Southern Vietnamese Cuisine: Top 10 Delicious Dishes Must Try

Vietnamese cuisine is extremely abundant and diverse, each region has its own unique features and Southern Vietnamese cuisine is famous for the rich and fresh flavors but also very rustic and familiar. From Crab noodle soup and southern dumpling to Tay Ninh heifers. In this hospitable land, each dish tells a story about tradition, innovation and local ingredient selection.

Let’s join Hanoi Voyage to discover the diverse dishes of Southern Vietnam with the list of the Top 10 delicious Southern Vietnam cuisines that food lovers cannot miss.

Best Southern Vietnamese cuisine must try

Crab noodle soup

Crab noodle soup is a special Southern Vietnam cuisine that comes from the coastal region of Vung Tau. Crab noodle soup is famous for its soft, chewy noodle soup and fresh, nutritious crab meat, which visitors cannot miss. In particular, the hot, rich broth with an eye-catching yellow color from crab bricks is the soul of this attractive dish.

When enjoying this dish, diners will feel the fresh, rich sweetness thanks to the wonderful blend of ingredients. A few hot, crispy quiche cakes will also help you fully enjoy the delicious taste of this famous cuisine.

Southern dumpling

Southern dumpling is a famous Southern Vietnam cuisine that you must try when you come to Saigon. This is a land that blends many cuisines but still retains its own unique qualities in the way it is prepared and seasoned. Dumpling is originally a Chinese dish, but when it was introduced to Saigon, it was modified to suit the taste of the people here.

Most dumplings are prepared by Chinese chefs. These experienced chefs have kneaded each grain of dough to create thin-skinned crusts with extremely rich shrimp and meat fillings. The broth of this dish is stewed from bones and white radish, so it brings a gentle and lingering sweetness.

Tay Ninh heifers

Tay Ninh heifers with firm, soft, chewy meat is a famous Southern Vietnam cuisine that you cannot miss when coming to Tay Ninh. Heifers is cleaned, marinated with a few spices and then grilled over charcoal, emitting an extremely attractive and persistent aroma.

This dish has captivated diners from near and far with its rich, succulent meat flavor mixed with sweet and sour dipping sauce. The eye-catching piece of red-pink meat inside the charred skin along with the fresh scent of the accompanying vegetables creates an unforgettable highlight for the cuisine.

Trang Bang noodle soup

Another delicious Southern Vietnam cuisine that must be tried, the Trang Bang noodle soup of Tay Ninh is extremely attractive with broth simmered from pork bones, vegetables, and a cloth bag containing onions, coriander, and grilled dried squid. These ingredients are stewed for many hours and blended to bring a rich sweetness that is difficult to create anywhere else.

Another special feature that makes this dish attract many tourists is when it is eaten with fish sauce, wild vegetables, and dew-dried rice paper. These are also Tay Ninh specialties that tourists cannot miss when visiting this place.

Ba Den mountain lizard

Ba Den mountain lizard – Tay Ninh belongs to the gecko family, light brown tail, and a white stripe on the back. This species of lizard can only live in the Ba Den mountain region because this place has favorable terrain and climate for them to reproduce and develop.

Are lizards poisonous? The answer is no. Unlike other relatives, mountain lizards in the Ba Den area only eat bananas, figs, or natural herbs and plants and do not eat insects or animals at all. Therefore, dishes made from Ba Den mountain lizard meat are fragrant, delicious, chewy, and very nutritious and are considered a valuable medicine, good for health, treating fatigue, loss of appetite, and joint pain.

If you have come to sunny and windy Tay Ninh and have not enjoyed the Tay Ninh mountain lizard specialty, it is a big mistake. Once diners have tried this Southern Vietnamese cuisine, it will certainly be difficult to forget the unique and mountainous flavor that these rare and super nutritious lizards bring.

Com tam

Com tam, also known as broken rice, is a famous and popular dish in the South, especially Ho Chi Minh City. This dish is made from very simple ingredients but creates a unique flavor that is difficult to mix with any other rice dish.

It is prepared from broken rice grains and has a delicious taste and unique aroma. A traditional plate of broken rice includes rice, grilled pork chops, shredded pork skin, fried eggs and dipping sauce.

If you have the opportunity to visit Vietnam, don’t miss the opportunity to try the delicious and unique broken rice dish. The distinctive flavor, meticulous preparation and variety of ingredients make broken rice an important part of Vietnamese cuisine.

Fish sauce hot pot

Referring to famous Southern Vietnam cuisines, we cannot ignore fish sauce hot pot. The reason this dish has left its mark in the hearts of culinary enthusiasts is because of its very unique flavor, making many tourists excited to enjoy it.

Take a sip of the broth from the fish sauce hot pot, you will definitely never forget this wonderful flavor. The rich hot pot is made from fish sauce and the sweet and fatty taste of fresh coconut water. The dishes served with a hot pot are very diverse: shrimp, pork belly, squid, shrimp, eggplant and most especially fish sauce. Fish sauce hot pot is often eaten with bitter vegetables, water lily, water spinach,… typical vegetables of the South.

Banh xeo

The sizzling sound when pouring the cake and the golden, crispy crust are the most special things about this special Southern Vietnam cuisine. Inside the fragrant crust is a filling with a variety of ingredients.

The ingredients that visitors will often see in the filling are pork, shrimp, minced duck meat, bean sprouts, shredded papaya, etc. Banh xeo is eaten rolled with wild vegetables and dipped with sweet and sour fish sauce is a delicacy that no one can refuse.

Ken vermicelli

The next delicious Southern Vietnam cuisine that we will introduce to you is Ken vermicelli. This is a specialty dish of the pearl island of Phu Quoc. Previously, Ken vermicelli was sold at sidewalk stalls in Can Tho with broth made from snakehead fish. However, when present in Phu Quoc, Ken vermicelli cooked with noni fish and silverfish will produce a more delicious and sweeter broth.

When cooking broth, coconut milk will be added along with some spices such as five spices and curry powder to make the broth more eye-catching. The fish meat of this vermicelli dish will be pureed and stir-fried with lemongrass and chili to increase the aroma. A standard bowl of Ken vermicelli will have a few herbs, bean sprouts, grated papaya, fresh chili, soft minced fish meat, rich broth, and indispensable fresh, super chewy vermicelli.

Drain cake

Drain cake is a delicious Southern Vietnam cuisine that you must try when coming to this land. This type of cake has the shape of a small drain because when frying, the seller will submerge the entire drain in hot oil. This unique dish is a combination of flour, green beans, cassava, minced meat, and shrimp, bringing an extremely attractive flavor.

The crispy yellow cake is cut into many small parts, rolled with vegetables, and dipped in a bowl of fish sauce with a little chili. When you eat, you will feel the fleshy taste of green beans and taro, the aroma of shrimp and meat, and the crispy crust mixed with vegetables and dipping sauce.

If asked what specialties the South has, it would be difficult to name them all. The simple, delicious Southern Vietnam cuisines are what make any tourist who visits this place unable to help but praise. Please save the Top 10 delicious Southern Vietnam cuisine that food lovers cannot miss that Hanoivoyage has suggested for you if you have the opportunity to visit this place.