Most Common Vegetables in Vietnamese Cuisine

When learning to cook authentic Vietnamese cuisine, one must pay attention to the specific vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Good deals of Vietnamese dishes tend to be vegetarian and though there are not many types of vegetables in Vietnamese cuisine, the specific vegetables are widely used in most of the dishes let alone the vegetarian dishes. One of the important steps towards learning to cook Vietnamese style is knowing what types of vegetables are used.

Keep in mind the vegetables used are the types that can be found and harvested. Real dishes don't usually have ingredients found outside of the country. During one of the reality cooking shows, contestants had to cook an authentic Hawaiian meal. One of them used saffron in his cooking which is a predominant ingredient in Spanish cuisine. The food was good but it didn't bring the feel of Hawaii as saffron is one ingredient that is not commonly found. Luckily, he didn't get eliminated as the task was to make an authentic Hawaiian meal with their personal touches as long as it doesn't detract from the feel of Hawaiian culture.

The most used vegetables in Vietnamese cuisine are: chayote, cucumbers, eggplants, daikons, water spinach, bok choy, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, and bitter melon.

Chayote is called "choko" or "christophine" as it's an edible plant that's among the family of melons, cucumbers, and squash. Vietnamese aren't the only ones that use chayote as it's very important in Mexican cuisine. Everything in the chayote fruit is edible such as the flesh, the root, the stem, the leaves, and the seeds. In Vietnamese cuisine, all edible parts of the chayote fruit are used.

In Vietnam, it's called either "su-su" or "trai su". The best places to find it in North America would be an Asian market. You can call it either: su-su, trai su, or hup jeung gwa. In Mandarin Chinese, it's called "Buddha Hand Squash". When looking for the chayote fruits, be sure to call it by what the Vietnamese would call it.