If you enjoy Vietnamese cuisine and want to dive in for yourself, here are our recommendations for your pantry/fridge staple ingredients.
SEASONING
Nước mắm – Fish sauce: arguably the most important seasoning sauce in Vietnamese cuisine. Made from fermented anchovies, it is salty and incredibly umami. Non-vegan Vietnamese recipes without fish sauce are very rare. The best nước mắm comes from Phú Quốc or surrounding islands off the coast- Southwest of mainland Vietnam. Our favorite brand available outside of Vietnam is Red Boat (US).
Nước tương – Soy sauce: like many other East and South East Asian countries, soy sauce is very important in Vietnamese cuisine. It is often used as a seasoning sauce and a condiment.
Hạt nêm – Bouillon: think broth, but in solid form. Bouillon is an amazingly easy way to bring that umami flavor to your food. We use it instead of salt in many of our dishes. You can usually find chicken, pork, or mushroom bouillon. In Vietnam, Knorr is the most common brand. However, we have only been able to find Knorr in powder form in the US and France, not granules. Instead, we use Totole brand chicken or mushroom bouillon. The quantities on our website are based on the granule-type so if you use powder, adjust to your taste. Most bouillons will contain MSG, which brings us to the next item on the list.
Mì chính/bột ngọt – Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): good old MSG in pure form. MSG is actually used in many snacks and packaged foods, you just don’t know it. Used instead of bouillon when you want to add flavor but not too much salt.
Nước hàng/nước màu – Braising caramel sauce: made with mainly sugar & water (the Southern version usually also contain coconut water). It is used in most Vietnamese kho (braised) dishes. You can usually find it pre-made in Asian grocery stores, but I prefer to make my own because it is easy and, in my opinion, tastes better. Get the recipe here.
Mẻ – Fermented rice: an ingredient used in many Northern Vietnamese dishes with a beautiful and light tanginess. It is virtually impossible to find in the U.S. In some recipes, it can be replaced with regular or plant-based yogurt. You can make your own mẻ by cooking rice with 2x the amount of water as usual, adding it (when cooled) to an airtight jar along with some drinking water (or reserved rice washing water). After about 2 weeks, the mixture should be a little sour- that means it is done. Much like any kind of fermentation, it is a bit unpredictable so we recommend baking at least 2 jars for the same batch.
CONDIMENTS
Sriracha: Not much needs to be said about this chili sauce- it has become pretty mainstream.
Dấm tỏi – Garlic vinegar: thinly sliced garlic cloves soaked in white vinegar, this is particularly big in the North of Vietnam. Go to phở & other noodle soup stalls in Hà Nội, you will probably find this on the table. It adds a lovely brightness and depth to a broth (added only when serving).
Mắm tôm – Fermented shrimp paste: definitely not for the faint-hearted or picky eater, this paste has a very intense smell and taste. It packs a ton of flavor so a little goes a long way. It is used as a dipping sauce for dishes like Bún đậu mắm tôm and Chả cá Lã Vọng or a flavor-enhancer for some noodle soups like Bún thang.
PANTRY
Spices
Hoa hồi – Star anise
Đinh hương – Cloves
Quế – Cinnamon
Hạt tiểu hồi – Fennel seeds
Hạt mùi – Coriander seeds
Ngũ vị hương – Five spice
Dehydrated ingredients
Nấm đông cô / nấm hương – Shiitake mushrooms: These incredibly fragrant mushrooms are a staple in Vietnamese cuisine. Commonly paired with wood-ear mushrooms, this dynamic duo is in more Vietnamese dishes than I can count, like Nem rán, Đậu hũ nhồi thịt, Bánh đúc nóng, and so many more. For recipes with shiitake mushrooms, click HERE.
Nấm mộc nhĩ / nấm tai mèo – Wood-ear mushrooms: They don’t bring too much in terms of flavors, but texturally, they are irreplaceable. Crunchy and a bit chewy, wood-ear mushrooms add textural interest, especially to a meaty filling, which is why the trio of wood-ear, shiitake, and minced pork is such a common filling found in many dishes. For recipes with wood-ear mushrooms, click HERE.
Đỗ/Đậu xanh – Mung beans: They are commonly used as a filling for sweet or savory cakes and in chè (Vietnamese sweet soups). Peeled split mung beans are the most convenient type to use. Your best bet to find them is at your local Asian/International grocery store, particularly in the Indian section as “moong dal”. Some of my favorite dishes with mung beans are bánh xèo and xôi xéo.
Noodles
Bún – Rice vermicelli noodles: we love all our countless types of noodles in Vietnam, but bún is probably used in the most number of different dishes. Traditionally, fresh bún noodles are very slightly fermented and has a very mild tang, but dried packaged bún noodles will not. Bún is often eaten in soup (like Bún măng vịt) or as a base (like Bún bò xào), it is not usually used for stirfries. For recipes with bún noodles, click HERE.
Miến – Glass/cellophane noodles: these noodles take no time to cook and are very versatile. There are two main types: miến rong (made from arrowroot) and miến đậu xanh (made from mung bean and also called bean thread noodles)- they can be used interchangeably for the most part, but I recommend the arrowroot version for noodle soups like our Miến gà or stirfry dishes since it’s thicker, and the mung bean version for Nem rán/chả giò! For recipes with miến noodles, click HERE.
Mì trứng – Egg noodles: wonderful in stirfries, noodle soups (especially wonton noodle soup).
Bánh phở – Phở rice noodles: Phở is not just the name of the most famous Vietnamese noodle soup dish, it is also the name of the noodles themselves. This is why using the correct type of noodle in phở is so important. You can also use phở noodles for stirfries- like our Phở áp chảo recipe!
Other noodles: these are usually used in dishes with the same name – hủ tiếu, mì quảng, bánh canh.
Flours and starches
Bột gạo tẻ – Regular/non-glutinous rice flour: The main ingredient in hundreds of other “rice cakes” that we have in Vietnamese cuisine. It is naturally gluten free. For recipes with rice flour, click HERE.
Bột gạo nếp – Glutinous rice flour: Flour made from glutinous rice. It is less commonly used than regular rice flour because like fresh glutinous rice, it has a very distinct sticky/chewy texture. For recipes with glutinous rice flour, click HERE.
Bột năng – Tapioca starch: A gluten-free starch that comes from the cassava plant. It can be used to thicken soups, stews and sauces; coat foods for frying; or add bounce/chewiness to a dough. For recipes with tapioca starch, click HERE.
Rice
Gạo tẻ – Non-glutinous rice: Long grain, non-glutinous rice is the daily rice in Vietnam. Preferred types of rice in Vietnam are usually fragrant and bouncy- much of which are grown only for domestic consumption and not exported. Outside of Vietnam, I usually buy jasmine rice from Vietnam or Thailand.
Gạo nếp – Glutinous rice: Commonly referred to as sticky rice. While glutinous rice is not the staple grain in daily meals like in Laos, it is nonetheless extremely important to Vietnamese cuisine. When steamed, it is called xôi and can be served sweet or savory along with a multitude of ingredients – Xôi gấc, for example, is a dish served during Tết- alongside Bánh chưng (which is also made from glutinous rice). Glutinous rice also serves as the base for a significant proportion of our rice cakes (like bánh giầy), desserts (like bánh trôi and chè), and many other dishes.
Gạo tấm – Broken rice
Others
Rice paper – Bánh đa nem/Bánh tráng chả giò/Vỏ ram: In the South and especially in the U.S., you will find chả giò made with flour wrappers (similar to Chinese egg roll wrappers). However, in the North, nem rán is virtually exclusively made with rice paper. Rice paper, while being slightly more difficult to work with for the uninitiated, gives you a thinner crust. When buying rice paper, make sure you check the package and only buy the type specifically made for frying. The package should either say they are for nem rán/chả giò – or have a photo of the fried rolls. If you buy the kind made for gỏi cuốn (Vietnamese salad rolls), they will not fry up well and will be chewy.
My favorite kind of wrapper, however, comes fro the central region – specifically from Hà Tĩnh. There is a type of rice paper there called vỏ ram, which are incredible thin, can be used to make rolls without being dipped in water, and gives you the most shatteringly crispy rolls when fried. Sadly, they are usually not available outside of Vietnam. If you visit Vietnam, I highly recommend going to a grocery store and trying to find a few packages of vỏ ram Hà Tĩnh to bring back. They store really well in the freezer until you need to use them.
FREEZER
Lá chanh – Lime leaves
Tôm khô – Dried baby shrimps: this is used in soups and broths to add umami flavor without needing to make bone or meat broth from scratch.
