#04 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Lẩu (Hot pot)

Lẩu (Hot pot) refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, tofu and seafood - all things imaginable. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. (Wikipedia)

The cool thing about this dish is that it is something like a social event which has to be enjoyed with many people. You add your ingredients and in the end, the broth is best, having taken all the flavors of what you've put in it. 

#05 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Bún bò (Huế)

Bún bò Huế (beef noodle soup from Huế) is a rice vermicelli soup with beef, associated with the royal cooking of the imperial city of Huế (around where my Dad originated). It offers the balance of spicy, sour, salty and sweet flavors and the predominant flavor is that lemon grass - usually including thin slices of marinated and boiled beef shank, chunks of oxtail, and pig's knuckles. It can also include cubes of congealed pig blood, which has a color between dark brown and maroon, and a texture resembling firm tofu.

You serve it with lime wedges, cilantro sprigs, diced green onions, raw sliced onions, chili sauce, thinly sliced banana blossom, red cabbage, mint, basil, perilla, persicaria odorata or Vietnamese coriander (rau răm), saw tooth herb (ngò gai) and sometimes mung bean sprouts.(Wikipedia)

My Dad loved this dish, and once you've tried this soup, you'll come back for more. Unforgettable!

#06 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Cháo lòng

The heart of cháo lòng (pork organ/innards rice soup) consists of rice softened in a flavorful broth with cubes of congealed blood (huyết) and innards (cut in slices) thrown in for good measure. Cháo lòng turns piggy odds and ends that most butchers would toss out with the garbage into hearty and soothing rice porridge - nothing goes waste! This dish is one of the rare offerings in Saigon that is served from morning until evening and also served with stacks of golden fried dough (giò cháo quẩy).

Whe we were kids, our Mum sometimes used to give us some money in the morning and we rushed off to some streetfood place to have a hearty breakfast (sic!) of cháo lòng - with congealed blood cubes and slices of pork innards! Yummy.

Do try this rice soup if you should be in Vietnam.

#07 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Bánh xèo

Bánh xèo (sizzling pancake), the word xèo onomatopoeically being the sound it makes when the rice batter is poured into the hot pan, contains coconut milk in the Southern variety and is believed to derive from crêpes brought from France during the colonial occupation.

The savory rice pancake is stuffed with pork, shrimp, diced green onion, bean sprouts. mint leaves, basil, fish leaf and/or other herbs, and dipped in a sweet and sour diluted fish sauce.

Again, without the sauce and the herbs, it is only half as good.

And again, my Mum's bánh xèo has been, rightly, forever imprinted in my sensory memory, and that's the reason why Julie, my wife, always asks for some when we are in Munich.

#08 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Bún riêu (cua)

My Mum used to prepare this yummy dish when our family was still complete :-( but I haven't eaten this soup for a few years now.

Bún riêu cua is a crab noodle soup which is commonly served with tomato broth and topped with crab or shrimp paste (mắm ruốc or mắm tôm, whose smell is pretty "intense" to European noses). 

The vermicelli noodles are made of rice and thin, and the unmissable vegetables and herbs comprise lightly blanched bean sprouts, followed by finely shredded water spinach, banana flower, and peppery perilla leaves.

Well, you best eat this dish SLURPING. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BAn_ri%C3%AAu

#09 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Hủ tiếu

Also popular as a breakfast (sic!) dish, this delicious rice noodle soup is a specialty of the Mekong Delta and topped with herbs, pork and succulent shrimps.

I remember eating it by the streetside in our neighborhood, and remembering this, I feel miserable having to "put up" with "white" spaghetti and pasta dishes. ;-(

Fortunately, my Mum can prepare this dish excellently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuy_teav

#10 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Bánh bèo

Steamed rice cake with ground dried shrimps etc., the sauce - as so often in Vietnamese cuisine - being the essential element in this dish. Originates from Central VN (where my father comes from).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1nh_b%C3%A8o