Vietnam is heaven for anyone who loves trying exotic dishes, who delights in the discovery of delicious and low-cost eats, and who lives to sample new street food. The food in Vietnam is delicious, healthy, and cheap and is an excellent way to better understand the culture. As Anthony Bourdain says, “If you miss the street food experience? You’ve missed everything.”
First stop on your culinary tour should be Vietnamese spring rolls, then try some pho (soup with noodles, spices, veggies and meat) and then move on to bahn mi, baguette with pickled carrots, daikon, cucumbers, cilantro, meat, pate and mayo.
You’ll find street food pretty much every where you look in Vietnam, from the fish market in Nha Trang to the streets of Saigon. Don’t be shy about trying new things – prices are so low (around $1 US for a heaping bowl of pho) that you can sample a lot; if you don’t like something you can afford to buy something else. And despite outward appearances, street food stalls are often more hygenic than some touristy restaurants, especially because the food is made right in front of you and never sits around for long.
But, much as it might be temping, you can’t just wander the streets eating 24 hours a day. Luckily, like street food, everything else in Vietnam is quite cheap too. Cheap hotels in Southeast Asia put moderate hotels in the US to shame, and if your tastes run to the more basic accommodations, you can score a clean, comfortable no-frills room in a hostel for less than the cost of a fast-food meal at home. Flights to Vietnam will be your biggest expense, but once here, you can live – and eat – like a king on a very small budget.
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