Just as many travelers say, everything is simply tastier in the North. And indeed, as Hanoi is known to offer some of the best street food in Southeast Asia and is dubbed as a street food paradise. Just recently, Hanoi received the Top Asian cuisine award for 3 dishes: the Pho, bun cha and bun thang.

This was done during the opening ceremony of Tourism festival of traditional villages of Hanoi and the Red River Delta provinces held at the Quan Ngua stadium during the evening of 08th Oct 2013. Pho, a noodle soup served with herbs and either chicken or beef, is arguably Vietnam’s most famous dish.

The secret to good Pho is in the broth and Hanoi is known to serve the best bowls of this hearty soup. A visit to Hanoi would not be complete without sitting down to a steaming bowl of Phở (pronounced ‘fuh’). A popular lunch choice all over the city, Bun Cha Pork is dish comprised of meat patties and slices of pork belly that are grilled over hot coals and served with fish sauce, tangy vinegar, sugar and lime. All these tasty ingredients, when combined, creates a sort of barbecue soup that is eaten with rice vermicelli and fresh herbs.

Bun Thang is another solid favorite both of locals and visitors. It is basically a rice noodle soup with shreds of fried egg, pork ham strips, chicken floss, Vietnamese mint, some slices of red chili and finally the soup. This traditional Vietnamese food takes very long to prepare and is characterized by strong flavor of shrimp paste makes this dish tastier and richer. Gastronomy is an important factor in attracting visitors to Vietnam.

Since 2010, the Vietnam record organization has implemented a program to promote Vietnam’s cuisines and seek international records for Vietnamese cuisines, contributing to advertise Vietnamese cuisine to the world. Accordingly, Vietnam has 12 dishes listed in the "Top dishes of Asia" of the Asian record organization.

Hanoi also received the Top Vietnam Cuisine award for 6 dishes including: La Vong fried fish, Thanh Tri steamed rolled rice pancake, Huong Son apricots, Canh oranges, Hang Than green rice flake cake, Hang Duong salted and sugared dry fruits. 12 Vietnamese dishes are recognized among the top Asian cuisines. These include pho (Vietnamese noodle), bun cha (vermicelli and grilled chopped meat), bun thang (vermicelli and chicken soup), Hai Phong noodle with crab soup, Ninh Binh rice crust, Nghe An eel vermicelli, Hue beef noodle, Quang noodles, Gia Lai dry noodles, Vung Tau khot cake, Saigon spring rolls and Saigon broken rice.