Vietnam

Dictionary: Vi·et·nam   (vē-ĕt'näm', -năm', vē'ĭt-, vyĕt'-)

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Vietnam

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A country of southeast Asia in eastern Indochina on the South China Sea. It comprises the historical regions of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China, much of which was under Chinese control from the 3rd century B.C. to the 15th century A.D. Portuguese traders arrived in 1535, and the area came under French influence in the mid-19th century as part of French Indochina. After the fall of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, it was partitioned into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The Vietnam War (1954–1975) grew out of the attempt by Communist Vietcong guerrillas backed by North Vietnam to overthrow the U.S.-supported regime in the south. The South Vietnamese government collapsed in 1975, and the country was reunited in 1976. Hanoi is the capital and Ho Chi Minh City the largest city. Population: 85,300,000.

In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Vietnamese Dong.

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Country, Southeast Asia. Area: 128,379 sq mi (332,501 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 82,628,000. Capital: Hanoi. The great majority of the population is Vietnamese; minorities include Chinese, Hmong, Thai, Khmer, and Cham. Languages: Vietnamese (official), French, Chinese, English, Khmer. Religions: Buddhism, new religions, traditional beliefs, Christianity. Currency: new dong. Vietnam is about 1,025 mi (1,650 km) long, 210 – 340 mi (340 – 550 km) wide at its widest parts, and 30 mi (50 km) wide at its narrowest part. Northern Vietnam is mountainous; Fan Si Peak, the country's highest mountain, rises to 10,312 ft (3,143 m). The Red River is the principal river. Southern Vietnam is dominated by the Mekong River delta. A long, relatively narrow coastal plain connects the two major river deltas. The densely forested Annamese Cordillera extends through west-central Vietnam. Northern Vietnam is rich in mineral resources, especially anthracite coal and phosphates. Some petroleum deposits exist off the southern coast. Significant food crops include rice, sugarcane, coffee, tea, and bananas. Food processing and fishing are important industries, as are the manufacture of steel and phosphates. Vietnam is a socialist republic with one legislative house; its head of state is the president, and its head of government is the prime minister.

A distinct Vietnamese group began to emerge c. 200 BC in the independent kingdom of Nam Viet, which was later annexed to China in the 1st century BC. The Vietnamese were under continuous Chinese control until the 10th century AD. The southern region was gradually overrun by Vietnamese from the north in the late 15th century. The area was divided into northern and southern dynasties in the early 17th century, and in 1802 these two parts were unified under a single dynasty. Following several years of attempted French colonial expansion in the region, the French captured Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1859 and later the rest of the area, controlling it until World War II (see French Indochina). The Japanese occupied Vietnam in 1940 – 45 and allowed the Vietnamese to declare independence at the end of the war, a move the French opposed. The First Indochina War ensued and lasted until French forces with U.S. financial backing were defeated by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu in 1954; evacuation of French troops followed. After an international conference at Geneva (April – July 1954), Vietnam was partitioned along latitude 17° N, with the northern part under the communist leadership of Ho Chi Minh and the southern part under the U.S.-supported former emperor Bao Dai; the partition was to be temporary, but the reunification elections scheduled for 1956 were never held. An independent South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) was declared, while the communists established North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam). The activities of North Vietnamese guerrillas and procommunist rebels in South Vietnam led to U.S. intervention and the Vietnam War. A cease-fire agreement was signed in 1973 and U.S. troops withdrawn, but the civil war soon resumed; in 1975 North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam, and the South Vietnamese government collapsed. In 1976 the two Vietnams were united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. From the mid-1980s the government enacted a series of economic reforms and began to open up to Asian and Western nations. In 1995 the U.S. officially normalized relations with Vietnam.

For more information on Vietnam, visit Britannica.com.

By virtue of its geographical location, Vietnam has been exposed to two main forms of Buddhism. The Mahāyāna form predominates in the north, where Chinese influence is strongest, and the Theravāda school is pre-eminent in parts of the south, which has stronger links to the Buddhism of south-east Asia. Historically, Buddhism reached different regions at different times, and its evolution has been eclectic, often mingling with Taoism and Confucianism. The history of Buddhism in the territory now covered by the country of Vietnam dates back at least to the 2nd century ce, when it was transmitted southward from China to the area then known as Chiao-chou. This territory remained under Chinese hegemony through to the 10th century, and while Buddhism certainly existed and probably thrived during that time, later historians tended to discount it as ‘Chinese’ Buddhism, and concentrated their efforts on the period of independence. Thus, materials relating the history of Buddhism during the period of Chinese dominance are scarce. Stories dating from this period show the presence of monastic Buddhism, and present tales of scripture-chanting, the erection of images, and the miraculous intervention of monks with little comment, which indicates that such things were common enough for the reader to need no explanation. Early records also indicate that the late Han-dynasty governor of Chiao-chou, Shih Hsieh (Si Nhiep) had a large number of Chinese and central Asian monks in his entourage. Official Chinese court records speak of eminent and accomplished monks from Chiao-chou who made their way to the northern capitals, showing that there were sufficient resources there for them to receive detailed training in doctrine, scripture, and meditation, and we also have records of foreign monks who settled in Chiao-chou to carry out translation activities. I-ching (635-713), a monk who journeyed to India and later wrote an account of other monks who had done the same, mentions that several of them, having taken the southern maritime route either coming or going, stopped off in Chiao-chou. In other words, in some respects Buddhism in Vietnam during this period was simply an extension of Chinese Buddhism, and much of what transpired there reflected developments elsewhere in the empire.

However, there was another strain of Buddhism active in the area at this time. Waves of Indian cultural export had made their way across south-east Asia, penetrating as far as Indonesia, and Theravāda forms of Buddhism were among these. Many people in the southern part of Vietnam were more influenced by this form of Buddhism than by Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism, and so Vietnam came to be the meeting place for the two streams: Mahāyāna going north from India along the Silk Road, down into China, then into Vietnam; and Theravāda going south along the seacoasts through Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia and into Vietnam. Vietnamese Buddhism, as a result, is a unique mixture of Mahāyāna and Theravāda forms.

By the time Vietnam achieved independence from China in the 10th century, Buddhism had been an integral part of the cultural landscape for over 800 years. The first emperor of independent Vietnam, Dinh Bo Linh, put together a system of hierarchical ranks for government officials, Buddhist monks, and Taoist priests after ascending to power in 968. Thereafter, Buddhist monks were part of the national administration, serving the ruler as advisers, rallying the people in times of crisis, and attending to the spiritual needs of the masses. The Lý dynasty (1010-1225) was more stable and long-lived than the Dinh and Lê dynasties that preceded it. This dynasty was willing to take in many elements in its task of constructing a national culture and identity, and so many elements of Chinese, Indian, and Cham culture were included, and many schools of Buddhism were able to exist side by side and compete in an open religious marketplace, further facilitating the intermingling of Mahāyāna and Theravāda forms. Archeological evidence also indicates that tantric Buddhism had also made its way into Vietnam during this time (stelae with mantras incribed on them have been discovered). During this time, Buddhism also became more widely disseminated among the common people, as monks came into villages and ‘converted’ local deities, ancestors, and culture heroes to the religion and declared them now ‘protectors of the Dharma’. This move worked to unify the disparate local cults under the Buddhist umbrella, and aided in the unification of the country. In return, the Lý kings supported Buddhism lavishly: giving stipends to eminent monks, erecting and refurbishing temples, and sending envoys to China in search of scriptures. In this way, new developments in Chinese Buddhism were noted in Vietnam, particularly with the importation of Ch'an ‘transmission of the lamp’ genre works. This created a dichotomy between an older form of Buddhism that was highly syncretistic and incorporated many elements and practices under its umbrella, and a newer Buddhism that inclined to a purer Chinese nature, centred mostly on Ch'an.

Ch'an study and practice became more entrenched under the Tran dynasty (1225-1400), although the older forms also remained vital. A kind of division of labour arose, with Confucianism adjudicating worldly affairs and Buddhism providing the metaphysical and soteriological framework for human life. Many Tran emperors abdicated and retired to Mt. Yan Tu to practise Buddhism full-time after a Confucian career as national ruler. Tran rulers also sponsored the establishment of the first actual ‘schools’ of Buddhism in Vietnam, beginning with the Truc Lam (Bamboo Grove) Ch'an school founded by the third Tran king. Missionary monks also arrived continuously from China, bringing both the Lin-chi and Ts'ao-tung schools into Vietnam, and they found a ready audience among the Tran aristocracy. Unfortunately, the surviving literature tends to give only lists of lineages and temples, making it difficult to determine the actual content of teaching and practice. The works that remain show many features reminiscent of the ‘Ch'an of the patriarchs’ found in China: encounter dialogues, enlightenment verses, direct transmission of the mind of enlightenment, and so on.

In the 15th century, the Vietnamese began to conquer and absorb parts of Cambodia, bringing the religion of the Khmer people into the Vietnamese fold. This strengthened the coexistence between the Vietnamese Ch'an of the élites alongside the Theravāda teachings and practices of the Cambodians. The country took its current shape during the 18th century, and the country's unique blend of schools of Buddhism was fixed from that time. The occupation of the area by the French, in giving the different ethnic groupings of the land a common tongue, facilitated interchange between different forms of Buddhism. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese culture, like other cultures in east and south-east Asia, had to deal with modern trends of science, Western thought, and Marxism. During this time, many educated Vietnamese began abandoning Mahāyāna and Ch'an Buddhism, which seemed superstitious with all its deities, magical rituals, and practices for gaining rebirth in the Pure Land. They came to favour Theravāda Buddhism, which seemed more pragmatic and this-worldly in comparison. An instrumental figure in this evolution was Le Van Giang, who studied Theravāda meditation with a Cambodian teacher, took the name Ho-Tong, and came back to Vietnam to build the first formally Theravāda temple near Saigon. From this headquarters he began actively disseminating Theravāda Buddhism in the local language, and produced translations of the Pāli scriptures into Vietnamese. The Vietnamese Theravāda Buddhist Saṃgha Congregation was formally established in 1957, making what had formerly been an element dispersed throughout Vietnamese Buddhism in a diffuse manner into a formal school to rival the Chinese-style Ch'an schools. By 1997, this Congregation had 64 temples scattered throughout the country. Buddhist organizations founded in the 1960s include the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the United Buddhist Association, and the School of Youth for Social Services. Under the leadership of the monk Thich Nhat Hanh, well known in the West as a leading exponent of Engaged Buddhism, the latter has become a crusading volunteer organization dedicated to improving the lot of rural communities. During the Vietnam War, Buddhist monks were active in efforts to bring hostilities to a close, and many of them immolated themselves publicly to protest the war (see Thich Quang Duc). Others, including Thich Nhat Hanh, went abroad to propagate Vietnamese Ch'an. The Lam-te lineage of Rinzai zen introduced in the 17th century is today the largest Buddhist order.

This entry is a subtopic of Southeast Asia.

The Vietnamese cuisine has been described as one of the most colorful and diverse in the world. The country's geography, climate, and history all play influential roles in creating its culinary range. The Vietnamese often describe their country as resembling a shoulder pole laden with two rice baskets. In fact, both the northern Red River delta and the southern Mekong River delta are rice-producing regions. The long coastline, rivers, and tributaries have ensured the place of seafood throughout the country, while the distinctive climates and cultures found in the North, Middle, and South, along with Vietnam's mountain-lowland ecologies have produced regional variation in the diet. Finally, Vietnam's relations with China (which controlled it for a thousand years, beginning in 111 B.C.E.), its Southeast Asian neighbors, India, France, and the United States have affected what the Vietnamese have chosen to eat, or been forced to eat, throughout their history.

Food Beliefs

Philosophy. Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism play an important role in Vietnamese food beliefs, but rural pragmatics are part of even the most cosmopolitan individual's belief system. According to Vietnamese from the countryside, there are two important qualities in food: quantity and taste. The elderly and guests, including spiritual ones, also require more prestigious food than is commonly eaten by everyone else. While the majority of Vietnamese profess a belief in Buddhism, relatively few adhere to Buddhist dietary prohibitions against meat and alcohol. The foods preferred in ancestor worship, and usually placed on an altar with incense and wine, were chicken and rice. These are the same foods that are served to company when possible. Pork is usually served at feasts.

Science. The Vietnamese regard two distinct health systems as scientific: Western medicine as practiced by the French and Western–trained physicians, and thuoc bac, literally "northern medicine," but colloquially "Chinese medicine." According to most sources, thuoc bac incorporates Chinese and Indian (Ayurvedic) traditions, and was possibly influenced by the humoral pathology of the classical Greek physician Galen (129–199 C.E.). In this frame of reference, health reflects a balance of two basic elements, am (the Chinese yin)—often translated as "cold"—and duong (Chinese, yang), or "hot." Ill health is the disequilibrium of these forces brought about by incorporating too much am or duong in the body. Foods share these designations, and can either upset the balance through deficit or overindulgence, or be used therapeutically.

A Vietnamese interpretation of the life cycle is that following childbirth, the mother and infant are both cold. As the infant develops, he or she becomes warmer. This warmth peaks in adolescence (teenagers are the hottest), and then the adult begins to cool down, maintaining neutrality (the desired state) through maturity. The body becomes cool again in old age. Foods are recommended according to these life stages. Immediately following birth, for example, the mother is given hot foods and treatments (which are shared with the infant through breast milk). Infants and young children, while frequently troubled by cold illnesses such as diarrhea and stomachache, are naturally warm, with a tendency toward rashes, fevers, and constipation. Adults can acquire hot or cold illnesses that need to be counterbalanced by treatments and diet. The elderly tend to be cold, and frequently require therapeutic warming. Cigarette smoking used to be advocated for the elderly (the Vietnamese term for tobacco is thuoc la, or "medicinal leaves").

As is true in all humoral systems, the food's temperature has little to do with its qualities of am and duong, boiled water being the exception (water boiled, then cooled, is warming, whereas cool water is cold. Ice is hot!). Most green vegetables are considered cooling; fatty foods such as meat, sugary foods, and red or orange fruits (such as papaya, mango, or watermelon) are considered heating.

A Vietnamese Meal

The majority of Vietnamese cuisine is relatively simple, relying on fresh fish, vegetables, fruit, and steamed white rice. Rice is so important in the diet that the words used to enquire if someone has eaten are an com roi, or, "eaten rice yet?" Fish sauce (nuoc mam) made from fermented anchovies is used much like soy sauce in Chinese cuisine. Few Vietnamese dishes do not include a drop or two, and Vietnamese have often subsisted on little more than fish sauce on rice, when they were lucky enough to have rice.

A typical Vietnamese meal requires rice, soup (with greens), a fried dish of fish, meat, or vegetables, and fish sauce on the side for additional flavoring. This meal would be prepared in sufficient quantity that it would be consumed for lunch and dinner. The primary factors normally taken into consideration when preparing a meal include the number of people needing to eat, their ages and associated needs (according to the theory of am and duong), taste preferences, cost of the foods, and ease of preparation.

The Vietnamese like to eat three meals a day, with breakfast often consisting of a thick rice soup (chau) like the Chinese congee, bread products, or foods identical to those consumed at other times of the day. The Vietnamese appreciate coffee, preferring a dense, slow-dripped preparation mixed with sweetened, condensed milk. Noodles (with or without soup); fresh or dried fruits; salted, roasted seeds; dried squid; and just about any salty, chewy food makes up the snack world.

Tea, various infusions of seeds or herbs (particularly lotus roots or seeds), soft drinks, and beer (usually drunk with ice) are consumed throughout the country, with beer (including the artisanal variety bia hoi) edging out the other drinks in terms of popularity among men in the South. Everyone drinks water, preferably rainwater collected in large earthenware jars. Water is also consumed from local ponds and streams, although much of it carries a heavy parasitic load.

Holiday Food

While rice is the "pearl of heaven," plain cooked rice is not a prestige food. Celebratory foods gain their prestige because of the limited availability of their ingredients or the difficulty of their preparation. Often rice flour cooked into sheets is the basis for delicate preparations, or pounded rice is used to make sumptuous cakes filled with bean paste, pork, or other delicacies. The principal holiday is Tet, the Vietnamese lunar New Year; it usually occurs in February. A child's first birthday (at which time he or she is considered to be two years old) is celebrated to mark survival of the perilous first year of life, when many infants die. Foods common in Vietnamese restaurants in the United States, such as cha gio, which require a lot of preparation, are normally reserved for Tet and first-year celebrations. Coca-Cola (seemingly the only U.S. contribution to Vietnamese cuisine) or beer are the accompanying beverages of choice. Urban birthday meals include colored rice cakes and purchased French layer cake with frosting. And the urban way of celebrating a wedding is to take the entire extended family and other guests to a Chinese restaurant. There eight to ten courses of meat, fish, and poultry, and very little rice, are served.

Regional Variation

The North of Vietnam, with its colder climate and proximity to China, is the home of pho, the famous beef broth with noodles and thin slices of meat. Accompanying herbs such as mint, basil, green onions, and bean sprouts grow in the northern climate. Grilled meat and stir-frying are more common food-preparation methods here. There are fewer vegetables and fruits available.

Central Vietnam has an important historical heritage that adds chili peppers, other spices and characteristic presentation style to the cuisine. A "kingly" table consisted of many small dishes instead of a common bowl, which is the "common" (and ubiquitous) way to serve the family. The cuisine of Hue, the ancient capital, is also more seasonal than in the North or South, reflecting not only the availability of vegetables, fruits, fowl, and seafood, but the humoral qualities of people at this time of year as well as the food. The sweet pudding chè, usually made with beans or lotus seeds, hails from this region.

The South's hot and humid climate produces a year-round, changing supply of vegetables, fruits, and livestock. The South is also the social pressure cooker of Vietnam, with a fourteenth-century origin as an Indianized Khmer region, followed by Vietnamese sovereignty in the eighteenth century. The French occupied the region from the nineteenth through the middle of the twentieth century, when the Vietnamese took power again. Dishes such as bánh xèo have been described as a Vietnamese crepe, or an Indian dhosa, depending on how far back in time the form is thought to have originated. Curries, asparagus, avocado, little white potatoes, French bread, and mayonnaise all make their way to the table in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). Many dishes combine fish with vegetables or sour fruits, such as tamarind or pineapple. And "pâté" can refer to anything from a mixture of ground pork used to fill the famous Vietnamese spring roll (cha gio) to a shrimp paste spread on French bread.

The hill tribes of Vietnam, such as the Hmong, are fewer in number today due to their collaboration with South Vietnamese and U.S. forces during the Vietnam War; many were evacuated to the United States at the end of the war. Tribal groups, however, respect national borders less than altitude, and move somewhat freely between Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. They practice slash-and-burn agriculture, raise and consume pigs, and prefer glutinous (sticky) rice, which can be eaten with the fingers, to the long-grain variety preferred by lowlanders, which is always consumed in a small bowl with chopsticks. They trade the products of poppies (seeds; opium) and their renowned silverwork and embroidery for food products from the lowland areas.

It is impossible to not mention that millions of Vietnamese, highland and lowland alike, have known starvation throughout their history. Vietnam's struggle with the Chinese, with the French, with Japanese occupiers at the end of World War II, and with the Americans have resulted for varying periods in outright food shortages or broken distribution systems. Ho Chi Minh was able to gain support for his version of communism in part because of inequalities in the rice trade and widespread hunger in the North. The colonial system introduced many French delicacies to urbanites, but the rural poor subsisted on what they could grow on rented plots or fish from the irrigation canals of the plantations on which they worked for minimal wages.

Global economic downturns aside, Vietnam in the early twenty-first century appears to be well on the way to a stable economy. North-South differences in cuisine are still distinctive, even though the country has been unified since 1977. The hotel restaurant training school in Hanoi is bustling with noontime clients daily, with avocados and French onion soup prominent on the menu. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese now live outside the country, with most settled in the United States, Australia, France, and Canada. Expatriate Vietnamese have brought their cuisine to these countries, where it continues to evolve, incorporating a few local items into the rich Vietnamese culinary inventory.

Bibliography

Fishman, Claudia. "Vietnamese Families in Philadelphia, an Analysis of Household Food Decisions and Dietary Outcomes for Vietnamese Women and Children Living in Philadelphia: 1980–1984." Dissertation in Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1986.

Fishman, Claudia, R. Evans, and E. Jenks. "Warm Bodies, Cool Milk: Conflicts in Post Partum Food Choice for Indochinese Women in California." Social Science Medicine, 1988, 26(11):1125–1132.

Ha, D. B. An Uong va Suc Khoe (Nutrition and Health). Garden Grove, Calif.: VCP Printing, 1981.

Hickey, Gerald C. Village in Vietnam. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964.

Manderson, L., and M. Mathews. "Vietnamese Behavioral and Dietary Precautions during Pregnancy." Ecol. Food and Nutr. (1981): 11:1–8.

Sterling, Richard. Vietnam (World Food series). Hawthorne, Victoria, Australia: Lonely Planet, 2000.

Tran, V. "Nutritional Value and Composition of Foodstuffs of the Diet of the Vietnamese Rural Adult." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 24 (1971): 38.

—Claudia C. Parvanta

Republic in Southeast Asia, bordered by Cambodia and Laos to the west, China to the north, and the South China Sea (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) to the east and south.

• Vietnam was under the control of France from the second half of the nineteenth century until World War II, when it was occupied by the Japanese. The country became an autonomous state in 1946. France's attempts to reassert control resulted in the French Indochina War (1946-1954), in which the French were defeated.
• The Geneva Conference of 1954 divided Vietnam into North Vietnam, controlled by communists, and South Vietnam, controlled by noncommunists.
• In the Vietnam War of 1954-1975, South Vietnam, which was aided by the United States, fought communist insurgents, who were aided by North Vietnam. The war ended when the communists overran the south in 1975. The country was reunified in 1976.
• American involvement in the Vietnam War was strongly protested in the United States.
• Great numbers of Vietnamese refugees, known as boat people, fled the country in the aftermath of the war.
• Between 1978 and 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and installed a puppet government.

The international dialing code for Vietnam is:   84

Local Time: Jul 5, 3:57 AM

Introduction

Geography

People

Government

Economy

Transportation

Military

Transnational Issues

Recipes

Geographic Setting and Environment

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.

Although three-quarters of the land in Vietnam is hilly or mountainous, the long seacoast and many inland waterways provide fish and other aquatic species that are staples in the Vietnamese diet. Vietnamese cuisine varies somewhat by region, with Chinese influences (such as stir fries, noodles, and use of chopsticks) in the north, as well as Cambodian (Khmer) and French influences in the south.

Climate affects the availability of ingredients, which in turn affects the types of dishes that dominate a particular region. During the winter months in the north, families gather around a big bowl of seasoned broth and cook vegetables and meat in it for sustenance and warmth. A fish dish called cha ca, which is cooked in a similar fashion, is also quite common. The charcoal brazier (small barbecue-like heat source) that keeps the broth boiling sits on the table and keeps the entire family warm.

In the south, where the climate is conducive to a long growing season and where more ingredients are available, the typical diet contains a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. In the south, sugar and sugarcane are used more often than in the north. A popular dish in the south is cha tom (shrimp wrapped in sugarcane). Reflecting the tropical climate, foods in the south are cooked for a shorter length of time than in the north. In the north, there are many stirfries and slow-cooking stews whereas in the south most foods are quickly grilled or eaten raw.

Vietnam is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with a rapidly growing population, estimated in 2000 to be 76 million people. As the population increases, more land is cleared for agriculture. Estimates in 2001 indicated that less than 20 percent of the land remained forested and 40 percent was considered useless for growing crops. Farmers trying to clear land quickly burn the vegetation to make way for crops. They then overuse the land until it is no longer fertile or suitable for crops. This type of farming, known as shifting cultivation (or "slash and burn"), is practiced most often in the north and in other countries around the world.

Too much fishing has depleted the number of fish in the waters surrounding Vietnam, and the coastal marine environment is also threatened by oilfield development in the south.

Safe drinking water is another problem in Vietnam. According to UNICEF, only 45 percent of Vietnam's inhabitants have access to safe drinking water and only 29 percent have access to adequate sanitation. In recent years, the government and other organizations have begun programs to slow the pace of environmental degradation by educating citizens about sanitation and sustainable agriculture practices.

History and Food

Neighbors have influenced the Vietnamese people in regards to what they eat and how they cook. People from Mongolia who invaded Vietnam from the north in the tenth century brought beef with them. This is how beef became part of the Vietnamese diet. Common Vietnamese beef dishes are pho bo (Beef Noodle Soup) and bo bay mon (Beef Cooked Seven Ways). The Chinese who dominated Vietnam for 1,000 years taught the Vietnamese people cooking techniques such as stir frying and deep frying, as well as the use of chopsticks. In the south, neighboring Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand introduced such ingredients as flat, Cambodianstyle egg noodles, spices, chili, and coconut milk.

Beginning in the sixteenth century, explorers and traders introduced foods such as potatoes, tomatoes, and snow peas. When the French colonized Vietnam (1858–1954), they introduced foods such as baguettes (French bread), pâté, coffee with cream, milk, butter, custards, and cakes. In the 1960s and 1970s (Vietnam War era), the U.S. military introduced ice cream to Vietnam when it contracted with two U.S. dairies to build dozens of ice cream factories.

Foods of the Vietnamese

Plain rice (com trang) is at the center of the Vietnamese diet. Steamed rice is part of almost every meal. The Vietnamese prefer long-grain white rice, as opposed to the short-grain rice more common in Chinese cooking. Rice is also transformed into other common ingredients such as rice wine, rice vinegar, rice noodles, and rice paper wrappers for spring rolls.

Rice is also used to make noodles. There are four main types of rice noodles used in Vietnamese cooking. Banh pho are the wide white noodles used in the quintessential Vietnamese soup, pho. Bun noodles (also called rice vermicelli) look like long white strings when cooked. Banh hoi are a thinner version of bun noodles. In addition, there are dried glass, or cellophane, noodles (mien or bun tao) made from mung bean starch.

Just as essential to Vietnamese cuisine as rice and noodles is nuoc mam, a salty fish sauce that is used in most Vietnamese recipes (just as salt is used in most Western dishes). Nuoc mam is produced in factories along the coast of Vietnam. Anchovies and salt are layered in wooden barrels and then allowed to ferment for about six months. The light-colored, first-drained sauce is the most desirable. It is also the most expensive and reserved primarily for table use. Less expensive nuoc mam is used in cooking. When shopping for nuoc mam, one should look for the words ca com on the label, which indicates the highest quality.

The most popular condiment is nuoc cham (dipping sauce), which is as common in Vietnam as ketchup is in North America. Saucers filled with nuoc cham are present at practically every meal, and diners dip everything from spring rolls to meatballs into it. The recipe that follows can be adjusted to suit individual tastes by using more or less red pepper and nuoc mam. Nuoc cham is quite simple to make and will keep in the refrigerator for up to 30 days. A few spoonfuls over a bowl of plain rice can be considered an authentic Vietnamese peasant meal.

See Nuoc Cham (Dipping Sauce) recipe.

See Pho Bo (Beef Noodle Soup) recipe.

See Coconut Custard recipe.

Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations

Of the many influences that China has had on Vietnam, the most profound is probably the introduction of Buddhism. The widespread practice of Buddhism in Vietnam has led to the development of one of the world's most sophisticated style of vegetarian cooking (an chay), particularly in the coastal city of Hue, which is home to many Buddhists.

On the first and middle days of each lunar month (the full moon and a sliver moon), many Vietnamese do not eat meat, seafood, chicken, or eggs. On these days, the street vendors have numerous vegetarian dishes available. Following is a recipe for a traditional Buddhist vegetarian dish.

See Canh Bi Ro Ham Dua (Braised Pumpkin with Coconut Milk) recipe.

See Banh Chuoi Nuong (Banana Cake) recipe.

Mealtime Customs

Vietnamese meals are rarely divided into separate courses. Rather, all the food is served at once and shared from common dishes set out on a low table. The family sits on mats on the floor, and each person has a rice bowl, chopsticks, and soup spoon. Family members use the narrow end of the chopsticks to bring food to the mouth and the wide end to serve from the common dishes. Certain foods, such as spring rolls, are picked up and eaten out of the hand. Most meals include soup, a stir-fry or other main dish, a light salad, and a variety of side dishes.

Snacks are often purchased from street vendors. Popular handheld snacks include spring rolls or pork meatballs on a stick. These foods and pho (beef noodle soup) are the equivalent of fast food in Vietnamese cities. Also common between meals are sweet fruits and ice cream, introduced during the Vietnam War era (1960s and 1970s). Another "imported" snack food is a baguette with pâté, a holdover from the years when Vietnam was a colony of France.

Tea (che ortra) is the most common beverage in Vietnam. It is common practice to prepare enough tea for the whole day first thing in the morning because traditional Vietnamese hospitality dictates that one must be able to serve tea immediately if unexpected visitors drop by. Tea is served before and after meals, but not during. Vietnamese prefer green (unfermented) tea, but the black tea more familiar to Westerners is available in cities.

Although most Vietnamese prefer tea, coffee is grown in Vietnam and is readily available in cities. Served both hot and cold, caphe is a well-known Vietnamese beverage consisting of coffee with sweetened condensed milk (recipe follows). Fresh coconut milk is another popular drink that is widely available from street vendors, who simply cut the top off a young coconut and then serve it with a straw. A particularly refreshing beverage on a hot day is soda chanh (lemon soda).

See Caphe (Vietnamese Coffee) recipe.

See Soda Chanh (Lemon Soda) recipe.

See Spring Rolls recipe.

Politics, Economics, and Nutrition

Vietnam's population is growing rapidly, and the farmers must work hard to produce enough food. Vietnam produces about 25 million tons of rice per year, making it the world's third-largest exporter of this commodity (after Thailand and the United States). Agricultural products include rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans, coffee, tea, bananas, poultry, pork, fish, cashews, and sugarcane.

Socio-economics determines how much protein is in the Vietnam diet. The poorest Vietnamese eat less beef, pork, fish, and poultry than do the upper classes. Consequently, iron-deficiency anemia and other dietary deficiencies are more common among the rural poor. City dwellers tend to fare better economically and are more likely to have access to refrigeration, safe drinking water, and sanitation.

Further Study

Ferro, Jennifer. Vietnamese Foods and Culture. Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Press, 1999.

Halvorsen, Francine. Eating Around the World inYour Neighborhood. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Jeys, Kevin, Emily Kendrick, and Taran March, Eds. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos Handbook. Chico, CA: Moon Publications, 1996.

Robinson, Daniel. Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia: ATravel Survival Kit. Berkeley, CA: Lonely Planet Publications, 1991.

Shalant, Phyllis. Look What We've Brought You from Vietnam: Crafts, Games, Recipes, Stories, and Other Cultural Activities from Vietnamese Americans. 2nd ed. New York: J. Messner, 1998.

Tran, Diana My. The Vietnamese Cookbook. Sterling, VA: Capital Books, 2000.

Trang, Corinne. Authentic Vietnamese Cooking:Food from a Family Table. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Web Sites

Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the United States. [Online] Available http://www.vietnamembassy-usa.org/ (accessed July 17, 2000).

Vietspace. [Online] Available http://kicon.com (accessed July 17, 2000). VNN Media. "Vietnam News Network." [Online] Available http://www.vnn-news.com/ (accessed July 17, 2000).

Doan Quan Viet-Nam Di
March to the Front

Soldiers of Vietnam, we go forward,
With the one will to save our Fatherland
Our hurried steps are sounding on the long and arduous road
Our flag, red with the blood of victory, bears the spirit of our country
The distant rumbling of the guns mingles with our marching song.
The path to glory passes over the bodies of our foes.
Overcoming all hardships, together we build our resistance bases.
Ceaselessly for the people's cause we struggle,
Hastening to the battle field!
Forward! All together advancing!
Our Vietnam is strong eternal.

Soldiers of Vietnam, we go forward,
The gold star of our flag in the wind
Leading our people, our native land, out of misery and suffering
Let us join our efforts in the fight for the building of a new life.
Let us stand up and break our chains.
For too long have we swallowed our hatred
Let us keep ready for all sacrifices and our life will be radiant.
Ceaselessly for the people's cause we struggle,
Hastening to the battlefield!
Forward! All together advancing!
Our Vietnam is strong eternal.