ABSTRACT
This chapter explores contemporary Vietnamese cuisines, particularly whether or not there is an identifiably Vietnamese national cuisine, one in which the ingredients, recipes, and/or dishes socially, culturally, and politically unite Vietnamese people. We argue that contemporary Vietnamese cuisine is not the food of the nation, however much it might be represented as such. It is the culinary work of the people who constitute the country of Vietnam – their lands, migrations, histories, and politics. This chapter examines how cookbook authors have generally sought to represent Vietnamese dishes as national but that there is a strong argument against the claim of a Vietnamese national cuisine. In the case of Vietnamese food, the critical details of ingredients, preparation, and consumption both reveal and conceal truths about the Vietnamese people. Furthermore, we contend that Vietnam, with its long history of foreign invaders, its own appropriation of the middle and southern regions, and its varied regional geographies, provides a critical example for food studies of the need to interrogate the idea of a national cuisine and to differentiate it from regional and local cuisines.
