Can tourists eat with a knife and fork in Vietnam?

Overview

In recent years, Vietnamese cuisine has become more and more known by gourmets all over the world, even the famous chef Gordan Ramsay has identified Vietnam as a top culinary destination. However, many foreign tourists to Vietnam keep wondering, can tourists eat with a knife and fork in Vietnam? The answer will be given in the article below by the best tour operator in Vietnam.

Can tourists eat with a knife and fork in Vietnam?

In Vietnam, tourists can still use knives and forks to enjoy the food. Because first, many restaurants, especially luxury Western-styled restaurants, definitely set up your dining table with knives and forks. Secondly, Vietnam's tourism is growing, more and more restaurants specializing in serving Western guests appear. If you book a tour in Vietnam through a travel agency, you will not have to worry about how to enjoy the food because they will choose restaurants suitable for foreign tourists, including providing you with a knife and fork.

Most restaurants set up your dining table with knives and forks

Why should you try using chopsticks instead of a knife and fork in Vietnam?

Using chopsticks is a new experience worth learning

Westerners are famous for using knives and forks while Vietnamese are famous for using chopsticks in their meals. Therefore, one of the difficulties, as well as the excitement of every Western tourist when coming to Vietnam, is learning how to use chopsticks. For tourists, many people find learning to use chopsticks very difficult, while many others consider it a challenge and an interesting experience when coming to Vietnam. Many foreign friends enjoy Vietnamese food, although using chopsticks is still clumsy, they still try to use chopsticks to have the most standard Vietnamese way of eating.

Using chopsticks is an interesting experience worth learning

Using chopsticks to understand Vietnamese culture

Using chopsticks to enjoy food is a traditional habit not only in Vietnam but also in many other Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, etc. the people of these countries maintain until now. The Vietnamese culture of using chopsticks also has its own unique features. Vietnamese people use chopsticks not only to pick up food but also have many other meanings. Before eating, the youngest person in the family has to divide chopsticks among other members of the family, first grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, and finally, themselves. This shows the hierarchical culture of Vietnamese families. In addition, when eating rice, Vietnamese people often use chopsticks to pick up food for each other, it is very difficult to use forks and knives. This again shows the culture of caring for each other of Vietnamese people.

Using chopsticks to understand its beautiful meanings in each Vietnam family

Vietnamese dishes are designed to use chopsticks

Another reason to use chopsticks when coming to Vietnam is that the characteristics of Vietnamese dishes are very suitable for using chopsticks. If Western dishes are usually large in size, so the eating process requires knives and forks to cut the food into small pieces, Vietnamese dishes are not like that. Most of the meat, vegetables, and tubers are cut to fit pieces, so Vietnamese people just need to pick them up with chopsticks. Besides, Vietnamese cuisine has a lot of fibrous dishes such as pho, and vermicelli, ... that come with broth, so if you use a knife and fork, it's very difficult to pick up. Meanwhile, chopsticks seem to be born to pick up these dishes.

Vietnamese dishes are designed to use chopsticks

Many food stalls don’t provide a knife and fork

The special thing is that if you want to enjoy true Vietnamese cuisine, you have to find stalls and small Vietnamese restaurants, not luxurious restaurants with panoramic views. These long-lasting restaurants have secret and unique recipes that you can not find at any expensive restaurants. However, these Vietnamese restaurants also serve food in the Vietnamese style, which means they don’t give you any knife and fork. So learning how to use chopsticks is the very first step to enjoying true Vietnamese cuisine.

Many food stalls don’t provide a knife and fork

Tips for you

- How to use chopsticks the right way: Before holding chopsticks, you must arrange the two ends of the chopsticks evenly, when using only touch the top edge of the chopsticks, use 3 fingers: thumb, index finger and middle finger to gently hold the chopsticks. The fingernail of the ring finger is placed under the chopstick surface, the thumb and index finger clamp the chopstick, fix them, the end of the chopstick is about 1 inch.

- If you take a lot of time but still can not manage to use chopsticks smoothly, then you can bring with you a knife and a fork when you come to small restaurants.

 Learn how to use chopsticks the right way

Conclusion

Vietnamese food is extraordinarily delicious and has enchanted numerous foreign tourists when they come to Vietnam. Therefore, do not let using chopsticks disturb your enjoyment of true Vietnamese food during your Vietnam Tour. Above is the blog answering the frequently asked question: can tourists eat with a knife and fork in Vietnam? Many thanks for reading!