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The day starts early for the hard-working folk of Vietnam, so eating one of the following Vietnamese breakfast dishes ensures they have enough energy to make it through the day.
And with a wide variety of options for breakfast in Vietnam, whether located down alleyways, in markets, or even off the back of pushbikes, it was a task to narrow the list of dishes Vietnamese eat for breakfast.
So, here are my top 10 tasty Vietnamese breakfast dishes.
Table of Contents
- Pho
- Xoi (Sticky Rice)
- Bun (Bun Bo Hue, Bun Cha, Bun Rieu etc)
- Banh Mi
- Banh Cuon
- Chao (Rice Porridge)
- Banh Canh
- Bo Kho
- Mien
- Cơm Tấm (Broken Rice)
- Hu Tieu
- Summary
Pho
Pho is a breakfast most synonymous with Vietnam, and a bowl of Pho is an indispensable part of waking up for many people in Vietnam. And despite the competition, this remains my go-to traditional Vietnamese breakfast.
The name Pho refers to the noodle, which is a distinct flat rice flour noodle (rice vermicelli noodles). The most popular Pho is served with beef (Pho Bo) in a broth made by simmering beef bones and seasoned with spices, with star anise being a key ingredient.
This Vietnamese breakfast food is always served with accompaniments such as fresh herbs, bean sprouts, limes, and chilies.
Xoi (Sticky Rice)
Lining the busy streets of Vietnam, such as those in Ho Chi Minh City, street food stalls offer the typical Vietnamese breakfast food of Xoi, sticky rice made with glutinous rice, which is cooked in water and then steamed.
Once it’s cooked, the rice is mixed with various savory ingredients such as chicken, ground pork, char siu, shrimp paste, sausage, or quail eggs. Each sticky rice stall holder will have its specialty.
Sticky rice is a versatile Vietnamese cuisine and can also be served as a dessert with toppings including mung beans, corn, ginger syrup, and sweet potato.
Bun (Bun Bo Hue, Bun Cha, Bun Rieu etc)
Another noodle-based dish eaten for breakfast in Vietnam is Bun. As with Pho, it is also a rice noodle but is circular in shape.
Bun is a versatile noodle, appearing in breakfast soups such as the ever popular Bun Bo Hue (pictured), the famous dish from ancient Vietnamese royal cuisine, as well as dry dishes, such as Hanoi’s Bun Cha, where it is served alongside fatty grilled meats and a simple yet delicious dipping sauce made with fish sauce, vinegar, and sugar.
Banh Mi
Banh Mi, in Vietnamese, essentially means bread, although it is better known as the Vietnamese breakfast sandwich that many Vietnamese opt to help kick-start their day.
With a decidedly French influence, the Banh Mi, similar to Bai Sach Chrouk in Cambodia, starts with a freshly baked baguette with a yellow French bread crust and is soft and light on the inside. And although the actual ingredients of each Banh Mi can differ depending on the vendor, the typical Banh Mi ingredients will be a spread of mayonnaise, a scrape of pate, pork, pickled daikon and carrot, coriander (cilantro), a slice of cucumber, a quick squirt of Maggi seasoning sauce, and if you are game, a few small pieces of chili.
Banh Mi can also be served with fried eggs (op la) with the option to add sauces to taste, such as soy sauce and chili sauce.
The Banh Mi sandwich is the perfect package for an “on the go” Vietnamese breakfast or snack during the day, and can be found lining streets, usually not too far from sticky rice vendors.
Banh Cuon
Banh Cuon is another dish with origins in northern Vietnam. Banh Cuon is made with thin sheets of steamed rice flour that have been made steaming rice flour batter on a piece of cloth stretched over a pot of boiling water.
These sheets are filled with seasoned ground pork, minced wood ear mushrooms rolled, then sprinkled with fried onions and herbs.
Added to the plate, or served on the side, depending where you are eating the banh cuon, will be two different types of pork, possible a few pieces of fried crunchy bread (Bun Tom), fresh or mixed vegetables, and a bite-size piece of a small flavor delight called Nem Chua, fermented pork that is salty, sweet, sour, and spicy, and rounds out the dish amazingly well.
Chao (Rice Porridge)
While Chao (rice porridge) is eaten throughout the day, it remains a very popular Vietnamese breakfast dish and, for the Vietnamese, an antidote to many ailments, including colds and hangovers.
The creamy and comforting dish can be eaten as a plain bowl of rice porridge with ingredients served on the side or with specific ingredients added as the rice porridge is prepared.
Although the list of ingredients that can accompany Chao is long, my favorite is Chao Ga, prepared with chicken, ginger, and garlic.
Banh Canh
Banh Canh literally means “cake soup”; in this case, the “cake” is a thick noodle made with rice and tapioca flour.
There are wide varieties with a seemingly endless list of ingredients. Some of my favorites include Banh Canh Ga, served with chicken; Banh Canh Cua, a decadent noodle soup served with crab, with my choice for breakfast in Vietnam being Banh Canh Cha Ca, a dish from south-central Vietnam and served in the morning markets in Mui Ne, that comes with slices of fish cake.
Bo Kho
Bo Kho (beef stew) is a hearty, savory, fragrant beef stew that is a filling breakfast in Vietnam. The right bowl will put hairs on your chest.
This dish mixes beef, vegetables, rice noodles, onions, and herbs. It is cooked in a well-balanced and flavorful broth with a pleasing lemongrass undertone.
It is also a Vietnamese New Year food served during the Tet Holiday.
Served with a fresh baguette or noodles in the stew, this breakfast dish is a satisfying way to start the day.
Mien
Another type of noodle used to make a Vietnamese breakfast soup is Mien, a glass noodle made with starch.
There are supposedly fewer calories in glass noodles than in rice noodles, so maybe I should eat Mien a little more often.
While the ingredients in noodle soups made with Mien can be as varied as other Vietnamese breakfast soups, seafood noodle soup seems to be more prominent on menus, including eel, and my favorite, Mien Cua (crab).
Cơm Tấm (Broken Rice)
One of the delightful aromas on the streets of Vietnam is the smoke from small barbecues grilling Vietnamese pork, the hero in one of the popular Vietnamese breakfast foods, cơm tấm.
Cơm tấm means broken rice, which is left over after the best rice has been sold from harvest. It is, therefore, the cheapest rice and the type used to make this dish.
On top of a bed of broken rice is usually a freshly grilled pork chop, some egg component, whether a fried egg or an egg cake, pickled vegetables, and a bowl of nouc mam, made with fish sauce.
I’ve particularly enjoyed trying the many different egg cakes that vendors cook to accompany this dish, even one made with pork and crab and served in the crab shell.
And by the many Com Tam stalls lining streets early in the morning, many Vietnamese people enjoy this delicious Vietnamese cuisine.
Nuoc Mam – (Fish Sauce)
Nuoc Mam is an essential part of Vietnamese culinary tradition and one of the flavors of Vietnam and is produced on the island of Phú Quoc.
Hu Tieu
Hu Tieu is another famous noodle soup the Vietnamese people eat for breakfast, especially in southern Vietnam.
Hu Tieu can be served as a soup or dry with the soup served on the side.
You can choose egg noodle, a Pho noodle, or a thinner and chewier Hu Tieu noodle. Or a combination.
The broth is made using pork bones as a base and is subtle, without any underlying spiciness. The dish is always served with herbs, limes, and chilies to the side, so you can add extra flavor as you see fit.
For the dry version, the noodles are doused in a sticky mixture of oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. And, of course, available toppings are pretty varied, but pork is a mainstay.
There are regional specialties of Hu Tieu, including the version from Phnom Penh (Hu Tieu Nam Vang), which has additional ingredients such as prawns and pork liver, Hu Tieu Sa Dec and Hu Tieu Can Tho that both use local Hu Tieu noodles.
Summary
So whether it’s sticky rice, Vietnamese dumplings, crab meat soup, or a dish of steamed rice rolls, you can pull up a small plastic stool and join the Vietnamese women, men, and children as they enjoy one of the 10 Vietnamese breakfast foods above.
FAQ
Typical Vietnamese breakfast food generally consists of a light soup, some type of protein (usually pork, chicken, or fish), a simple dish made with vegetables, steamed rice cake, or sticky rice.
A Vietnamese breakfast soup will include a broth made from meats or vegetables, rice noodles, vegetables, herbs, and spices served with lime juice, fish sauce, and chilies sauce. It is a popular traditional breakfast food in Vietnam. Examples include Bu Bo Hue and Pho
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