Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table

by Graham Holliday

The method I used to get the red-chili-pepper-paste-strewn food experience I craved in Korea, and the ones I would later love even more in Việt Nam, was what I called the “Four Questions Theory” of food exploration. It’s a concept I have tested with hotel staff, travel guides, colleagues, government ministers, journalists, diplomats, lawyers, bankers, and students. In fact, as I became more and more obsessed with seeking out Vietnamese food experiences, I tested my theory on every single Vietnamese person I met in Việt Nam and abroad. It goes something like this: Me: I’m not sure where to go for lunch. I want to eat Vietnamese food. Is there anywhere you particularly like that you could recommend? Vietnamese response: Oh, for sure. You must go to the [insert name of a big, fancy-schmancy hotel, serving Western, “Asian”—whatever that is—or worst of all: the abomination that is “fusion cuisine.” Invariably, there’ll be an “authentic street food stall” snuck away in one corner, replete with a pristine three-wheeled cyclo taxi and a bored-looking woman in a conical hat. The air-conditioned restaurant will be almost entirely deserted, apart from some sad traveling business type, struggling with the slop on his plate as he simultaneously tap-tap-taps at a laptop. Total cost, with drinks: $50–$100. Fun factor: zero.] Me: Hmm. I’m not so keen on eating in Western hotels. I’d like to eat Vietnamese food. You know, real Vietnamese food. Do you know a good place, a place that you lik...