Last year my wife and I went on the trip of a lifetime: Vietnam. We started in Hanoi, then took excursions to the mountains of Sapa and the caves of Halong Bay. After that we relaxed in Hoi An for a few days before heading down to Saigon. Below are some of the foods we encountered along the way.

This is what I woke up to, looking out the window of our hotel room in Hanoi:

The restaurant workers are cleaning and gutting the chickens right on the sidewalk! I was fascinated. I must have shot 50 photos of this.

The hotel had some pretty amazing food. There was a complimentary breakfast buffet which consisted of both American and Vietnamese food, complete with a made-to-order pho station (beef or chicken). Heaven. Below are some images of the dinner selections.

By far my favorite part of the trip was the time we spent in Sapa. The mountains were beautiful, the small towns were rustic and quaint, and the food was both stunning and delicious.

I guess pho for breakfast is a pretty normal thing in Vietnam, because this is what we had at our hotel in Sapa – best bowl I’ve ever had!

Also a buffet breakfast, I followed that up with some veggie noodles, sausage, and sun bread:

Oh yeah – and some amazing banh cuon (usually beef or pork meat and mushrooms folded into a rice noodle wrap and topped with fish sauce and fried shallots) – also made to order right on the spot, like the pho:

Charged up from a great breakfast, we wandered around the town:

Then we took a little private tour of some of the mountain villages, and a nearby food market:

The highlight of this excursion was the tour of the farming village. We went into an actual village home and hung out with the residents:

We stopped off at a local restaurant for lunch:

On the way back we saw a local giving new meaning to the phrase “bringing home the bacon.”

And a sign for dog & cat meat for human consumption – don’t tell PETA:

After a long day, it was nice to relax back at the hotel with some fruit, and another beer.

The next day we went to Halong Bay to explore the beautiful caves there. On the ferry over, we had some homemade snacks and drinks that my wife’s relatives brought along with them:

After a day in the caves, we needed some time in the sun. Hoi An was the perfect way to relax after doing lots of touristy stuff. We had some fresh seafood on the beach:

And of course, a few cold refreshing beers by the water:

Hoi An had an amazing food scene. Check out some of the tasty shit:

Here was an interesting food cart that had some fresh breads along with fried blue claw crabs:

After our down-time in Hoi An, we flew down to Saigon to finish off our amazing trip. This first grouping of pics are street vendors and food market shots:

Then we did a huge sampling of local, exotic fruits. Below you’ll see sour sop, longan, rambutan, durian fruit, dragon fruit, passion fruit, and others:

On our boat ride to the Cu Chi tunnels, we were served some clay pot pork, summer rolls, veggies and rice:

And for dinner we had a home cooked meal at a relative’s house:

I tried to limit all of this to just the food, but if you’re interested to see more of my vacation pics (the mountains, the people, the street scenes, the farms, the riverside towns, etc.), then go to MY PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE.