Food and drink

Nothing complements overseas travel like good food and wine. And one of the best ways to get acquainted with a new culture is through your stomach.

Seeing the sights is one thing, but tasting them is another. You can tell as much about a about a culture from its cuisine as you can from its architecture, language and traditional dress.

Take, for example, Vietnamese cuisine. While we’re sure you’re familiar with the humble banh mi, traditional Vietnamese food features a combination of 5 fundamental tastes – spicy, sour, bitter, salty, and sweet. Each flavour is said to represent a different organ: gall bladder, small intestine, large intestine, stomach and bladder.

Thinking about gall bladders while eating your pho may not seem like the most pleasant experience, but the Vietnamese 5 element belief stems from the yin and yang principle – an ancient philosophy about balancing dark and light.

Traditional Vietnamese ingredients reflect the country’s landscape, with seafood, soy sauce, bean sauce, rice, fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables used in a large number of dishes.

No matter where you travel, splurging on local cuisine can immerse you in local culture.