noodles, pork. Then fold sides in, roll halfway. Add shrimp showing through. Last, finish rolling tightly.

💡 Don't over-soak rice paper—it continues to soften while rolling.

✍️ Author's Note Radim Kaufmann

On a plastic stool in Hanoi's Old Quarter — with motorbikes weaving inches away, vendors selling phở from shoulder poles, and the ancient city breathing its chaotic, intoxicating energy — a glass of bia hơi at 5,000 đồng (twenty cents) was possibly the best-value drink in the world. Vietnam drinks with the same energy it does everything else: intensely, communally, and with enormous joy. The rượu rắn (snake wine) — a cobra coiled in a jar of rice spirit — was, I admit, more of an experience than a pleasure. But the bia hơi, fresh and cold on a Hanoi evening, was perfect.