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I
n September 2013, Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa
sent two Vietnamese chefs, Nam and Quyet, to Australia
to promote Vietnamese food at its sister hotel, the Grand
Hyatt Melbourne, during an international food festival.
Originally from Hanoi and a master of coastal cuisine,
Nam introduced his signature dishes of
pho
and pomelo salad,
while Quyet provided the best
banh xeo
and seafood spring
rolls, which originate from the south of Vietnam.
The two master chefs also added other specialties such as
chao tom
(grilled shrimp mousse on sugar cane) and
vit nau
chao
(braised duck with fermented bean curd), which both
originate from the central city of Hoi An.
“We know Australians love Vietnamese food, so this
was an opportunity for them to taste authentic cuisine
cooked and served by native chefs,” said Roger Baldwin,
director of sales & marketing of Hyatt Regency Danang Re-
sort & Spa, who worked with his colleagues in Australia to
organise this event.
Zhou Lu, deputy division director of China’s Qingdao Peo-
ple’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, says
that she comes to Vietnam every year, not just to go sightsee-
ing, but to enjoy food and drinks here.
“I love many types of Vietnamese food and drinks, but
what I like most is
pho
and coffee. It is fantastic to enjoy a
bowl of
pho
on a bustling pavement or a coffee in a tranquil
café by a river,” she says.
Hirotsugu Terado, senior economic researcher at the Em-
bassy of Japan has been living in Vietnam for four years. He
loves enjoying Vietnamese food and coffee as part of his life
here. Before working here, he studied Vietnamese in Hanoi
for three years and learned a lot about the culture. He has
also travelled to many places in Vietnam and has had many
opportunities to taste the country’s food.
“I love eating
pho
,
bun thang
and
bun cha
, and drinking
coffee. Vietnamese beer is also tasty,” Terado says, adding:
“Many Vietnamese dishes have become famous worldwide.”
In August 2012, the Asian Record Organisation an-
nounced 12 Vietnamese dishes had made its top picks list.
These 12 dishes included
pho
,
bun cha
and
bun thang
from
Hanoi;
banh da cua
(crab noodles) from Haiphong;
com chay
(rice crackers) from Ninh Binh province;
mien luon
from Nghe
An province;
bun bo
from Hue city;
my quang
from Quang
Nam province;
pho kho
(dry noodles) from Gia Lai province;
banh khot
from Vung Tau; and
goi cuon
and
com tam
from
Ho Chi Minh City.
Also, Business Insider, a New York-based business news
site, recently listed Hanoi’s
pho
, as the first of 40 meals you
should eat in your lifetime.
The article said: “
Pho
: quite simply, an utterly captivating
dish – simple in execution yet enormously complex in flavour.
This Vietnamese noodle soup, pronounced “fuh”, is upon first
glance, just noodle water with tiny bits of greenery – snooze.
Vietnam’s national dishes are gaining a reputation far and wide and now the
national tourism authorities are looking to capitalise on this to build the coun-
try’s tourism brand.
Thanh Thu
reports
timeout
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