It’s no secret that while living in Vietnam, I had a tough time eating. While I enjoy Vietnamese food, it was hard for me to get past the constant upset stomachs that students and teachers alike seemed to suffer from. Food poisoning was a very real issue and one I had a great deal of anxiety surrounding.

That being said, one of my favorite ways to eat is to try a little bit of a lot of different things. Vietnam is the perfect place for that.

While visiting Ba Na Hill on our three-week south to north tour, Rob and I sat down for lunch with Vietnamese-only-speaking tourists.

Having eaten most of our meals in the American tradition of you eat what you personally order, the locals were more than happy to teach us how to eat Vietnamese family-style.

Basically, you fill your small, personal bowl halfway with rice, then chopstick up something from one of the table-shared plates. Once you finish what’s in your bowl you can refill with rice and something else from the shared plates. It’s constant movement of filling your bowl, using chopsticks to eat it, and then refilling.

We were very thankful to have the locals teach us the proper way to eat as it became essential for us to know as we traveled through the back half of our trip and ate at some Vietnamese homes. I loved it because it meant I could try everything on the table.

The hardest part? The rules of chopsticks state you’re not supposed to put the chopsticks in your mouth, but rather take the food off of them with your lips or teeth. Since you’re sharing plates, you need to avoid the germs. Not an easy feat for fork users!

RQ: What is your chopstick skill level? Are you fan of eating a little bit of everything or a lot of one thing?

Brooke Selb

I’m Brooke Selb, a Personal Trainer and Health Coach specializing in helping busy moms and moms to be to easily juggle mom life with family friendly recipes, and easy exercise routines to help you achieve your fitness goals that fit in with your already busy life with sound nutritional advice.