Rice and Baguette: A History of Food in Vietnam (Foods and Nations)

The once-obscure cuisine of Vietnam is today a favourite for many people from East to West. It is a heady mixture of French and Vietnamese dishes, adapted and modified over thousands of years: the best legacy being the crunchy baguette that the Vi_t embraced with gusto the moment it appeared with French colonists during the second half of the 19th century. A square meal for most Vietnamese people, however, is based around rice, the wonder grain that changed forever their diet, lifestyle and social structure. Drawing on archaeological evidence, oral and written history and wide-ranging research, Rice and Baguette tells the complex and surprising history of food in Vietnam.
Vu Hong Lien traces the Vietnamese progress from mollusc eaters to hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists. She describes the prehistoric Vi_t's struggle to tame and to adapt to nature, and their delight in inventing and discovering the tools they needed for food. She goes on to explore how the distinctive rice-based diet and wheat-based culture has been shaped by the environment and influenced by conflicts and colonization. Peppered with historical tales and illustrated with many striking photographs, Rice and Baguette reveals the long and hard journey Vietnamese food has traversed to become a much-loved cuisine today. All those with a passion for food will enjoy this engaging and enlightening culinary history.