So now I need to go back to Vietnam and try more soups. I’d say a lot of Italian food is extremely simple: spaghetti alla vongole = clams, clam stock, olive oil, garlic, parsley, spaghetti. Oro e burro = pasta, butter, tomato. We spent a long time in Italy this summer, which I’m still writing about, but I’d say much Vietnamese is more complex — broader spice base, more ingredients — than many favourite Italian dishes.

Base on my experience living there (though I am pretty remove from my root), viet cuisine kinda separate into 3. Dishes that people go out and eat in the morning/breakfast/lunch including Pho, various noodle soups, congee, Banh Xeo (vietnamese Pizza lol), banh mi/sandwiches etc.

Dishes that are for lunch and dinner are usually pair with Rice. And lastly tourists don’t experience this, dishes that pair with beer and liquor. Drinking is like a vietnamese past time, and they have dishes that unique for this occasion.

I once heard, Pho/various noodle soup is a girl that you would like to flirt, but the rice dishes are the woman that you marry lol.

I am glad Z like our food. I am tremendously enjoy reading your blog. It brought back so much memories and because I left the country around Z’s age that I only experienced Vietnam from that age perspective. I watch this show Top Chef. A lot of people ding Vietnamese food for being simple. There is a lot of Italian dishes that I like especially I am living in Little Italy in Chicago. I thought Italian food is pretty simple also. 🙂

It’s one of relatively few Vietnamese dishes that one finds in the West that works infinitely better on its home turf than when transplanted, I would say. I’m a big fan of the Vietnamese strip on Kingsland Road, in London, though I haven’t visited Toronto. I will be posting about seafood and snails at some point: fantastic range of clams, for example, and very good snails… Also looking forward to the Lao take on noodle soup…

HAHA! Your blog’s fun to read, and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your travels. Your son sounds very mature for his age, ahah, at least in comparison to the other 9 year olds that I know. It’s great!

This stuff: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Poly_odo.html. One of the defining flavours of Vietnamese cuisine. The other one they’re big on is culantro: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Eryn_foe.html. Going to pop out for more snails in a little bit.