Northern Vietnamese and Southern Vietnamese don't like each other's food?

Question

Is it true that Northern Vietnamese and Southern Vietnamese don't like each other's food?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, it’s true. I lived in both the North and the South and knew both Southerners and Northerners. Here are some reasons:

Northerners food tastes very neutral. They like it not too salty, not too sweet, not too rich. Southerners love the sweet and use more oil.

Due to ethnocentrism, Northerners think their food is the best. The same to Southerners.

They are so used to what they eat everyday, so their local food is absolutely the best food. Still, there are several exceptions. Many Southerners love “bun cha” and “bun dau” from the North. Many Northerners love Southern “oc”.

Answer 2

It really depends on each person's taste.

Southern food is said to be sweet, Northern food to be bland and Central food to be spicy. In Southern cuisine, coconut and pandan are often used, while they’re rare in Northern cuisine.

Northerners may not like Southern food if they are not used to its ingredients and taste. I remember watching a TV sitcom where a Northerner jokingly said to a Southerner: “Your Chinese pork stew [thịt kho tàu] tastes like pork jam [mứt heo]”.

As a Northerner who has never set foot outside the region, I’ve eaten bánh tráng trộn and bún bò Nam Bộ and they are tasty. I'm not sure if those are “real” though.

Answer 3

Northerners complain that Southern food is too heavy and sweet. As per my mother’s words: “They cook everything like cooking Chè - Wikipedia ” Southerners complain that Northern food is too salty. Southerners seem to have more problem eating Northern food than the other way around. Many Southerners do say that they find Northern food hard to swallow and hard to eat. Northerners are more receptive of Southern cuisine, with the exception of some hardcore Hanoian purists. No Northerners will agree that Southern pho is better than ours though.

Answer 4

My answer is that’s not true. For me, the more diverse the better. Whenever I travel, I try as many local dishes as possible. Northern, southern, or central Vietnam foods, I like them all. I even like Chinese, Thais, Laotian, Korean, Japanese (except raw fish sushi). If the locals can enjoy, then why can’t I. Foods are for enjoying, not for debating!

Answer 5

I like Southern food as long as it’s originally from the South. Like bun mam, or bun bo nam bo, banh xeo, banh trang tron, … All sooo good. Central food from Hue, you can’t help but dreaming about them.

It’s harder for me to adjust, if it’s the same dish, “Pho” , for example, cooked differently. I’m not saying that the Southern Pho tastes terrible. It tastes fine, it’s just not the Pho we eat.

Southern food is a lot more oily and sweeter. Northern food, in my very biased opinion, is very balanced. Not too salty, not too oily, not too spicy. Everything is just enough so you actually taste the flavor of the food, not just the seasoning. Pho, for example, the broth is cooked with ox bone for hours and ours, so the sweetness comes from the bone broth, not from sugar.

But well, I hail myself in front of bun mam. We northerners can never cook that dish so well.

So North or South, as long as the food is good, it’s good. People please don’t divide ourselves over food :)

Answer 6

As a Southerner who have been to Hanoi and a couple of places in the North, I found the food bland and not tasty, with a few exceptions (chả cá).

Answer 7

I am a Southerner and I am a huge fan of most common Northern dishes, the “less common” for my standard are trứng ngải cứu / a bitter herbal omelette (I am not a fan of bitter taste in general), chả rươi / worm omelette (looks unappertizing :( ), or thắng cố (horse intestine hotpot), nậm pịa / pre-digested herbal thingy (oh please), etc. anyway I think in general the Northerners have slightly better taste buds than Southerners but a bit conservative with how their dishes should be served, Southerner might be considered as having more forgiving taste buds? Lol.

It is common to hear Northern Vietnamese feeling uneasy after having stayed in the South for a while and they will eventually start looking for places that serve dishes in Northern style or just make food themselves, because they say everything taste “a bit of the sweeter side”. Yes in the South some people like to season things with a pinch of sugar, maybe we practice the Five Elements rule in cooking more hahaha. I like to think Southern cuisine as being more balance on the tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy/hot.

Answer 8

No it is not true.

Northern cuisine tends to use more salt and Southern Vietnamese often put more sugar into food. However there are many dishes that are essentially the same such as chả giò, bánh cuốn, bánh bao, bánh mì, xôi etc

Traditional Southern Vietnamese foods are fascinating. A lot of restaurants in North Vietnam sell South Vietnamese food such as bánh canh, bánh khọt, Southern style phở, bánh xèo, cơm tấm, chè khúc bạch, chè Bà Ba etc

On the other hand, many restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City offer Northern dishes such as Northern style phở, bún mọc, bún thang, Northern style nem, chè con ong, bánh gối etc

Nowadays transportation and movement of people have enabled the whole population to taste other regions’ food.

Answer 9

I’m from the North, i travelled to the South quite a fews time and really enjoyed the cuisine, i feel the southern foods have some influences of Thai and Chinese cuisine, when they cook with more oil and sugar. That could be the reason why i see more fat people in the South than the North, just a personal impression.