Long Xuyen broken rice (com tam) with ingredients finely chopped (Photo: Ha Lam)

Rice, or com, is the bedrock of Vietnamese cooking, and it’s something you’ll be eating every day in one form or another. The magazine recommended dishes made from rice such as: rice fried with egg, vegetables, and other ingredients as com rang; and “broken” into short grains and steamed as com tam, and porridge.

There are also sticky rice, mixed with sweet gourd, black peas, corns, and peanuts.

Lonely Planet recommended banh trang tron or mixed rice paper, a student favorite made from a tantalizing blend of dry rice paper, shredded green mango, quail’s eggs, dried shrimp, fresh herbs, crispy shallots, and roasted peanuts and tossed in a dressing of sauce.

Honorable mentions include spring rolls, made crispy in the north, and soft with shrimp, pork, and rice noodle in the south.