Vietnamese cuisine has been recently highlighted and praised worldwide alongside food from China, France, Italy and Thailand. It, however, has not been paid much attention by local tourist agencies; therefore, the Vietnamese food tour is virtually unknown and needs to be promoted.

Vietnamese food: “wonderful”

The New York Times has lately called Vietnam the new culinary star of Asia and said Vietnam was able to be listed in the top ten of the world’s best eating and drinking countries.

In late 2006, US First Lady Laura, US President Bush’s wife, said “wonderful” after she tasted Vietnamese food at Tib restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. On that day, the US First Lady, President Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his wife enjoyed Hue-style dishes such as spring rolls, sweetened porridge cooked with lotus seeds. Former US First Lady Hillary, whose husband is former US president Bill Clinton, also used to speak highly of the spring roll.

What do world-famous chefs think about Vietnamese food?

“I am smitten by Vietnamese dishes as, with a harmony of yin and yang, they are very light, nutritious, delicious and unique,” evaluated chef Yan, who is famous for the Yan Can Cook TV show, after many times tasting Vietnamese food.

So-called “Fish sauce foreigner” Didier Corlou, a French, sees Pho as the best in the world. This chef of the Metropole Hanoi, well known for his Vietnamese food cooking for heads of state and VIPs, wrote a book on Pho. Another book in French named “Taste spices” introducing 30 typical dishes of Vietnam written by Didier Corlou himself has been published. According to this French chef, spices and aromas from vegetables create a unique feature of Vietnamese food.

Hard-to-please Japanese tourists also regard Vietnam as a country of strange dishes specialising in flowers, vegetables and fruits. That greatly interests Japanese.

Ms Sachiko Hoshizawa, a famous chef on Japan’s Sapporo Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd show, once took her students to Vietnam to learn Vietnamese gastronomy for some dishes including lotus rootstock mixed with shrimp.

Really keen on Vietnamese food, Ms Shinobu opened website www.vietnamfood-net.com to give recipes of Vietnamese food to Japanese.

Local food: potential

A survey conducted by Pacific-Asia Travel Association (PATA) showed that up to 80% of tourists like local food. Therefore, many ASEAN countries such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia rank food tour among leading tourism products.

In fact, any travel agency that pays much attention to meals for visitors gains success.

Tourist guide Ha Thai Binh of Wetravel recalled, “When I told tourists they would taste street food that existed in Ho Chi Minh City 300 years ago, they were very excited. They expressed their surprise when tasting a lot of simple dishes that were very rich and delicious.”

With 10 years of experience as an international tourist guide, Binh concluded that local food satisfied tourists.

Some cookery courses have been launched at the Rex Hotel and restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City. Ms Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh, owner of Wrap & Roll restaurant in precinct 1, said that a lot of foreigners were surprised with Vietnam-style fast food full of fresh vegetables. Some confided they did not dare eat such a dish on streets but tasting vegetable dishes at the restaurant delighted them.Quite a few foreigners have advised Oanh to open a restaurant in New York.

4-5 star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, namely New World, Caravelle, Sheraton, Omni, said more and more table companions liked Vietnamese food because it was less fatty than Chinese food and not as hot as Thai. Spices and dill added to Vietnamese food makes it attractive and delicious.

With a lot of advantages, Vietnamese food should be paid much attention to, especially by tourist agencies.

Besides beautiful landscapes, food plays an important role in attracting tourists. That’s why the tourism sector of Vietnam should not exclude local food from their planned tours. To materialise that, specific plans and fact-finding tours are recommended to be carried out.

Vietnam’s tourism will lure more and more tourists, if it knows howto realise special tours of introducing its local unique food.

Source: TT

Translated by Mai Huong