Breakfast Dishes Vietnamese People Love Most

Eating breakfast is key to staying healthy. Yet a very large share of people in Vietnam skip it: young people increasingly miss the meal because they get up late or simply 'fear' putting on weight. These misguided ideas have led many people to forget breakfast altogether.

Today, VN Cooking rounds up the most popular breakfast dishes in Vietnam – a list to make the daily morning choice easier, whether you're feeding kids before school or making sure office workers don't head to work on an empty stomach.

Banh mi: This quintessentially Vietnamese food has endured through the generations. In the morning you can choose from all sorts of fillings, such as fish cake, Vietnamese pork roll (cha lua), shredded chicken, fried egg and roast pork.

Banh cuon (steamed rice rolls): Silky sheets of rice batter, hot from the steamer, wrapped around a filling of minced pork, wood ear mushrooms, beans and so on, served with a homemade dipping sauce – and breakfast is sorted. Banh cuon is hugely popular in Saigon: on almost any street you'll come across a cart or a shop where the owner sits by the steamer, waiting for each soft batch to cook.

Xoi (sticky rice): Chicken sticky rice and savoury sticky rice are the two morning favourites. The sticky-rice carts on street corners are surrounded by motorbikes, their riders waiting for a hot box of xoi to eat in a hurry. It's a humble dish, but filling enough to keep you going until lunch.

Bun cha gio (rice noodles with spring rolls): Let a bowl of bun cha gio rescue your empty stomach in the morning. Fresh rice noodles come with hot, crispy fried spring rolls, fresh herbs, cucumber and pickles, with a mild fish sauce dressing that never feels too heavy.

Bo kho (beef stew): A hot baguette dipped into a bowl of this signature stew is another favourite. The beef is braised in coconut water for a gentle sweetness, and served with a warm, crusty loaf it makes a great choice.

Banh bao (steamed buns): Convenient but never boring – that sums up this dish. The most popular morning version is the pork-filled bun. The tasty meat filling inside a hot, soft dough is delicious and warming, and very cheap too: in Vietnam, banh bao cost from 12,000 to 18,000 dong.

Pho: The dish that put Vietnamese cuisine on the map. A hot bowl of pho gives you the energy to stay alert all day without getting hungry halfway through.

Com tam (broken rice): As Vietnamese tradition has always had it, rice remains the main meal. Com tam is eaten at every time of day, and the morning is no exception. For people who do heavy manual work, com tam is the 'best' breakfast.

Bun bo Hue: This dish comes from central Vietnam but is now loved all over the S-shaped country. On chilly days, a warm bowl of bun bo is the perfect way to wake yourself up for the working day ahead, isn't it?

Those are the breakfast dishes I wanted to share with you. They are all popular and easy to find on streets everywhere. Don't skip breakfast, not even for a day. Love yourself a little more – health is the most precious thing, and no one can look after you better than you.

Source: compiled