A journey to a piece of Vietnam in Delhi

This past Friday we decided to take a journey to a part of Vietnam-literally. The Vietnamese embassy recently opened up its canteen to the public on Friday afternoons from 11:40AM-14:30PM, so we decided to partake in what promised to be the most authentic Vietnamese experience served upon Vietnamese territory.

The entrance to the canteen was through a forbidding looking wooden door that opened up to a small but cozy seating area. There was a cute little poster of Tintin in Vietnam, a comic that was never penned alas.

We were soon served the menu and asked to write in our choices. We decided to go with the Chicken Pho, The Noodle Spring Rolls and the Bun Cha. The spring rolls were for 100 rupees and the others for 250 each. The only other main items on the menu were pho made from buff and fried buff.

The Spring Rolls were unique-served cold with a thin rice layer instead of the usual crispy one, it reminded one of the textures of khandvi. It was filled with carrots, greens and of course, cold noodles. This was an interesting new concept but did not quite appeal to us.

The Chicken Pho was nourishing and fresh, but not bursting with flavours. The boiled chicken being mostly bland but still qualifying for comfort food.

The Bun Cha was the most interesting of the dishes. Served with rice noodles (like idiappam in texture) and sweet soy-like sauce that the meat was swimming in, it was left to us to mix the dish gingerly to optimise the taste. The cold meat with the sweet syrup and rice noodles might just become part of haute cuisine in the future. Thus ended our meal.

The primary takeaway from this meal was the experience of eating at the embassy canteen and the novelty of the meal. Although the food may not have yet grown on us the cheap prices left little room to complain. Worth a one time visit.