Most Common Spicies and Herbs in Vietnam

Lesson Transcript

Want to speak real Vietnamese from your first lesson?

Lime, lemongrass, chili, pepper, sugar, salt, oyster sauce, soy sauce, soy sauce, spices.

Alright, so a lot, a lot of words, a lot of things that I need to introduce to you

because I'm so into cooking.

And this video today, we're going to talk about some herbs and some spices

that are commonly used in Vietnam.

Hello everyone, my name is Ling.

Welcome back to vietnamespod101.com.

The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Vietnamese.

And let's get started.

Alright, alright.

So you know that in Vietnam, we have a lot of spices and herbs, right?

Of course, we cannot compare to other countries like India,

but we have some very typical flavors that are very unique

and that you can't find anywhere because only Vietnamese herbs can make it.

So today, I'm going to introduce you some of our very popular spices and herbs

that maybe some foreigners may find it difficult to eat.

So a word for all the spices in general, we say zà vị.

Zà vị is like all spices in general, but in the north of Vietnam,

we use zà vị for a kind of salt, which is less salty than the regular salt,

but it's very commonly used in every family.

So zà vị is the most popular and common spice in the world, which is garlic.

And in Vietnamese, we say tòi.

Tòi is very common, but the Vietnamese garlic, the tòi Vietnam, or we say tòi ta,

is super spicy.

It's very small, like, I mean, all the cloves are very small,

but it's super, super spicy and it smells strong.

Also, we have ớt.

ớt is chili pepper.

And Vietnamese ớt, ớt Vietnam is super, super spicy, okay?

So one of the most popular chilies in Vietnam is ớt chỉ thiên.

ớt chỉ thiên is one of the very small chilies, and it's very, very spicy.

And usually it goes, like, up, so it points to the sky.

So we say chỉ thiên, that means pointing to the sky, ớt chỉ thiên.

Also, we have a very popular garlic, which is tòi đen.

It's the black garlic, and it's very, very expensive,

because it's very helpful for curing some illnesses.

Next one is hành khô.

Hành khô is a purple onion, and it's very, very spicy as well.

In Vietnam, the hành khô is just very small,

but it's very tasty and spicy and smells good.

Now next one, we have hành tây.

Hành tây is onion in general, right?

And it's also very common.

So, hành tây.

One sentence, thái hành tây rất cay mắt.

Also, we talked about salt, right?

In Vietnamese, we say muối.

Muối is a natural salt.

Muối.

So if you want to visit some of the very famous

and beautiful salt farms in Vietnam, you can visit Ninh Thuật.

Ninh Thuật is the province in the center of Vietnam,

and there are two very famous farms, which are Cà Ná, Ninh Thuật.

They're very famous with salt farms.

And also Phương Cựu.

Phương Cựu.

It is also a very famous salt farm.

Also, one more word.

This is like a slang, okay?

If you want to say someone is very interesting

and very entertaining, we say vữa muối.

It's like a huge farm of salt.

So that means that person is not boring at all.

That person is so, so entertaining and so funny.

Vữa muối.

Now let's talk about sugar.

In Vietnamese, we say đường.

So we have the natural sugar.

It's đường.

But if you want to say like the sugar can, we say mía đường.

One more ingredient that I want to introduce to you is nghệ.

Nghệ is super, super popular in Vietnam.

And the turmeric of Vietnam is so, so good.

Very good quality.

So for turmeric starch, we say tinh bột nghệ.

It's a starch, the turmeric starch.

And we export a lot because it's very, very expensive.

Not expensive, sorry.

It's very good quality.

Next one.

This one is like the number one popular and famous ingredient in Vietnam.

Vietnam is the best.

I have to say it's the best.

Fish sauce.

So one of the most popular places in Vietnam with nước mắm is Phú Quốc.

You have to go there.

It's so, so, so popular with all the beaches.

The nice beaches and also like a lot of nice seafood.

So do you know why bún trải is so, so popular all over the world?

Because the sauce is from fish sauce and it is just delicious.

This one is unique.

I love it.

Tom.

Mắm.

Tom.

Do you know what it is?

Bún đậu mắm tôm.

Bún đậu mắm tôm is like the number one dish in Vietnam.

Bún đậu mắm tôm.

So mắm tôm is like the shrimp paste.

And you can't find anywhere in the world.

And all the mắm tôm that you know or you can buy somewhere, I think it's from Vietnam.

It's super, super smelly.

And if you like smell it for the first time, you might get shocked.

But it's very tasty.

Now let's talk about vegetables.

So if you want to talk about vegetables in general, like the raw vegetables that you can use,

you can actually eat raw with some dishes like bún trà, or bún đậu mắm tôm,

or like nêm lụi nướng.

So you can use rau sống.

Rau sống means raw vegetables that you don't have to cook.

Now we have a lot of kinds of rau sống.

Absolutely, right?

I don't know if you have this in English, but I'm gonna check

and I'm gonna give the translations later here.

Sorry.

Next one, we have rau húng.

And what else?

We have xà lách.

Xà lách is like the salad lettuce.

Xà lách is specifically for salad.

What else?

We have rau mùi.

And also we have rau mùi tàu.

Rau mùi tàu.

This one smells really, really good.

And it's so good with duck.

Also we have rau bạc hà.

Bạc hà is mint.

Rau bạc hà is like peppermint.

What else?

Ah, we have hồi.

Hồi is anise.

It smells really, really good.

And the very good friend of hồi is quế.

They go well together.

They just go well together.

This one goes really well with

pork and duck.

What else?

We have xả.

Lemongrass.

And this one is super, super good with chicken feet.

We have chân gà xả ớt.

Chicken feet with lemongrass and chili.

Super, super good.

Also we have gừng.

Ginger.

And a friend of gừng is tỏi.

We talked about it already, right?

Tỏi, gừng, tỏi.

Also we have lá chanh.

Lá chanh is lemon leaves.

And it's super good with boiled chicken.

Trust me, only Vietnamese chicken is so, so good.

And it's so sweet.

I mean the natural flavor is oh my god.

I'm addicted to it.

Also if you want to talk about soy sauce,

we have xì dầu.

And Vietnamese xì dầu.

Xì dầu Việt Nam is very, very good.

The sauce is very thick because the soybeans is good in Vietnam.

Xì dầu.

Also we have dầu hào.

It's oyster sauce.

And dầu hào is also very delicious in Vietnam

because we have a lot of seafood, fresh seafood, right?

So oysters are everywhere.

And trust me, hầu, Vietnamese oysters.

Absolutely good.

Next one I want to introduce to you is ớt bột.

ớt bột is chili flakes.

And ớt tươi is a fresh chili.

And if you want to talk about bell peppers,

we use ớt chuông.

Or ớt đà lạt.

Because they're very famous and they're from Đà Lạt.

ớt đà lạt.

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