![\"Viet](\"http:\/\/japaninfoswap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Viet-Fest.jpg\")
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Some years ago, as those with youth and a seeming abundance of time on their hands tend to do, I went backpacking around South East Asia. Whilst there I fell deeply in love with Vietnam. Its scenery was staggering, its people were on the whole cheerful, and the food… My gosh the food!<\/p>\n
If you’ve not had the pleasure, you can make up for it by popping over to the Vietnam Festival.<\/p>\n
Yoyogi Park’s annual Vietnam Festival began in 2008 as a way of celebrating 35 years of international relations between Japan and Vietnam, and is a bright and exciting\u00a0glimpse into the life of the South East Asian country. Created\u00a0to promote cross-cultural understanding between the two countries it has grown exponentially, with nearly 200,000 visitors expected this year, and features music performances and other attractions\u00a0that capture the nation’s charm.<\/p>\n
The park in Shibuya\u00a0will be awash\u00a0with vendors in their Vietnam flag t-shirts<\/a> and with n\u00f3n l\u00e1 conical hats<\/a> upon their heads operating over 100 booths\u00a0selling clothes, keepsakes, and of course food… Lord help me, the food! Whether you are slurping on a steaming bowl of pho, munching on a pork-filled\u00a0B\u00e1nh x\u00e8o rice cake, or chewing on my favourite, a\u00a0prawn stuffed\u00a0B\u00e1nh m\u00ec sandwhich (I know Asia isn’t known for its bread, but when the French who colonised the area finally returned to Europe, they left behind them a love for baguettes and cheese) you can wash it all down with a cool refreshing 333 or Saigon Beer.<\/span><\/p>\n But it’s not just the cuisine that gets the festival treatment. The\u00a0wide range of performances\u00a0to enjoy\u00a0including traditional Water Puppet shows and other acts. If you want to look the part you can find vendors selling jewelry and traditional attire, such as the elegant ao dai (a\u00a0Vietnamese dress) and\u00a0the less\u00a0elegant, but by no means less traditional n\u00f3n l\u00e1 (straw hat).<\/p>\n The festival promises to be a vibrant, enjoyable glimpse into Vietnamese culture with so much great food. Ooooooh, the food!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you can’t make it to the festival, or you simply can’t wait, why not try one of these Vietnamese restaurants in the capital?<\/p>\n My-Le (pronounced Mee Lay) is not your fanciest of restaurants. Tucked away on a back street among love hotels and izakayas, it is a little rough around the edges. However, you shouldn’t let that put you off. Having been in business\u00a0for some 20 plus years under various owners, its most recent incarnation is frequently considered to be amongst the best Vietnamese food in the city and has a bright and contemporary feel. Reservations are imperative.<\/p>\n A little closer to the center of the city, Vietnam Alice is a little more accessible than My-Le and is decidedly more upmarket (though still pretty affordable). Part of TV celebrity chef Yutaka Ishinabe’s Queen Alice chain, it serves fresh food\u00a0including a wide array of pho noodle dishes. If you are unsure of what to go for, a good starter package is the Vietnam Alice Dinner Course, which includes a selection of\u00a0spring rolls. Conveniently,\u00a0the menu has the names of the dishes written in English.<\/p>\n Okay, Vietnamese Cyclo may not be the most authentic of Vietnamese restaurants, but it is well\u00a0reviewed and is ideal if you are dining\u00a0with people who\u00a0have more mild palettes. It’s a stylish place just a couple minutes walk from Exit 3 of Roppongi Station, and the pho is pretty decent while the spring rolls are considered very good. The menu has English as well as photos, so it is easy to make selections and order.<\/p>\n Nha Vietnam was recommended by one of our staff in the Tokyo office! \u00a0The spring rolls are reportedly very good, as is its atmosphere and ambiance. \u00a0Come spend an evening in Ebisu, starting with some delicious Vietnamese food!<\/p>\n Mark Guthrie<\/p>\n Image: flickr.com “GYO_1467<\/a>“<\/span> by Nguyen Hung Vu<\/a> (<\/span>CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>) \u2013 Modified<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some years ago, as those with youth and a seeming abundance of time on their hands tend to do, I went backpacking around South East Asia. Whilst there I fell deeply in love with Vietnam. Its scenery was staggering, its people were on the whole cheerful, and the food… My gosh the food! If you’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,68,94],"tags":[69,77,48,158,186],"class_list":["post-2157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-festivals","category-food-and-dining","tag-event","tag-may","tag-tokyo-dining-2","tag-tokyo-festivals","tag-vietnam"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51073,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions\/51073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Vietnam Festival 2017<\/h3>\n
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Vietnamese Restaurants in Tokyo<\/h2>\n
My-Le – Kamata<\/h3>\n
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Vietnam Alice – Shinjuku<\/h3>\n
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Vietnamese Cyclo – Roppongi<\/h3>\n
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Nha Vietnam – Ebisu<\/h3>\n
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