Gi Talks: Food & Culture

Come with me to Saigon!

Part One the Intro: Me x food, marvels of Vietnamese cuisine

Part 1 is an introduction of myself through my love for food x culture and the balance found in Vietnamese cuisine that makes it so unique to me. Part 2++ will be a day-by-day of my Saigon trip, with a focus on the food through a taste x culture x cooking x history viewpoint (mainly local street food stalls and little shops). I’m not trying to teach you but I am hoping you’ll walk away with some interesting thoughts!

Hi! 

It’s been many years since I wrote a blog - I knew I had a blog page on here but haven’t accessed it since…well today! Dec 4 2024. This blog (sorry mom) is not a serious proper grammar (proper spelling yes thank you Grammarly *non-sponsored*) blog but somewhere for me to put all my brain thoughts. As y’all know, I am a yapper, talk talk talk! I am very conscious of it now though, so I very rarely get to fully say everything I’ve learnt or experienced or want to share because I’m so wordy (and don’t want to continue on for too long).

However, on Monday, Dec 2nd, Saloni and I had a call. She’s always been a safe space for me to yap, she also actively listens to me yap. I still ask her for permission before I go on a long-winded one-sided schpiel and this time I talked to her about Saigon. Wow! I had a lot to say, and I wasn’t even close to saying everything I could say! I learned so much on this trip. Vietnam has always been at the top/top 3 of my travel list. 

Why you may ask? Because of their FOOD! 

For some crazy reason, it was only until this November that we went for the first time.

Clearly, I love food…

I don’t have a photo of me cooking (which seems crazy) so here’s me from our friendsgiving

Food is a large part of my life, it always has been. Not only because I enjoy eating and cooking, but because I’m interested in and love the way food teaches, shares and connects people, culture, history, and education. Food is a mirror that holds up a reflection to so much more than meets the eye, food can be a reflection of emotion, of hardship and perseverance, of personality, of the ecosystem, of time, of family etc etc. My love of food came from my parents, to not be a picky eater but a curious eater. It’s that love of exploration and being open-minded that opened up the world of food to me. I would like to say that I feel like my personality and the way I approach food are similar: welcoming! I was and am lucky, travelling since young, and growing up eating many cuisines, my parents would bring us to restaurants but I also grew up very multicultural because of my friends. We lived in Beijing and a metropolis like that provides the opportunity to be adventurous - I will always be thankful for my upbringing forging my love for food x culture.

Ok, now to cooking. I love to cook. To eat is one thing, to cook is another - I also learned to cook fairly young, I was taught to cook by my dad and bake by my mom. Cooking is a bit like magic… making a potion. Add some of this, add some of that and bam you can eat and ENJOY your labour.  What is better than instant gratification? Nowadays, cooking holds a very special place in my heart because as I struggled with understanding “home”, I leaned on cooking, learning that I could make food for myself that felt like home, no matter where  I was or how lost I felt. I feel like it’s important to share that I love to cook because I believe that’s what made me curious about food past just eating and enjoying it. It’s hard to pinpoint and explain, but having knowledge about food on the “other side” aka the cooking side, makes what I eat so much more special. I also think it’s just passion on top of passion so my intersection about food expands to food x culture x cooking x history etc. 

Saloni always oooo’s and aaaah’s and that is so interesting’s while I yap, this time around talking about Saigon, I was so excited I couldn’t help myself and kept talking. She asked, “Did you get to try any new food?” Yes! There were many dishes I had never tried before, I felt that passion come through me as I talked about all the food I ate and all that I learned. One of the simplest yet greatest pleasures of my life is getting the opportunity to savour, learn and eat new food and falling in love with it. She insisted Netflix should give me a show where I travel and eat and talk but for now, we will start with a blog post! Thank you for finding my thoughts interesting:)

Vietnamese coffee and people watching, I wish this culture was everywhere I love sitting outside on low chairs

Now back to Saigon…

I find Vietnamese food very well balanced, that’s my favourite thing about it. We experience: Salt, fat, acid, sweet (you thought I was going to say heat weren’t you), spicy, bitter. Soft, crunchy, chewy, hot, cold, light, heavy etc.  Vietnamese food across the board has an understanding of flavour and texture balance unlike any other cuisine (its neighbouring countries also have similar balance so it might be a regional thing but I haven’t gotten to explore it as much - quick side note, I will say, Laos food? Top 3 for sure, even with my very limited experience, it is indeed above Vietnamese food)

I made a claim: Vietnamese cuisine is overall very well-balanced

Now here’s my evidence:

1.

Nước Chấm: an extremely common Vietnamese sauce - typically uses fish sauce (nuoc mam) as its base, it has lime, sugar, water, + garlic and chilli. Just from its first 3 ingredients: fish sauce, lime and sugar, it hits salt, acid, and sweetness. There in itself, the balance of flavour is evident, it’s the trifecta of flavour balance in my eyes. Sweetness compliments the savoury, acidity/sour brightens the flavour and offsets the fatty/heavy flavour of a dish. When talking about everyday flavours/general flavours of cuisines: sweet and savoury are more commonly found in cuisine simultaneously, but I think the special part of Vietnamese cuisine is that acidity is added in. If there’s garlic and chilli added, it hits spicy too. I would even go on to say that fish sauce is not just salty, it is umami - fish sauce’s savoury saltiness is much more complex than just salt - it has a funkiness to it. Funk is an important flavour!  Mix it all together you have a baseline of balanced flavour which to me means layers of flavour instead of it being flat, it’s addictive really. 

Our taste buds can taste 5 basic flavours: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami” - Nước Chấm hits 4 out of 5!!

I didn’t want to spoil the food photos for my next blog posts but these are just a snippet of times we had Nuoc Cham with our food in Saigon

Nước Chấm is very commonly used in dishes to accentuate the dish, served on its side, you add it/use it to your own preference. I’ve had Nước Chấm with these Vietnamese dishes:

Bún chả, dry vermicelli noodle bowl

Cơm tấm, Eng name: broken rice - it’s a rice plate with fixed sides

Chả giò, spring rolls 

Gỏi cuốn, summer rolls 

Bánh cuốn, Vietnamese 肠粉(Cheung fun) which is rice noodle rolls with filling

Bánh xèo, crispier savoury crepe with filling 

Etc. Etc so many other dishes so much I haven’t tried it’s definitely not a comprehensive list. I’ll talk about the dishes in more detail as I share my Saigon day-to-day and what I ate in the next few blog posts.

I don’t remember the first time I had Nước Chấm but I’ve loved it for many years, my palette favours saltier so I always ask Vietnamese restaurants for more Nước Chấm - I lap it up. The dishes above I have tried before going to Saigon and a lot of them I got to have there, which blew my mind (It was so much better in Saigon (of course)), and I got to experience many variations of Nuoc Cham, each home, each chef will make it to their own taste. 

2.

Other than Nuoc Cham being a great example of balance in Vietnamese cuisine, the use of fresh herbs and raw leafy vegetables also speaks to this unique balance. 

The fresh herbs (such as mint, sweet basil, spring onion, culantro (which I don’t really like…first time trying it in Saigon), cilantro, perilla leaf) and raw leafy vegetables (such as lettuce) create a great balance. It doesn’t feel too soft or flat because it provides a fresh and crisp element, brightening the dish through texture. It also brightens through flavour and can lighten a dish that feels “heavy”. Think fresh, bright, floral, minty, spicy etc. Herbs have so many distinctive flavours, this comes from their essential oils which set them apart to be, well, herbs instead of just another vegetable. In Vietnamese cuisine, raw herbs and vegetables accompany hot foods - think Phở , and “cold” food like  Bún chả (it’s more room temp than cold but it’s not piping hot). All of these aspects put together create texture and contrast in your mouth as you’re eating. It’s a multi-sensory experience. That to me, is balance.

Basket of herbs with our Phở Bò (beef pho) - that long flat herb towards the front of the basket is culantro… flavour is very specific

A little pile of cut up lettuce, herbs, cucumber and bean sprouts for Bún chả

I don’t think there’s another cuisine in particular Asian cuisine that features such consistent usage of raw lettuce and herbs. Especially because I grew up on Cantonese and Chinese food, in Chinese food there are stand-alone dishes with raw cucumbers (I’m racking my brain here) but I don’t think there’s much else. I definitely can’t think of a raw veg dish in Cantonese cuisine. 

Here’s the thing with raw leafy veg and herbs: 

1) easy access to clean water 
2) a climate that supports the growth of these types of vegetables 

3) the ability to keep things fresh 

I feel like the combination of all three is so difficult to have!

I’ve experienced this, I’m sure you have to, you buy a head of lettuce, a box of salad, stick it in the fridge, wilty soft wet mushy - not cute not fun not enjoyable to eat.  Lettuce/leafy veg that can be eaten raw is so delicate! Growing up in Beijing, salad wasn’t a common occurrence in our household, fresh herbs were only found in an import store. In the States, it was definitely easier to find because it’s eaten more commonly but again, storage doesn’t make it last that long - it’s not as fresh, its packaged. In Singapore? I tried to make a Caesar Salad the other day and couldn’t for the life of me find romaine, herbs are $3-$5 for a tiny packet and I have to go to specific supermarkets to find it. Again, it’s not the cultural norm, it’s not part of the agricultural landscape because the weather doesn’t support it. I didn’t know the historical/agricultural knowledge behind why/how raw leafy veg was introduced to the cuisine but it has also made Vietnamese cuisine so distinct to me, so I did some research for this blog! 

Rau thơm means  ‘fragrant vegetables’, the collective name for Vietnamese herbs that get eaten raw with meals. There is both a practical and culinary aspect as to why raw herbs and vegetables are eaten in Vietnam:

1) Weather + agriculture element: These herbs can grow anywhere, warm weather, moist, the resilient nature of the herbs means its easy to find, easy to grow = abundance (which also makes them affordable)

2) Economic element: Due to lower income, everyday people eat large amounts of rice as their staple food. To improve or change the flavour of this base, herbs are eaten (it’s affordable). Herbs naturally have stronger flavour profiles and it’s the same reason why fish sauce is important as well.

3) Traditional Medicine: Vietnam uses many herbs, roots and vegetables in their traditional medicine. In turn, fresh herbs being eaten with meals provide health benefits and can balance yin and yang in dishes.

This is not a comprehensive amount of research and frankly, I still have questions as to why it’s so common in Vietnam to eat herbs like vegetables and the common use of raw lettuce but I’ll keep learning and I’ll get back to you!

Isn’t it interesting though? I had raw vegetables and herbs accompanying almost every single meal I had, a little basket to the side - pick whatever you like and pop it in. I loved it, I’m a big advocate for more food having crunchy/crispy elements and that basket of veggies provided just that!

Okay! That’s all for today! The next few Saigon blog posts will have a lot more photos - get ready for some absolutely delicious food photos. Thank you for reading <3

I saw this adorable teddy bear at the 711 downstairs in Saigon but you had to buy cleaning products to get it for free (which I’m not going to do, I’m on holiday) but everyday I went to look at him he was so cute and I still think about that laundry bear.

Sources:

https://namnam.net/did-you-know/vietnamese-fragrant-vegetables/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bc_ch%E1%BA%A5m