Main ingredients in Vietnamese Food

Born in Vietnam and absorbed Vietnamese Culture, I was nurtured with a love for Vietnamese heritage and culture, especially Vietnamese cuisine. My mission is to show you how authentic Vietnamese food is simple, fresh, and delicious. In Toronto, it’s easy to find a Viet restaurant where you can see “Pho” with an image of cow head; as a result, in lots of people’s mind, everything about Vietnamese cuisine is Pho. However, in a tropical country with more than two thousands miles of coastal line, lush and warm, where sea food, fishes, ducks, vegetables, herbs and spices are plentiful all year around, cooking art in Vietnam is much more than that to discover.

Vietnamese food has light but flavorful taste. When you try Vietnamese food, you will find that a perfect harmony of all ingredients. Most dishes combine mix of various elements: meat and vegetables; chewy and tender ingredients; sweet, salty and sour tastes. Here I will show you some key ingredients which create that awesome balance of taste:

1.  Rice Rice Rice

You can say Vietnam is a noodle-crazy country where rice plays an essential role in the nation’s diet. Vietnamese have rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (sometimes for snacks too J ) but you are hardly fed up with it because rice comes in many different categories such as noodle, sticky rice or rice papers.

2.  Fresh vegetable and herbs

If you google about Vietnamese food, one thing you have to agree with me is that Vietnamese foods are very colorful and good looking because they are made of plenty different ingredients, include lots of vegetables which bring the colors for dishes. Our favorite vegetables are spring onions, red onions, mung beans, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes…For herbs, we love basil, lemon grass, coriander, mint, turmeric, black peppers…

      3.Fish sauce:

Not like Chinese food, soy sauce rarely appears in Vietnamese dishes. Our favorite sauce is fish sauce which adds an amazing and unique taste for dishes. It can be used directly with meat and vegetables or cooking purpose.

       4. Meat

The main ones are used for Vietnamese food are chicken, beef, and pork. Besides it, you can find duck, goose, lamb, or goat.

All those ingredients are easy to find in Toronto. Everyone can find them in Asian supermarket with an affordable price and high quality. Most big Asian supermarkets are located in North York area where large population has Asian background. Below are some places that everyone can find all ingredients which are needed to prepare a Vietnamese traditional dishes

Btrust Supermarket

Bestco Foodmart

T&T Supermarket