Bun cha
Vietnam’s dishes are very attractive and diverse, especially dishes associated with Hanoi such as noodle soup (pho), “bun cha” - a dish of grilled pork and noodle, “bun thang” - a dish if shredded chicken meat, shredded fried egg, shredded steam pork and various vegetables, spring rolls and fried fish. These dishes have made significant marks on the world culinary map.
It is no coincidence that during an official visit to Vietnam in May, US President Barack Obama spent time to enjoy dishes which are considered essential to Hanoi cuisine, like “bun cha” and Me Tri green rice.
Recently, Britain’s Telegraph ranked Hanoi in first position among 16 cities with a rich and delicious cuisine in the world, with dishes like “bun cha” and egg coffee. The honour creates opportunity and challenge for development of cuisine tourism products of Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular. For a long time, cuisine tourism in Vietnam hasn’t been invested comprehensively. Moreover, Vietnam doesn't have its own cuisine brand. However, Hanoi has the capacity to become a cuisine centre in South East Asia in particular and in Asia in general.
Hanoi cuisine is a collection of the essential and the idyllic. Ingredients in Hanoi’s dishes are both simple and sophisticated, which are combined harmoniously to bring interesting flavours for diners.
Spices such as onion, garlic, chilli, peppers and herbs have been suitably used in dishes. Additionally, careful attention is paid to choose ingredients for the dishes. All this helps create the personality and sophistication of Hanoi cuisine; dishes are delicious, nutritious and beneficial to health. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why international friends are giving more attention to Hanoi cuisine.
In recent years, Hanoi has paid attention to developing cuisine tourism. More and more cuisine streets such as Tong Duy Tan and Cam Chi; restaurants serving tourists in the old quarter such as Ta Hien, Ma May, Dong Xuan and Cau Go streets have been established. Luxury hotels in Hanoi all have Asian restaurants serving typical dishes of Hanoi. International travel companies pay more attention to taking tourists to gourmet restaurants in Hanoi, even enabling visitors to learn cooking with prestigious chefs.
Tourists usually know Vietnam as a country with beautiful natural scenery and ancient cultural traditions, which is certainly an advantage of Vietnam's tourism. If we successfully implement the idea of being a "kitchen of the world" by Philip Kotler, who is considered the father of modern marketing, that advantage will be raised, increasing attractiveness and bring a new look about Vietnam to international tourists. Therefore, we can invest to leverage advantages, creating finished products to serve tourists.
Recently, the Hanoi Department of Tourism is focusing on organizing events, such as street food festivals and traditional trade village tourism festivals. In the framework of the events, the tourism sector will introduce the special culinary arts of Hanoi, and characteristic dish processing of Hanoi of other localities and countries.
In addition, the sector will continue to choose the delicious and special dishes of Hanoi cuisine of specific restaurants to put into international tourism promotion cooperation programs and cultural exchange programs, such as Hanoi Culture Week in countries, to improve efficiency of introduction, promotion of tourism image of Hanoi in general and cuisine tourism in particular./.