Vu Hong Lien. Rice and Baguette: A History of Food in Vietnam. Reaktion Press. London: 2016 ISBN: 9781780236575. pp.252.
Richard Zimmer Sonoma State University
In her Introduction, Vu Hong Lien briefly reviews Vietnam’s culinary history: “…if modern Vietnamese food had a voice, it would be bilingual, for it is the offspring of a marriage of convenience between a rice-based diet and a wheat-based culture…a mixture of French and Vietnamese dishes, adapted and modified to suit and complement one another”(7). She adds that while the Chinese occupied Vietnam for ten centuries, that cuisine is a “… separate tradition used for such important events as weddings and other landmark occasions”(9).
Lien’s work follows a historical perspective, mixing archaeological research with mythological tales. The pre-agricultural period involved hunter-gathering, including the harvest of mollusks, especially in the expanding lowlands. Somewhat different foods, especially drawn from hunted animals, persist in the highlands still today. New foods and ways of preparing them, such as chicken and bamboo, entered the diet and the kitchen (21). Various kinds of rice began to be cultivated, bringing in changes in social organization in terms of scale and complexity.
The Chinese conquered Vietnam and then ruled Vietnam from 257 BCE to 938 CE. They started in the north and moved south. Cuisine changed, with more production and consumption of rice, wheat and noodles, roast meats, preserved eggs, tofu, sesame seeds, luxury foods, for just a few examples. Chinese cooking and eating utensils came along as well.
The Chinese mostly occupied what is North Vietnam. The middle area had other influences, including Middle Eastern and Indian. The Southern sector favored Cambodian cuisine. In the first period of Chinese occupation, the Vietnamese provided many spices and supplements for China, such as ginger, galangal, and turmeric. Ginger especially balanced out cold parts of other food. Galangal, a root of the ginger family, also was used in making rice wine (64).
“This [Chinese cuisine] highly valued food tops the list of the three best things a Vietnamese man could wish for in life, it is said—along with French housing and a Japanese wife”(69).
She suggests that Chinese food emphasized gender differences. A big treat was the two types of preserved eggs: the salted egg and the century or thousand-year-old egg (jelly black egg). “In a male-oriented society like that of Vietnam, the [salted] eggs would be eaten by men with their aperitif of rice wine or other alcoholic drink, before they joined the rest of the family for the main meal” (73).
Furthermore, rich men got to use individual steam cups from which to eat. Individual cups, for example, needed more fuel in cooking, so only rich men could have them. And it made them more “virile.”
(80.) Tea was also a male prerogative, and the type of tea varied by wealth, status, and occupation (81-82). (Unfortunately, she presents these examples without reference to any anthropological or historical material.)
When the French colonized Vietnam, Vietnamese fed their men and boys potatoes: “…[the Vietnamese] believed that the Frenchmen were so much bigger than the Viet because they ate potatoes rather than rice and that their size and strength were the reason for their domination of the Viet….[they] fed them to their boys as a food supplement, between their meals of rice—since no Viet should be deprived of rice “(119). In addition, French influence spread beef during their rule in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The meat, which had initially been too expensive and often experienced as too strong, was put into the soup pho. Men often preferred beef testicles as their protein ingredient, thinking that it would enhance their masculinity (125).
She addresses the history and continuing controversy about the origins of fish sauce. During the first three millennia, Viet peoples developed nuoc mam from fish and shrimp (89.) Did the sauce originate in Vietnam or in Rome—liquamen or muria -“a lower grade version” (87)? Did they influence each other? No definite answers from her and other scholars, but fish sauce is used throughout Vietnam and variants of the peninsula tribal groups, made mam ruoc with shrimps. During this period of Chinese rule, 930-1859 CE, other influences, including the afore-mentioned Cham, as well as the Khmer, “most of whom were Muslim or Hindu,”, brought in curries, coconut milk, fish, and goat (104).
The French period, 1859-1954, saw significant impacts on Vietnamese cuisine, often in different regions. Overall, the French brought their foodstuffs—charcuterie, pâté, beurre, etc.—to their new colonies in Indochina, especially Vietnam. The French residents there wanted familiar meals. The resident Vietnamese populations, however, liked them as well. They became part of the cuisine. Rich people ate differently and more lusciously from poor. But they shared a love of the colonialists’ cooking and beverages, such as coffee. The latter became an iconic part of what the Vietnamese drank (113 et seq.).
The Vietnamese also used the French baguette in a variety of ways, particularly in the South. As noted earlier, banh mi meant any kind of breaded formulation. During the French period, baguettes were transformed into diverse kinds of sandwiches, especially in the South. Vietnamese prefer moister foods, so mayonnaise, more eggy, or butter, were used. Depending on price, different fillings were then spread in the bread. The War also meant a new ingredient: cheddar cheese, initially a staple of relief in the South for people fleeing the North.
During the French period, other changes occurred. The Vietnamese experimented with rice plates in fast-food formats, sold from carts. Rice was still an important export from the country, but “considered inferior” to Burmese and Thai rice. Its cultivation created a rich elite of French, Chinese, and some Vietnamese and also impoverished much of the country (132). During the same period, opium, introduced by the Chinese, was processed in the colony. Eventually it became a state licensed product, and many people had become addicted. The departure of the French meant that opium was no longer legal. Consequently, users went underground. Addiction, however, has slowly diminished (135).
The author details the ways in which the Great Depression and WWII affected the food—and the politics—of the country. The Great Depression caused shortages of rice and other foodstuffs. Vichy control over Indochina led to an alliance with the Japanese against China, leading to less food production. That meant less rice, which led to hunger, malnutrition, and starvation. It also led to peasant support against the Japanese and then against the French after the end of World War II. The Vietnamese ate rice, hot rice, and they figured out ways to cook it without smoke being a detectable target (143).
Lien provides a revealing and illuminating history of how foodways changed after the French left. The country was split into two, with the North under Communist control and the South under American control. The Communists continued rationing, and the diet stayed the same. The Americans provided American food, not to the Southerners’ taste.
After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, food again became rationed throughout the reunited country. Russian food became available in the reunited Vietnam. Some people found it acceptable—for a while. Today, on can find a variety of foods, with “traditional” and French foods predominating. Foreign foods, such as Japanese sushi, Detroit Pizza (Reference 1) or Starbucks, are commonplace, and well-stocked supermarkets have appeared as of 2016, the book’s publication date (159).
The rest of the book is a wonderful mélange: a description of the role food plays in Vietnam today, along with many delicious recipes. Many traditions continue. Vietnamese prefer freshness. Women remain the cooks. The mother decides on the placement of food on a tray to be served. Families prepare food for the dead is still prepared. But some changes have also occurred. People now enjoy many kinds of snacks and varieties of bun. Vietnamese have migrated abroad, bringing their cuisine worldwide. Pho and banh mi continue to delight everywhere.
This book is useful for anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and food scholars in general. It provides a prism into aspects of Vietnamese food and political history not normally addressed. As noted above, it should include more research supporting some of its contentions. That includes Nir Aveli’s essential work on Vietnamese food and its place in society (2012). Still, the book is appropriate for all levels of college students as well as the general reader interested in food.
BIBIOGRAPHY
2012
Nir Avieli. Rice Talks: Food and Community in a Vietnamese Town. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana.
Sites:
Reference 1
Detroit Pizza in Vietnam
(Accessed Sept. 24, 2024)
