#01 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Phở (bò)

Whenever you ask people what they know or like about Vietnamese cuisine, you will certainly get the answer: Phở - our national dish. My favorite variety is the Southern version with rare beef, although this soup is supposed to originate from the North.

It's basically a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat. Phở is a uniquitous and popular dish in Vietnam where it is served in households, street-stalls, and restaurants country-wide. 

The Southern phở is served with fresh herbs, lemon etc. (aside in a separate dish), whereas the Northern version comes with less/all herbs already in the bowl. You can have the soup with meatballs, chicken or tofu, but I always stay with the classic where thin slices of tender beef are uncooked and have to be submerged in the hot juicy broth where the beef gets "cooked" in it.

You can't actually eat it without the herbs and the right sauce (fish sauce). The herbs and the sauce(s) make up at least 50% of taste in Vietnamese dishes.

Enough words, go there and try it yourself!

#02 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Bánh mì

Strangely, the second-best known Vietnamese dish among Europeans (and my personal no. 2 on the list) is something very un-Vietnamese: a baguette sandwich - "thanks" to the colonial legacy the French left behind. It's popular, tasty, cheap (about 25cts. from a street food-stall) and so good you want to have another one after the first.

There is crispy white bread that is sliced and stuffed with layers of flavors and textures. There's a layer of sweet and salty due to the pickled vegetables, another layer of hearty meat to make your stomach full.

My favorite variety is with crispy roasted pork (bánh mì heo quay), wonderful herbs, hot chili, pickled vegetables, etc. 

Bánh mì can and do come with sour pickled daikon and carrot, crisp cilantro, spicy chilis, and a cool sliver of cucumber surrounding any number of protein options, from sweet minced pork to fatty pate to sardines.

#03 of my top ten favorite Vietnamese dishes: Ốc

We Vietnamese people love to eat snails (ốc) because it's a great social food to share with friends and family - and of course they taste great!

In big cities like Saigon or Hanoi you'll never find it hard to stumble upon a Quán Ốc, or a snail restaurant, where snails are displayed and people sit outside eating snails and drinking beer.

Plates filled with chewy and salty snails grace the tables accompanied by icy beer. The snails are relished with various techniques - sucking, forking, scooping, and slurping. The delicious little animals can come boiled, fried, with a noodle soup, in springrolls... every form you can imagine.

An absolutely necessary ingredient of of course a nice, spicy, flavorful sauce. I prefer the classic variety with fish sauce, chilis, garlic, lemon, lemongrass and a little bit sweetened.