Have problems navigating a Vietnamese restaurant menu? You’re not alone. They are their own animals but are generally organized the same. There are more or less the same menu items – think of a Chinese restaurant menu. Instead of a "Pasta" section, there's a "Noodles" section. "Banh" are usually savory dumplings, crepes, and little morsels made with flours and starches.
Nevertheless, Vietnamese restaurant menus can confuse with English translations. As a Vietnamese speaker, I sometimes ask for clarification too!
Last year the folks over at Pho411.ca (a now defunct site) approached me to collaborate to help Vietnamese food lovers and Vietnamese restaurant owners. Sometimes there are typos and miscommunication that get in the way of good food. Together we assembled the following content for those who may be unfamiliar with Vietnamese food terms. (Your Vietnamese language skills may be rusty!)
Also, for Vietnamese chefs and restaurant owners may benefit from having some kind of common vocabulary to use when describing Vietnamese dishes. The content in the pages below is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather a starting point. I hope the information broadens your understanding of Vietnamese food and allows you to explore it more deeply.
- Sections of a Menu: How a Vietnamese restaurant menu is organizes. What types of food do you usually see? What are they?
- Common Vietnamese Restaurant Dishes: English - Vietnamese names of common foods you'd find on a menu. Restaurants, delis, bakeries and pho shops offer mostly the same things. Use this as a guide.
- Cooking Methods, Seasonings, and Ingredients: If you don't recognize a dish, this page will help you translate the menu descriptions. How is something cooked? What kinds of seasonings or dipping sauce is served with it? What are the featured vegetables and fruits? From there you can imagine the flavors. Or, ask informed questions!
Have content to add or corrections? Add them here!
Belinda @zomppa
Thank you for this helpful post!! You making me want to go eat now.
Lee Fielder
The link: common...dishes,doesn't work. In the first and third links, there are numerous letters replaced by squares or other symbols. As I am really excited to see this content, and send it to friends and the owner of a small, but excellent Vietnamese restaurant here in Colorado Springs, I am hoping you can fix the problems.
Lee
BTW: I use your cookbooks A LOT
Dennis M Reed (check the "Cooking - Food - Recipes - Cookbook Collections" link on my site.
the link does not work but the following will get you there:
http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/vietnamese-menus-names-of-dishes.html
I got this from viewing the source of the page with the non-clickable "link".
Andrea Nguyen
I fixed the links, everyone. My apologies!!!
David
No, you haven't. http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/vietnamese-menus-names-of-dishes.html - page not found - 404.
And this is 7 years later...
Andrea Nguyen
When I updated the site and the page, it became a secure page with Https as the lead. So go here:
https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2010/06/vietnamese-menus-names-of-dishes.html
MIKO
Thanks for a wonderful and comprehensive- and very well-organized post! Especially the detail in the links! Except, I couldn't find the sprout-and-shrimp crepe/pancake/omelette item that I had at one place in SD... Do you know what i'm talking about Andrea?
twitter.com/bob_ferrapuhls
@MIKO - Are you talking about Banh Xeo (on the list as 'sizzling crepes')?
A few nitpicks: I wouldn't call Hu Tieu 'glass noodles' but rather 'rice noodles'. I think of glass noodles as being 'mien'.
Also, you might want to list 'Angel Hair Vermicelli' as Bun, and call 'Banh Hoi' 'Angel Hair Vermicell sheets', no?
Sandy
I like the wide rice noodles like the Cantonese chow fun. I can never figure out what those noodles are called on a Vietnamese menu.
twitter.com/bob_ferrapuhls
@Sandy - I love those noodles too. Chow Fun, Pad Se Ewe, Lad Na, Chow Kway Teow, all of them!
I don't personally recall seeing them used in Vietnamese dishes however (Andrea?)
The biggest rice noodle I can think of is the one used in Banh Canh, which is like a fatter Udon-sized rice noodle (which is quite tasty too).
twitter.com/aqnguyen
@Sandy-You're thinking of Banh Hu tieu. In Vietnamese those are called banh pho. See this post on banh pho noodles: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2010/03/vietnamese-noodles-101-banh-pho-flat-rice-noodles.html
@bob_ferrapuhls: Yeah -- the glass noodles for hu tieu are actually made of tapioca when they're the clear ones. When hu tieu is made with rice noodles, they are rice. Pho411 and I went back and forth on the bun and banh hoi. Bun to me are round rice noodles because they're bigger than a vermicelli. However, there are more Viet restos and cookbooks that call them rice vermicelli so we went with that translation. You can't win every battle. How about just "bun" [boon]?
katherine
Andrea, thank you so very much for this useful guide. I made it into a printable document and so I can carry it with me and use it often! Wish we could find more of the Savory Banh Snacks and some other uncommon items on menus. It seems owners of Vietnamese restaurants assume the more unusual dishes won't be pleasing to American tastes, but nothing could be farther from the truth! Americans just don't know them and must be introduced to them. And I'll bet everyone will love them when they try them.
dining room set
I heard that Vietnamese foods are so delicious! I can't wait to try some.
Sohbet Et
However, there are more Viet restos and cookbooks that call them rice vermicelli so we went with that translation. You can't win every battle. How about just "bun"
Taobao
That's not his. Steve's is black*_*
Buy from taobao
Um...like the style of your writing.*_*
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menus differ a little at each restaurant due to the size of the kitchens.
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I do appreciate that you like the content I write. I'm not exactly sure what I blog about fits in with your customer profile. And, looking at your retail site, it's not clear to me where you'd actually be using some of my information. What exactly do you have in mind?
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I have a friend which he meet his partner at vietnam. I've already tasted Vietnamese food.
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That was my thought,too.
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I do tried vietnamese food myself, and to be honest, it is DELICIOUS!!
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there are more Viet restos and cookbooks that call them rice vermicelli so we went with that translation.
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Hi
I just back holiday trip in Vietnam and It is very wonderful to learn Vietnamese cooking special HCM Cooking class in Cu Chi - HCM City that I found Most exciting and clearly about how to make the Vietnamese food completely healthy and Now i saw in this post .It is exciting and very informative .Thanks for that .I will love to cook vietnamese food now
Tony
Hi there, no links are working for the Vietnamese food, or for pho411.ca - hopefully this can be fixed as it sounds like great info for our trip through Vietnam.
Andrea Nguyen
Tony -- Man, I didn't know the site is gone. I removed reference to them. Also, I just moved VWK to a new platform and some of the links need polishing. It's fixed now and I think I'll polish things off to refresh it! Thanks. Any suggestions? Holler!