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While the food of Vietnam has been
influenced to a certain extent by the cooking of China, it would not be
mistaken for Chinese food, for true Vietnamese food has a character and
flavor all its own. Instead of soy sauce there is the universal use of
fish sauce, nuoc mam, which is added during cooking. Nuoc mam is more
pungent than other Southeast Asian fish sauces. If it is not available,
add a little dried shrimp paste to Chinese fish sauce for a good
substitute. But nuoc mam sauce (or nuoc cham), which is served as an
accompaniment with practically everything, is based on nuoc mam with the
addition of fresh chilies, garlic, sugar, lime or lemon and vinegar. The
flavor is sharper and more pungent than anything the Chinese cuisine has
to offer.
Rice and noodles are the staple starches in
the Vietnamese diet, but they have also cultivated a taste for French
bread over the years and combine it with beef, cooked Vietnamese style, to
make delicious, if somewhat unorthodox sandwiches.
Breakfast in Vietnam is usually noodle soup.
It is rather overpowering by Western standards, for it is redolent of
fresh coriander herb (called Vietnamese parsley), garlic and nuoc mam.
Rice, accompanied by dishes of meat, poultry or fish, is the basis of the
other meals.
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