authenticity

After eating at an asian buffet this weekend it got me thinking about a question that I get asked a lot, "where can I get the most authentic Vietnamese food?" It wasn't until I was scanning the buffet line that I realized for the first time a big difference between Vietnamese cuisine and other asian cuisines -- authenticity. You will never find a restaurant that doesn't serve authentically Vietnamese food. All Vietnamese food you find in the U.S. can be found in Vietnam. And the most popular, pho, is also the most popular in Vietnam. The difference between Vietnamese restaurants is simply that some are bad and some are good. And bad to me is it is bland and/or caters to a non-Vietnamese palate.

The same cannot be said of chinese, thai or even japanese food. The most popular chinese food dishes are sweet and sour chicken and general tso's chicken. Yet neither of those dishes come from China. The most well known thai dish is pad thai, but that too was invented here. And my favorite sushi rolls most likely cannot be found in Japan either.

But Vietnamese food is just that Vietnamese food. I have never walked into a Vietnamese restaurant and thought to myself, "this isn't really Vietnamese." What I might think is, "my mom can make this better." But that's the thing, my mom makes it and so does every other Vietnamese mom here and in Vietnam. The quality of ingredients may differ, but the ingredients are essentially the same.