Q 01/05

A Vietnamese meal is built to balance how many fundamental tastes (ngũ vị)?

A) Five

B) Three

C) Four

D) Seven

Answer · why

A) Five

Sweet, salty, bitter, sour and spicy each map to one of the classical elements, and cooks aim for the same number of colours on the plate too.

Q 02/05

Potatoes are called khoai tây in Vietnamese, a name that literally means what?

A) Earth apple

B) Western yam

C) Mountain yam

D) Foreign bean

Answer · why

B) Western yam

Western yam: foods the French brought often took a native name plus tây, 'western', so asparagus became măng tây, 'western bamboo shoot'.

Q 03/05

Phở is thought to have been born in which province southeast of Hanoi?

A) Ninh Bình

B) Hà Nam

C) Nam Định

D) Thái Bình

Answer · why

C) Nam Định

Nam Định: vendors from its village of Vân Cù peddled phở in Hanoi, and families from that village went on to run many of the capital's phở shops.

Q 04/05

Cơm tấm, a southern Vietnamese favourite, is made with what kind of rice?

A) Sticky rice

B) Broken rice

C) Red rice

D) Black rice

Answer · why

B) Broken rice

Broken rice: these leftover grains from milling were once hard to sell because of their imperfections, yet became one of the south's signature street ...

Q 05/05

Why was beef historically uncommon in Vietnamese cooking before the colonial period?

A) Buddhist law forbade it

B) Cattle carried disease

C) Water buffalo were needed for farm work

D) Kings kept beef for the royal kitchens

Answer · why

C) Water buffalo were needed for farm work

Water buffalo were needed for farm work, so beef only caught on under French rule, the era when phở, a beef soup, was born.