"When I visited Hanoi, I only scratched the surface of al the foods I wanted to try. Chả cá là vọng was high on my list. Its flavors sounded so similar to ones used in Iran—fish with turmeric and dill—that I wondered how different the Vietnamese dish would taste. At one famous restaurant, this dish is all they serve. I sat down in a dark mahogany chair from where I could see the chefs at work, searing white fish on a tiered metal skillet, adding spices, and finishing it off with scallion greens and dill. But what took it to another place was the nuoc cham, rice noodles, so many herbs, fresh chiles, and ice-cold beer that went with it. My mind was blown. This is a slight riff on that dish. I still cook the cod with ginger, garlic, salt, and pepper, and the noodles still get flavored with the turmeric (but bloomed in butter). The ginger and ground pepper almost make a crust, so you will cook the first side hard to get it to caramelize."—

Salt-and-Pepper Cod With Turmeric Noodles by Andy Baraghani

Andy Nguyen’s recipe is a finalist in our Kikkoman x Food52 Tournament of Teriyaki contest!

 A crowd favorite, bánh mì, meets the spread of a lifetime. Start with your toasted baguette in hand, spread a bit of the (optional) pâté, then navigate toward the star of this board, juicy & tender teriyaki chicken thighs that have been marinated and basted with Kikkoman® Teriyaki Marinade & Sauce. The finishing touch: freshly pickled daikon, carrots, and cucumbers. No matter how you approach this deconstructed Vietnamese sandwich, each bite is packed with tanginess, sweetness, and layers of umami.

Grilled Chicken Bánh Mì Board

Among Hanoi coffee specialties is egg coffee—super warm coffee with a floater or beaten egg yolk and sweetened condensed milk. It dates to the 1950s, supposedly when there was a shortage of milk in Hanoi. Beaten egg yolks with condensed milk extends the milk in an elegant, delicious manner. People likely hand-beat the yolks back then. Nowadays an electric mixer does the job in roughly 2 minutes. Egg coffee is rich and sweet, practically fancy-dessert-like. Enjoy it as an afternoon pick-me-up or serve it in small portions after dinner. Add 1 tablespoon whiskey or cognac for extra flourish. -

Egg Coffee From Andrea Nguyen

This recipe is inspired by the lively, fragrant grilled eggplant dishes in Vietnamese cuisine. Here, spongy eggplants are grilled until silky and tender, and then tossed with nearly nước chấm, my piquant, vegan take on this foundational Vietnamese sauce. If you are grilling, the eggplant could also be cooked on a griddle for a smoky edge. 

Load the soba noodle salad with as many herbs as you can handle, for heightened vibrancy and fresh textures. As with all soba noodle salads, I recommend cooking the noodles a day ahead (or at least a few hours prior), tossing in some sesame or neutral oil and storing them in the fridge overnight, as this helps the noodles develop a firmer structure to stand up to the robust dressing.

Grilled Eggplant & Soba Noodle Salad With Nearly Nước Chấm

I love the taste of banh mi sandwiches, and I'm always looking for new ways to serve the components, especially since the pickled vegetables last for several weeks. I had some tortillas and the dish turned out great. I often use store-bought teriyaki sauce in a pinch, but feel free to make your own with 

Banh Mi Soft Tacos

This burger, which is also great in slider form, was inspired by the Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich: a delectable combination of pork, pickled veggies, cilantro, and spicy mayo. 

This recipe will make more spicy mayo than you’ll probably need for just the burgers, but that’s okay, because it's an amazing condiment that’s great on pretty much any sandwich you can think of (I love putting it on BLTs, in particular). I've no doubt you'll find a use for it. 

Banh Burgers

This isn’t a pizza in the traditional sense. Because instead of a pizza dough, at the base of this “pizza” is rice paper, the kind popularly used in Vietnamese spring rolls. In fact, the dish is actually a Vietnamese street snack called Bánh Tráng Nướng. It’s made by heating up the rice paper on a searing hot pan or griddle to crisp it up, then spreading a thin layer of beaten eggs on top to form the base, before the toppings go on. 

This rice-paper-and-egg base is a far cry from a classic Neapolitan pizza dough, but you shouldn’t think of it as a dough, rather see it simply as a vehicle to hold the toppings. With the rice paper crust being so thin, you’ll barely taste it, giving you the pure, adulterated flavor of the toppings that go above.

And rice paper pizza is all about the toppings. While the conventional Bánh Tráng Nướng in Vietnam is dressed with a mayo, spring onions, and sliced Spam or sausages, you can treat it like any regular pizza, and top it with your go-to pizza ingredients. (Yes, even pineapples.) Put on some mushrooms and olives, load it up with your favourite cheese , or fancify it with ripples of prosciutto and arugula as I did with the recipe below. Go ham—literally, if you wish!

Pro tip: Devour it just as quickly as it’s made, before the rice paper base turns soggy!

Bánh Tráng Nướng (Rice Paper Pizza)

Banh cuon, Vietnamese steamed rice rolls, are usually filled with crumbled meat. Traditionally, to make these flat rice noodles, you secure a piece of cloth to a pot. The batter is then added to the cloth and steamed until it’s fully cooked, which takes just a minute or two. (This method reminds me of Hong Kong cloth-pulled cheong fun, another silky-smooth rice noodle.) A special flat wooden spatula is used to lift the noodle, then it’s then stuffed with the savory filling and rolled into a little log. 

In addition to that steaming method though, you can actually use a nonstick skillet to make banh cuon and get the same amazing chewy texture. I’m using a banh cuon flour mix that you can easily get at an Asian grocery store or online. It takes out the guesswork (and all brands have good instructions on the package on how to successfully make rice noodles at home). With no meat in the filling, this recipe is vegan, and still packed with flavor. 

These rolls are at their best served with fresh mint and Thai basil, crunchy mung bean sprouts, and fried shallots, and julienned carrot and cucumber. To make nuoc cham chay (vegan Vietnamese dipping sauce), simply combine these ingredients to taste: freshly squeezed lime juice, granulated sugar or maple syrup, minced fresh chiles or red pepper flakes, and nuoc mam chay (vegan fish sauce) if you can find it. 

Banh Cuon Chay (Vegan Rice Rolls)

I've included two popular dipping sauces here: a fish sauce-based sauce and a hoisin peanut sauce. Like the spring rolls, these dipping sauces are highly customizable, and restaurants will often have their own signature sauce. 

Dipping Sauces for Vietnamese Spring Rolls

I have a weakness for bite-size, deep-fried chicken bits. It could be popcorn chicken, the classic McDonald’s nuggets, or even crinkly wads of deep-fried chicken skin that burst in your mouth with a chicken fat intensity no jus can beat. I love them all. But each time I eat them—whether it’s a spontaneous midday drive-through order of 20 nuggets (all for myself), or an extra portion of fried chicken skin from KFC it’s a thing in their Malaysian branches)—the deep-fried chicken bits leave an oily, slick feeling in my throat, and I’m left chickened out for days after. So I’m always on the lookout for recipes and dishes that have all the characteristics of those deep-fried chicken bits but that I could eat on the daily, and could be made with ingredients I keep at home. Enter: rice paper nuggets. It’s a dish that I recently stumbled upon, from one of my binge watches of FoodTok videos and Korean ASMR FoodTubers. The basic recipe takes rice paper—thin, translucent, plasticky rice sheets commonly used in Vietnamese spring rolls—and wraps it around a small piece of boneless, skinless chicken. When dropped into hot oil, the rice paper puffs up into these crispy, golden, bubbly morsels within seconds, achieving an almost chicharrón-like airiness. When you pop each one into your mouth, the crispy, puffed rice paper crust will crackle and crunch with each bite, before giving way to the moist chicken within. The food YouTuber One Meal a Day is often credited as the progenitor of the technique, but many other food creators have re-created the dish, even riffed on it, too—from Emmy Cho from the YouTube channel 

, who gave it her oishii stamp of approval, to blogger (and Food52 Resident) WoonHeng’s 

 using mushrooms in place of the chicken, to my fellow Malaysian food creator Kristin Tan (who goes by @eatwkriss over on Instagram and TikTok) and her 

. And after watching and trying out the technique and its many riffs, I’m sold. While it might sound similar to nuggets or popcorn chicken on the outset, thanks to the rice paper crust, it’s crispier, more texturally crackly and fun, and the flavor potential is so much more exciting than fast-food-joint nuggets or popcorn chicken could ever be.

Rice Paper Tofu Nuggets

When I think of my mother, I think of this dish, especially during Tết, the Lunar New Year. The celebration goes on for at least a week, with the first few days reserved for spending time with family without the distraction of work or even turning on the stove. With restaurants across the country closed for the holiday, it pays to have a big batch of something made in advance that you can reheat for a crowd. For us and so many other Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans, Tết isn’t Tết without a bowl (or two, or three) of a beloved holiday kho with generous pieces of skin-on pork belly. For a leaner kho, you can replace half the belly with pork shoulder.

Holiday Thit Kho Trung (Extra-Special Caramelized Pork for the Lunar New Year)

These fritters, aromatic with garlic and turmeric, are a riff on the classic Hà Nội street snack called bánh tôm, in which shrimp or prawns are nestled in a basket of sweet potato, then fried. We swap out the sweet potato for taro here for a slightly different flavor; the taro is also lower in moisture than sweet potato, so the fritters stay crisp longer. You can use any size shrimp, though larger shrimp will be easier to slice and offer a more dramatic presentation than smaller shrimp. While these fritters do indeed make great snacks, you can also turn them into a family-style meal by serving them with a platter of lettuce, herbs, and rice paper wrappers. In either case, you will definitely want to dip these in plenty of nước chấm. If you don’t already have a jar in the fridge, you can easily make the nước chấm in the time it takes for the oil to reach the proper frying temperature.

 Taro Shrimp Fritters

Coconut milk, palm sugar, and pandan are the foundation for this rich, fragrant cake that’s perfect with tea. There actually isn’t any honey in this recipe; rather, it’s often called a honeycomb cake because the unique striations of its crumb resemble a honeycomb. This cake is a classic, and you’ve probably seen it at Vietnamese bakeries and delis—it’s the wedge with a brown crust and, more often than not, a bright green interior. The cake is deceptively simple to make, but achieving that coveted honeycomb structure requires exact ingredients and an understanding of a few baking techniques.

First, unlike many of our other recipes, there is no substitute for palm sugar here. It is a must-have for this cake to shine. Second, the bright green color in many versions is accomplished by using pandan extract. We opted to sacrifice that color in order to use fresh (or frozen) pandan leaves, which have floral, almost vanilla-like notes and are available at your local Asian market. Third, because double-acting baking powder—the most common type of baking powder at supermarkets—has the potential to cause the cake to collapse, we do as my mother did and use single-acting baking powder. It can be slightly tricky to find, as many supermarket chains carry only the double-acting sort; your best bet is to seek it out at the Asian market, too. Popular brands, in telltale pink sachets, are Alsa and IHA. Fourth, when combining the ingredients, we pass the eggs through a sieve and discard the thick membrane (called chalaza) for a smooth batter free of the air bubbles that would hinder the development of the interior structure. Finally, we use a 12-cup Bundt pan for a well-risen, evenly baked cake. When selecting your Bundt pan, choose one with a simple design: This will make turning out the cake much easier than one with intricate details.


Bánh Bò Nuong (Honeycomb Cake)

Pandan in everything, I say! Especially good in ice cream made ahead for instant after-dinner treats, served with shortbread or Pandan Swiss Roll. If you don’t have pandan, try a couple of vanilla beans with 40 grams (1½ ounces) grated ginger root or store-bought stem ginger, finely chopped. 

 by Uyen Luu. Photographs by Uyen Luu. Published by Hardie Grant.

Pandan Ice Cream

Summer Rolls With Garlic & Lemongrass-Poached Shrimp

These bright and herby meatballs are loosely inspired by the Vietnamese classic Chả Cá lã Vọng, a seared or grilled freshwater fish dish seasoned with vibrant turmeric, dill, and fish paste. They’re also a great way to stretch a pound of fish. Start with tender cod, then call in fiery Thai chiles and bright turmeric, ginger, and dill. (Not into cod? This recipe works great with shrimp, halibut, tilapia, and any other lean white fish.) They’re perfect with a rich peanut dressing, fresh herbs, and crisp vegetables, all wrapped in chewy rice paper. If you’re too lazy to build wraps or don’t have any rice paper, it makes just as delicious a salad all tossed together. The mixture of crackers and milk is called panade, and it helps the meatballs stay tender and moist. And we keep things interesting with a combination of cooked (shallot, scallion) 

 raw (ginger, cilantro) aromatics for layers of flavors. Everything is well mixed until springy and sticky, then allowed to rest before cooking until deeply browned. Also try my 

Lamb Meatballs With Tahini Sauce & Red Onion Salad

and learn more about how to make juicy, flavorful meatballs with any minced meat 

Turmeric Fish Balls With Peanut Sauce & So Many Herbs

Avocado & Seared Ahi Tuna Rolls

Phin drip coffee is a quintessential morning time drink in Vietnam—and since it's so simple to prepare at home, there's no reason why it shouldn't be your quintessential morning drink, too. It just requires a couple gadgets, some of which you may already have around (a stainless steel

 for one, which will run you about $15, an 

 or regular kettle fitted with a candy thermometer to measure the temperature of the water, and a 

. After that, it's all in the ratio and technique. Luckily for us, coffee expert Sahra Nguyen and her team at Nguyen Coffee Supply kindly shared her "recipe" for this classic concoction, and offered a few tips to help you make your very best brew at home. 

: Loyalty or Truegrit (for stronger coffee). The robusta beans in this signature blend are indicative of Vietnamese coffee culture. 

: Fine, like sand. Check the grinder manual for your grinder, look for the "Pour Over" setting, then go a tiny bit more coarse. Dialing in the phin filter with the right grind size is critical to making a proper brew you'll enjoy. Keep in mind that the coffee is fully immersed within the phin filter and it's a slow drip method, so if it's too fine, it may over extract. If it's too coarse, it will flow through too fast and under extract. See time benchmarks below. 

: We recommend starting at a 1:2 ratio of ounces of water to tablespoons of coffee. If you're using a 4-ounce phin filter, that would mean you'd use 2 tablespoons of ground coffee and 4 ounces of water. All this said, there's no wrong way to enjoy your coffee. Start with our benchmarks, then freestyle on the water to coffee ratio until you find your personal preference (aka the perfect cup).

Classic Vietnamese Coffee From Sahra Nguyen

At his legendary Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco, Charles Phan serves Caramelized Claypot Chicken made with the traditional Vietnamese kho (or dry-braise) technique, using a small amount of fish sauce caramel to simmer the chicken and aromatics. In this recipe, he streamlines the ingredients and process, so that more cooks can easily make it at home—using widely available ingredients and equipment, and no stressing over making caramel. (You'll just warm everything for the sauce at once.) The technique is flexible—don't worry if you're missing some of the ingredients, or want to use catfish or tofu instead of chicken. Charles recommends making extra sauce to keep in the fridge so that a good dinner is even closer. As Charles Phan writes, "This is one of the handful of dishes that we’ve served from the very first day at the Slanted Door. It’s traditionally made using bone-in pieces of chicken but we weren’t sure how well that would be received by customers. To play it safe, we used a mix of boneless, skinless white and dark meat when we first opened. These days we often run specials that feature bone-in chicken, which is more flavorful. The recipe couldn’t be simpler. If you have a batch of caramel sauce in the fridge, dinner will be ready in about twenty-five minutes." Adapted from 

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken From Charles Phan

This recipe is a weeknight workhouse of a supper, something I like to cook for myself when I have time for nothing else. The real star here is the lime and fish sauce butter, which is, in my humble opinion, the best steak sauce in the world. Sweet, salty, and life-affirming, it's at once funky caramel and umami personified. One word of advice: Turn on your range hood vent.

Steak Dinner for One With Fish Sauce & Lime Butter

This herbaceous, crunchy, meaty sandwich is a dream on a summer night—or any night at all. To prepare the lemongrass for the meatballs, first trim the bottom and then cut off the bottom 4 inches—this is the only part you’ll use here. (Save the other part for your next pot of stock.) Peel off and discard any dried outer layers to get to the tender bulb, mince it finely, and proceed with the recipe.

Once your meatballs are made, you’re pretty much in business: All that’s left to do is make the slaw and toast the Potato Hot Dog Rolls from Arnold®, Brownberry®, or Oroweat® in the oven (baked with quality ingredients, they're the perfect finishing touch to this sandwich). 

Lemongrass Meatball Subs With Spicy Veggie Slaw

Want the tenderest chicken wings with a sticky glaze and glassy skin? First, start by dry-brining for at least 6 hours, preferably 24. This seasons them to the bone, dries out the skin, and begins breaking down their fat. Next, go for a two-stage roast, starting with moderate heat to render all the fat, then increasing the temp to caramelize the sticky glaze. This all takes time but, aside from a couple flips and tosses, the action is mostly hands off. These wings are inspired by the Vietnamese fish sauce wings originally sold at a roadside stand in Ho Chi Minh City and later brought to Portland, Ore. via Andy Ricker’s restaurant Pok Pok. They have big punchy flavors: perky from lime juice, funky from fish sauce, and full of tongue-tingling spice from lots of chopped chiles and garlic. Finish with a shower of chopped peanuts, cilantro, and mint. Want a variation? Try 

Sticky Pomegranate & Black Pepper Chicken Wings

 and read more about this chicken wing technique here—so you have the confidence to take it off-script.

Sticky Fish Sauce Chicken Wings With Peanuts & Herbs

Have you ever tried a Vietnamese-style coffee? See, think about heaven. Double that. That's what it is. Basically, it's freshly brewed coffee with sweetened condensed milk. I mean, if you've never tried it, you are in for a huge treat, my friend, especially if you are a crazy coffee lover, like I am. That being said, I made this coffee cake with a coffee brigadeiro (hence the condensed milk) on top. I also added a bit of cardamom to the batter, because I'm nosy and I love the cardamom-and-coffee combo. You can leave it out, however, if you want (but not really). This cake is insanely moist, full of strong flavors, and crazy addictive.

Vietnamese Coffee Cake

Nguyen has thoughtfully recreated the characteristics that make other pho broths swirl with that delicate teeter-totter of comfort and sweet spice. But that doesn’t make it fragile. You could take these techniques and apply them to other vegetable broths, particularly the nutritional yeast addition, an unconventional ingredient to add the savory umami and richness of a chicken broth. Adapted slightly from 

The Phở Cookbook: Easy to Adventurous Recipes for Vietnam's Favorite Soup and Noodles

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