7ILT1 Asian Food Safari: Vietnam

This site aims to present a snapshot of each ASEAN member country ... looking at its geography, history, cultural heritage, uniqueness and some commonalities among them + information on the giant catfish, komodo dragons and orangutans.

Bring the world to your kitchen, with recipes from more than 100+ cuisines.

Vietnam is a long, narrow country in Southeast Asia. China borders it to the north; Cambodia, Laos, and the Gulf of Thailand to the west; and the South China Sea (which the Vietnamese call "the East Sea") to the east. Covering a total of 327,500 square kilometers (126,500 square miles), Vietnam is approximately the same size as Italy and Japan.

The geography of Vietnam plays an important role in the country's cuisine. Rice, the mainstay of the Vietnamese diet, is grown throughout the country but particularly in the Red River delta in the north and Mekong River delta in the south. In fact, the Vietnamese people say that their country resembles a bamboo pole (the narrow central region) with a basket of rice at each end.