Promote tourism with bread

The Hanoi - Vietnam Traditional Craft Village Tourism Festival taking place from September 29 to October 2 in Hanoi will have a culinary area introducing Vietnamese bread, pho and other delicious dishes of Hue.

Selling bread on the river in Vietnam

“We want to introduce banh mi, a delicacy that is well-known to many people,” said Do Dinh Hong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism. The department is still accepting applications from bakeries that want to introduce their products at the festival. This is the first time the Hanoi Department of Tourism has promoted Vietnamese banh mi at a tourism festival organized by the department.

Delicious food is Vietnamese

As the owner of the famous Anh Tuyet restaurant specializing in old Hanoi dishes on Ma May Street, Ms. Tuyet has also included banh mi on her menu. “At my restaurant, customers can eat Hanoi-style banh mi with typical Hanoi fillings. Everything is made from pate, pork or canned fish, grilled chicken,” she said.

Mr. Duong Van Phuong, Vice President of the Royal Chefs Association, believes that introducing Vietnamese bread in culinary programs is very appropriate and reasonable. “It is true that bread was brought to Vietnam by the French but has been Vietnamized. It is also a familiar dish that Vietnamese people eat every day. Foreigners who come here love bread very much. Just look at the density of bread shops. While countries like Thailand, Korea, and Japan promote street food very strongly, we have not done anything. Now we should promote bread,” Mr. Phuong shared.

Hamburger, a familiar dish of Vietnamese people

Sharing the same opinion, Ms. Phan Anh, a culinary lecturer and researcher, believes that bread should be considered a Vietnamese dish, one that has been completely Vietnamese. “Even pho, for example, we still consider it a traditional Vietnamese dish but it only appeared in the early 20th century. At that time, bread even existed before pho. When bread came to Vietnam, it became a Vietnamese dish and was extremely unique compared to the French baguette,” said Ms. Phan Anh, commenting: “There is no reason to refuse a dish that has been Vietnamized, known by many people and is now loved in the world. We should use that dish to promote Vietnamese cuisine and tourism. The important thing is that it has the mark of the nation. For example, Korean stir-fried chicken with cheese is not a traditional dish at all. In the past, Koreans only had stewed chicken. Stir-fried chicken with cheese is stir-fried chicken with cabbage but with a lot of cheese on it, which only appeared in 1990. Now wherever you go, people say, if you eat this dish, you are in Korea. That is also the way Koreans enrich the cultural heritage left by their ancestors.”

French tourists enjoy Vietnamese bread

Breaking the mold of promoting Vietnamese cuisine

It is not by chance that banh mi was chosen to be widely promoted. In fact, this dish has "captivated" many tourists when coming to Vietnam. In 2013, National Geographic magazine (USA) also included Vietnamese sandwiches in the list of the most attractive street foods in the world. In August 2014, The Huffington Post (USA) voted Vietnamese sandwiches as one of the 5 best types of sandwiches in the world and also the most favorite Asian food of foreign diners, especially American tourists. The remaining 4 types are Italian sandwiches, French toast, Brazilian sandwiches and Greek sandwiches. In January 2015, The Huffington Post continued to include Vietnamese sandwiches in the list of 20 best street foods in the world. This newspaper also listed many famous Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and shops in the world today such as: Banh Mi Saigon in New York, Bun Mee in San Francisco (USA); Call Banh Mi Deli, Chao Viet Urban Taste, Banh Mi Hoi-An and Banh Mi Bay in London (UK) or in Singapore, Banh Mi 888...

In October 2014, on the BBC (UK) travel page, reporter David Farley praised Vietnam's banh mi as a "miraculous" dish. The article was titled: Is the banh mi the world's best sandwich? in which David said he had enjoyed 15 different flavors of banh mi across 3 regions of Vietnam over the course of 2 weeks and he "felt lucky because all the sandwiches he enjoyed were the best ever". According to David, although banh mi appeared during the French colonial period, it was improved according to a unique Vietnamese recipe, combining pork, pate, carrots, herbs, cucumbers...

Ms. Nguyen Thanh Thuy, who has been in charge of marketing for many years at the Sofitel Metropole Hanoi Hotel, said: “When it comes to Vietnamese cuisine, people often think of the rich flavor of pho or the fragrant smell of a plate of golden fried spring rolls. Many events promoting our culture have followed this path. In fact, Vietnamese cuisine is much richer than that. Along with the development of urban lifestyles, sandwiches have quietly and quietly entered street food, becoming a dish that is increasingly admired by young people because of its simplicity, convenience and reflection of the integration of Vietnamese cuisine with the world.” According to Ms. Thuy, if the promotion is methodical and effective, Vietnamese sandwiches themselves will contribute to attracting tourists to the S-shaped land.

According to Thanh Nien