Coming up next week is one of the most important festivals in the Vietnamese calendar: Tet, or Vietnamese New Year. Tet marks the beginning of spring, and heralds the coming of a new zodiac animal sign for the year. It is a fresh beginning for Vietnamese people and the traditions carried out at this time reflect these beliefs. After taking up a degree in Vietnamese language at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Seb Rumsby spent a year in Vietnam from September 2008 to 2009 to help his understanding of both Vietnamese culture and language. Experience Travel talks to Seb about his year and his experiences during Tet. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘pho’
Melissa’s Vietnamese Culinary Extravaganza!
28 May 2010 by Melissa Nicholas
Heading out to Vietnam again this month and spurred on by Rick Steins recent Far Eastern Odyssey series and cookery book, I decided that this time I would pay more attention to the food and try and learn how to cook a few dishes for myself. With a bit of help from the locals, I discovered that Vietnam really is the perfect destination for food lovers and that as you travel North to South the fabulous diversity of delicious, fresh, healthy and exquisite dishes on offer is a million miles away from what you get presented in your average Vietnamese restaurant in the UK.
Things didn’t get off to a great start as on our first day we stopped at a local restaurant to pick up supplies for the overnight train trip to Sapa and I ended up ordering what turned out to be half a dry baguette and a single foil wrapped DairlyLea cheese triangle. But this was low point in my culinary experience of Vietnam and things got much better as the trip progressed! Up in Sapa I got my first taste of Vietnams infamous beef noodle soup ‘Pho’, pronounced ‘Far’. (more…)
5 Best Local Restaurants In Saigon
30 April 2010 by Tom Armstrong
South East Asia has some of the best food the world – fresh, varied and available at every glance. Indeed, many of our customers cite the quality and range of the cuisine in both Thailand and Vietnam as one of their key reasons for visiting.
As a casual visitor it can sometimes be difficult to know where to start looking for the best food – sometimes you need a helping hand. I find this particularly true of Saigon – a sprawling metropolis with seemingly endless dining options and communication challenges with taxi drivers. Add to this the fact that most quality local restaurants outside the hotel and backpacker districts don’t have menus in English and you’ll see why many like a few tips for places to check out. (more…)
