In Vietnam, every locality has its own specialties. The country strivesto introduce its diversified and special cuisine to the world to attracttravelers. At table with the VietNamNet Bridge.

Acommon courtesy statement Vietnamese usually hear from the South Koreanactors when they visit Vietnam is "I love pho (noodle soup served withbeef or chicken, a Vietnamese traditional dish)".

In the United States and Europe, "pho" has also been the Vietnamese foodmost mentioned by the people who have been to Vietnam. Only in recentyears have the western tourism publications added "nem" (spring rolls)and "banh mi" (bread) into the list of the Vietnamese popular food.

Meanwhile, Vietnam not only has "pho" to introduce to the world.

However, the limited knowledge of foreign travelers about Vietnamesecuisine shows Vietnam’s shortcomings in popularising its specialties.

In Vietnam, every locality, from the north to thecentral region or the south, has its specialties. Differentpersonalities of local people and different ways of processing allowcreating different dishes.

The local residents incoastal provinces use the common material – seafood – for their dishes,but the food tastes differently. Quang Ninh province has been well knownfor "cha muc" (fried minced cuttlefish), while Hai Phong City peoplemake "nom sua do" (sweet and sour salad with jellyfish) very well.

While Nha Trang City has wonderful dried cuttlefish, Ho Chi Minh City has been famous for sea snails.

The most outstanding feature of the Vietnamese cuisine is that it hastwo culinary centres with quite different styles, namely Hanoi as therepresentative of the northern delta, and Hue City – the land of theroyal style.

Besides, Vietnam also has the socalled "hybrid food style" – or the "street food", which travelers cantaste at all the noisy tourist centres like Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Hai Phongin the north, Nha Trang, Da Nang in the central region, or Ho Chi MinhCity in the south.

What should Vietnam introduce tothe world? "Pho" has been popularised for a long time that it has beenautomatically considered the Vietnamese traditional food. However, thismay not be true when people are not in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

Therefore, it would be a difficulty for tour guides to talk about thelocal traditional dishes when they lead tourists to Da Nang City orKhanh Hoa, where "pho" is not the local specialty.

Atourism expert has noted that the tourism promotion campaigns with thefocus on popularising "pho" has led to the inaccurate understanding oftravelers about the Vietnamese cuisine. Travelers may think that "pho"is typical for the Vietnamese cuisine, and "pho" is everything Vietnamhas.

Meanwhile, other special dishes still have not been introduced to travelers.

Hue City, the ancient royal capital, also has many good dishes tooffer, from the main courses to desserts, from royal to popular dishes.The culinary art of Hue food is always part of the tours to the city as acultural value worth of being discovered by tourists.

However, Hue still has not found a dish most typical for the city whichit should focus on when running advertisement campaigns.

Nguyen Cong Hoan, Deputy Director of Hanoi Redtour, complained thatthe firm can only introduce local specialties to small inbound groups oftourists as the infrastructure conditions are not good enough toreceive big groups of travelers.-VNA