The Great Vietnam Street Food Debate
The future of the country’s street food culture hangs in the balance as an ongoing debate about moving street vendors indoors blazes on.
It’s everything put together that makes the meal complete. The flimsy red and blue plastic furniture that looks as though it has been stolen from a preschool playground. The crowded streets of t-shirt clad backpackers and conical hat wearing locals weaving in and out of each other’s way like an orchestrated dance. The fragrant smells of fresh herbs, cooked fish and spiced broth mixed with the faint odors of gasoline from passing motorbikes. The Vietnamese street food experience extends far beyond the plate to encompass the surrounding chaos and charm of the culture.
It’s an experience that has been etched into many a traveler’s psyche as something to check off their bucket list; an experience that has been memorialized in media by the likes of Anthony Bourdain, who sold his soul for a warm bowl of pho, and author, Graham Holliday, whose novel, Eating Viet Nam, chronicles his time spent living in the country.
Inspired by these intrepid culinary explorers, I eventually find myself on the chaotic streets of Hanoi in northern Vietnam one cool morning in February. Having just enjoyed a warm cup of cà phê trứng —…
