It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Vietnam runs on rice.
The humble grain is the country’s most important crop,
and the major source of calories in the diet.
Vietnam is the world’s second-largest rice exporter, after Thailand,
a huge achievement for such a small country.
Boiled long-grain rice, such as jasmine rice,
is what most Vietnamese people eat with meals.
But that is far from the end of the story.
To vary their diet, Vietnamese cooks have devised some ingenious ways
to transform rice into other versatile shapes.
Consider the rice noodle.
This slippery, infinitely adaptable food is a mainstay of daily dining:
simmered in soup; stir-fried with coconut milk and vegetables;
tossed with lemongrass beef or grilled pork;
or tucked inside goi cuon,
Vietnam’s beloved “salad rolls.”
Markets here abound in rice noodles,
fresh and dried, skinny and thick.
And many of these noodles are still made by hand,
in small, family-run enterprises.
The dough for rice noodles begins with ground raw rice mixed with water.
This thick mixture is placed in a sack to drain for several hours
and pressed with a weight to expel more moisture.
Then the dough is removed from the sack and boiled for about half an hour, until partially cooked.
Next, the dough is fed repeatedly through a device that cuts and kneads it,
almost like kneading bread dough.
When the texture is right, workers use a decidedly low-tech method
for extruding the vermicelli-like noodles into boiling water.
The cooked and rinsed noodles, snow white and pliable,
are ready for distribution to market,
for use in dishes like buncha,
Hanoi rice noodles with grilled pork.
The fresh rice noodles used for pho, Vietnam’s sublime beef noodle soup,
rely on a similar batter but a different method.
These noodles, known as "banh pho," are cooked with steam.
The soupy batter is spread thinly on a fine cloth stretched over a drum.
Boiling water, heated by rice or peanut hulls,
creates the steam that cooks the batter in just a minute or two.
Then the floppy sheets are rolled onto thick dowels
and draped over rods to dry briefly, like wet laundry.
When it is time to cut the noodles, the sheets are folded, stacked and sliced crosswise by hand.
Who needs a machine when you have skilled workers with such dexterity?
Of course, a machine can do the job, too —and it might be a touch faster.
Either method produces beautiful, supple skeins of noodles,
to supply the Vietnamese public’s insatiable appetite for pho.
If you have tasted goi cuon, often called “salad rolls” in Vietnamese restaurants in America,
you have eaten rice paper, another clever Vietnamese use for rice.
In this small rural enterprise near Saigon,
two women make 1000 to 1200 sheets a day.
The thin batter, one part water to one part rice flour,
is cooked over steam just like rice noodles.
In less then a minute, the paper-thin sheets can be lifted off the steamer and onto a tray.
Finally, they are draped on bamboo mats to finish drying in the sun.
The mats leave a cross-hatch pattern in each translucent sheet.
Once dried, the brittle sheets must be softened in hot water to make them pliable.
For breakfast, for dessert, and for snacks in between,
the Vietnamese have a passion for sticky rice.
This short-grain glutinous rice is used in puddings and other sweets,
often with coconut or coconut milk.
Mai Pham is a big fan.
[Mai Pham speaking] This is Mrs. Ba. She specializes in sticky rice. She's one of the most famous street food vendors in Saigon.
Everyone knows her. She has served millions packets of sticky rice, she says.
And she's here every morning with her husband and they only specialize in one dish.
[Narrator speaking] And to start the day, many Vietnamese people, including Mai,
seek out a favorite street vendor for a sticky-rice breakfast.
In its myriad forms — steamed rice, rice noodles, rice paper and more —
rice is the Vietnamese people’s daily sustenance.