In the period 1975 – 2015 (the 40 years following the reunification of North Vietnam
and South Vietnam), Vietnam has experienced spectacular development from a wartorn
country ranking among the world’s most impoverished nations into an economic
powerhouse with the world’s highest global growth generator index (Buiter and
Rahbari, 2011). Throughout this transition nearly everything has changed for the
Vietnamese. One of the few consistencies is that food, as a prominent feature of Vietnamese
culture, has remained consistently at the center of daily life. It is in food that
Vietnamese people pay their respect to ancestors; it is with food that they mourn and
celebrate; it is with food that they show gratitude or share travel experiences; it is the
food at the center of the table that is shared with family and friends and it is with food
that they always welcome ‘unexpected’ guests.