Philip Veinott, an expatriate American, shares his thoughts and feelings about the most controversial dish in Vietnam.
When I was asked to write an article about the top 10 most controversial dishes I’ve eaten in Vietnam, I thought to myself, “I have never eaten any controversial food before.” I began to reminisce about my time in Vietnam and tried to reminisce on purpose.
I’m not an adventurer in any way; However, living in a foreign country, you must try local cuisine to fully understand and appreciate the place you live. Food is not only essential to life, but food also gives tourists a chance to try what other residents are eating.
Crab Soup
The reason I booked ‘s site The first is that in every wedding or party that I have attended over the past decade in Vietnam, there has always been and always will be. ‘s site at the table. I’ll be honest, it smells delicious, but just looking at it makes me nauseous. It’s really like thick snot and whenever I eat it I have to cover my nostrils. It does taste good though.
Chicken Feet
There’s just something weird and odd about eating chicken feet. Even though the locals love chicken feet, I don’t even dare to try them. However, if you want a good price, I know you can buy a kilo of chicken feet for about 60,000 VND.
Pig Tongue
This is an obvious choice. There is no way I will ever try this again. I remember once going to a countryside in the Mekong Delta (Long An) and being served some dishes that spoke the local language. Needless to say I didn’t have it.
Bugs
Have cockroaches, crickets, larvae, etc. caught your attention? This number should probably be number one. There is really nothing worse than seeing a bowl of worms or larvae swimming around and then being asked to devour them without hesitation. Obviously I won’t go down that road again.
Pha Lau (Organic Meat)
Have you ever driven down the street and looked at all the hawkers and stalls and saw piles of meat hanging and dripping all over the stalls? Yes, it is break, basically all leftovers. If you care about your intestines, lungs, kidneys and whatever else is out there, this is what you right try—just kidding. Seriously, I remember once I tried a piece of meat from the stall and told myself that wasn’t going to happen again.
Frog
There’s just something scary and wrong about eating frogs. People eat them religiously here and they really taste like chicken. I remember venturing into an alley and eating frog porridge. There’s something odd about eating frogs in a liquid. I prefer my frog dry and crispy.
Dumplings
Locals love them, as do some expats and expats. I? No. Honestly, I don’t eat a lot of meat in general and when I do, I need the meat to be properly cooked and grilled. I just can’t open some bread and destroy a local meat pie—actually I can, but that’s often the case in Australia or the UK.
Banh Mi cay (Chilli Banh Mi)
Imagine biting into the world famous bread only to discover your mouth burns, runny nose from your nose and a burning sensation in your lips and fingers when you touch the peppers. Yes, that happens. the problem will be eating bread is that you can’t really see how much chili they actually put in there. It’s really bold, to say the least. This was a big trend a few years ago, but it’s hard to find it in HCMC now.
Congested Duck Eggs
This must also be number one—it yes champion! I wanted to put the duck egg fetus at number one, but that would be too obvious, so I decided to put it here to get your attention. I remember one day I used a spoon on the street to break one of them and I opened the shell and I just felt like I was looking at a duckling. I was really looking forward and hoping it would move so I didn’t really have to try to eat it. I coat it with salt and pepper and slowly bring it to my mouth. I just about it try it and bam! I vomited. Thank God for that because I will never be able to forget that taste and memory if I really tried it.
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