It may be premature to say this as we still have another 2 weeks left of traveling in Vietnam, but the best thing I’ve had to eat so far hasn’t been pho or banh mi (though both of those have been very good), it’s actually been a dish called a banh xeo (the “x” is pronounced like an “s”).
Quick side note: I’m not spelling any of the aforementioned dishes correctly. Modern Vietnamese writing does utilize a Latin script like English so the letters look essentially the same with one major difference: Vietnamese uses many diacritics (I thought these were just called accent marks but I was apparently wrong, they have a fancy name). These diacritics change the tone when pronouncing the word. I was all proud of myself for knowing pho was pronounced more like “fuh” and then I came to Vietnam and was told that “fuh” was also wrong. Since it’s actually spelled phở (see those cute diacritics?), the correct tone to use is to make it sound more like a question. So it’s really “fuh?” and honestly, I’m still probably pronouncing it wrong, Vietnamese is a really hard language. Why did I spend the time writing out this little language lesson? Well, I should be typing the Vietnamese dishes as phở and bánh mì and bánh xèo, but it was really challenging for me to figure out how to type the correct accent marks (sorry, diacritics) these few times, so there’s no way I’ll be able to keep it up for this entire post. My apologies to anyone from Vietnam for my ineptitude (and laziness) because I’m going to continue spelling the dish, banh xeo, for the remainder of this post. So just recognize, I’m spelling it wrong.
So what is a banh xeo? Despite looking like an omelet, there isn’t any egg in the batter. Think of it more like a crispy crepe (which is also supposed to be spelled with an accent, but I just can’t anymore… sorry). This savory, fried pancake is created by pouring a thin layer of rice batter onto a piping hot skillet. The word, xeo, actually refers to the sizzling sound the batter makes when it hits the pan. This isn’t a cooking blog, so I’m not going to go through exactly how to make a banh xeo (and I don’t know how to make one anyway). But I can tell you that they are often stuffed with bean sprouts, green onions, and your choice of protein like pork or prawns. I had one stuffed with mushrooms and egg and it was delicious.
Prior to my first time eating this tasty dish, I assumed you ate the pancake as is. Meaning, the chef whips up the pancake, gives it to you on a plate, and you just dig in. Based on internet pictures, I also assumed that a banh xeo came with a side salad. There always seemed to be a ton of greens next to the pancake in photos so I figured the greens were to be eaten separately or tossed inside the omlet-like-pancake like you would do with all the herbs you get when ordering pho. I was quite surprised the first time we ordered a banh xeo when the chef showed us that all ingredients, pancake included, essentially get turned into a roll. That’s right, think of it as a pancake-filled spring roll. You lay down a piece of rice paper, place the pancake at one end (sometimes you cut the pancake up first, I’ve now seen it done both ways), throw in a ton of fresh herbs, maybe some lettuce, some thinly sliced mango and cucumbers, and then you roll it all up to eat! Both times I had banh xeo, it came with a dipping sauce. What was in the sauce? I couldn’t tell you. It doesn’t help that the sauce differed between the two places so maybe that part of the dish is the chef’s choice? I don’t know, but both times, the sauce was good and definitely took the banh xeo to the next level.
What made this banh xeo roll so magical? Well, the Vietnamese sure are good at balancing flavors and textures with their food. Many of their dishes seem to be sweet, sour, spicy, herbaceous, crunchy, smooth, etc. all at the same time and the banh xeo was the perfect example of that. Sweet mango, fresh herbs, cool cucumber, crunchy and savory crepe all wrapped up into the perfect roll. I felt like it was the kind of meal that I would just as likely want to eat on a hot summer day as I would after waking up with a hangover. The fried pancake was both delicate and crispy, and it really hits the spot when you’re craving something a little greasy and fried. But then you wrap it up with all these wonderfully fresh greens and you can convince yourself that this dish is healthy (I have no idea if a banh xeo is “healthy” or not and honestly, I don’t care). For me, eating is about balance: eat some fruits and veggies but make sure to eat that chocolate chip cookie as well. And the banh xeo managed to achieve that balance all in one simple dish. Take a salad, wrap it around a fried pancake, and dip it in a sweet, tangy sauce. How can you get more perfectly balanced than that? I’m not sure if the banh xeo is on the menu at any of the Vietnamese restaurants back home, but I sure hope that it is. Again, we still have 2 more weeks in Vietnam so I may be jumping the gun, but currently, I think the banh xeo is the dish I’m going to continue dreaming about when we leave.
Want to see how to build and eat a banh xeo? Check out our Instagram post below.
Camping & Caviar 