Reading a Menu in Vietnam
The main dishes in Hanoi are Bun Cha (pork patties in soup) and Pho (rice noodle sop)
The dish names are usually the type of noodle followed by the type of meat Pho go, pho bo, bun cha
Types of Noodle/Rice
- Phở - flat rice noodle
- Bún - spaghetti-style rice noodle
- Miến - glass noodles
- Mỳ - instant noodles from a packet
- Cơm - normal cooked rice
- Xôi - sticky rice
Common Dishes
- pho bo
- pho ga
- pho ga chon (mixed pho without the soup, as opposed to pho ga nuoc - with the sauce)
- bun cha
- mien vit
- com binh dan
- banh xeo
- banh my
- banh my chao
Types of Meat
- thit - meat
- thit ga - chicken meat
- thit bo - beef
- thit vit - duck
- thit ngan - goose
- thit cho - dog meat
- thit meo - cat meat
- hai san - seafood
- ca - fish
Parts of the Animal
Pho is usually served with a specific cut of meat that you can specify
- tái - half done beef
- chín - welldone beef
- tái chín - half done with welldone beef
- nạm gầu - brisket with flank beef
- tái nạm - half done with flank beef
- tái gầu - half done with brisket beef
- tái bắp - beef fillet noodle
- bắp nạm gầu - brisket with flank and fillet beef
- bát dặc biệt - special bowl
-
bắp trần - half done fillet beef
- thư - head
- tim - heart
- lòng - intestines
- bầu dục/thận - kidneys
- thịt bắp bò - beef shin
- dạ dày - belly
- tiết - blood
- xương - bone
Styles of Cooking
- nuong - grilled/BBQ
- lau - hotpot
- ? - boiled
- xao - stir-fried
Utensiltes
- fork - dĩa
- spoon - thìa
- knife - dao
- (pair of) chopsticks - (đôi) đũa
- plate -đĩa
- big bowl - bát tô
- small rice bowl - bát ăn cơm
- cup - coc
Spices etc
- vinegar
- ginger - gung
- chilis
- chili sauce
- lemon (actually little green limes) - chanh
- pepper - tieu
- salt - muoi
- sugar - duong
- water - nuoc
Other things
- excuse me, waiter - (pronoun - anh/chi/em/co/chu/ba…) oi!
- bill please - tinh tien
- i am vegetarian - toi an chay (sometimes they don’t consider chicken to be meat so good luck)
- het roi - we’ve run out
Misc
- com binh dan - rice with a few things on top (lit. affordable rice for the everyman)
- trung - egg
- xuc xich - sausage
- banh my - bread roll - bagette - usually with egg/pate/sausage/coriander
- mang ve - takeaway
- an day - eat here
- (rat) ngon - (very) delicious
- rau - lit. vegetables but they will bring you water spinich
- no straw - khong hut omg
- no sugar - khong duong
- no plastic bag - khong (can) tui
- no coriander
- no chili sauce
- (drink name) da - (x) with ice
- giay an - paper towels/napkinds (lit. eating paper)
Drinks
- ca phe den (black)/nau (brown - sweetened condensed milk))
- tra da - tea with ice
- tra chanh - lemon tea with a lot of sugar
- nuoc - water
- bia - beer
- ruou - lit. alcohol but they use it to mean rice wine
Practice exercises
- Bring me one more bowl
- Bring me paper towels
- I want a beef noodle soup (pho) with shoulder meat
- Bring me stir fried flat noodles with beef
- Hey waiter (older female), bring me the bill, please! (chi oi, tinh tien, a/nhe)
- give me two black coffees takeaway, no straws!
- give me a banh my with egg and sausage, hold the chili sauce
- do you serve dog meat here?
- I ordered food 10 minutes ago.
- Two more beers please
- Please bring me a cup of ice