Vietnamese street food recipes: five of the best, from fried spring rolls to bánh xèo

Food editor Susan Jung loves the delicious variety of street food available in Vietnam
Inspired by the food she ate there, here are five recipes of traditional dishes you can recreate at home

Asian recipes

Susan Jung

Published: 9:32pm, 20 Feb 2019

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Vietnam is one of my favourite countries for eating street food. Found at inexpensive shops and at stands in food markets, many stores specialise in only one dish.

It’s not like Vietnamese restaurants outside Vietnam, where you can find spring rolls, bánh mì thit (sandwiches) and pho in one place: in Vietnam, if you want all those dishes, you go from shop to shop.

Home Cooking with Susan Jung – Vietnamese spring rolls

I like to tell myself that this way, I can walk off calories as I eat them, but that doesn’t work because if I see something that looks delicious along the way, I’ll stop for yet another snack.

Here are five of my favourite recipes that bring back memories of Vietnam.

1. Fried spring rolls

I learned to make spring rolls – called nem rán (in North Vietnam) or cha giò (in the South) – from a Vietnamese friend in California. His were filled with fresh crab, which he painstakingly took out of the shell – he refused to use canned crabmeat. I can’t be bothered with that, so I use pork and shrimp (if you’re a pescatarian, swap out the pork for firm tofu, and cut into thin batons).

His technique for making sure the spring rolls take on an appetising brown colour is to use Coca-Cola (or another soft drink with sugar; diet soft drinks don’t work) as the liquid to dip the wrappers in as the sugar caramelises as it fries. He’s right, but unfortunately, the Coke also gives the spring rolls a rather maddening propensity to stick together as they’re cooking, so I don’t always bother with that. Check out the above video for my technique. Full recipe here.

Bánh xèo is a Vietnamese savoury crepe filled with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts. Photo: Jonathan Wong

2. Bánh xèo

I love bánh xèo for a light, summery meal. The thin, turmeric-scented rice flour crepes are folded over lots of stir-fried vegetables and a little shrimp and meat (which you can leave out, for a pescatarian version), then eaten with raw vegetables and herbs, and dipped in fish sauce. They’re easy to make, too. Full recipe here.

3. Bún cha

I remember eating this grilled pork and noodles dish with a friend in Ho Chi Minh City. On our way to our planned meal, we first stopped at a street vendor, who was making bánh mì thit filled with fried egg and pork floss (it was a breakfast sandwich), then continued down the street for a bowl of pho, before we finally made it to the bún cha shop. After that, we went to yet another place for cà phê sua dá (iced coffee with condensed milk). This was in the space of about 90 minutes. Full recipe here.

Vietnamese rice vermicelli with pig ears, chicken giblets, cha lua and home-made chilli sauce. Photo: Jonathan Wong

4. Rice vermicelli with pig’s ears, chicken giblets and home-made chilli sauce

I first ate this in Phan Thiet in southeast Vietnam, and it was so good that I taught myself how to make it at home. The chilli sauce – tuong ot toi – is spicy and addictive.

Full recipe here.

Grilled scallops with pork fat cracklings and sizzled spring onions. Photo: Jonathan Wong

5. Grilled scallops with pork fat cracklings and sizzled spring onions

This is another dish I first ate in Phan Thiet. While the rice vermicelli with home-made chilli sauce is a street food, this is something a little more posh – it’s something I tried at the Princess d’Annam Resort & Spa. It’s very easy to make.

Full recipe here.

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