Japanese guests applauded after trying Vietnamese vegetable dish ranked "best in the world"

(Dan Tri) - After trying a piece of stir-fried water spinach with garlic - a familiar Vietnamese dish - the Japanese couple could not hide their delight, clapping their hands in praise: "So delicious! Wonderful!".

Recently, Japanese couple Madoka and Fumitake came to Vietnam for a trip at the invitation of their old friend Kiki (real name Kazuki Matsumoto) - a Japanese YouTuber living in Vietnam.

Kiki is fluent in Vietnamese and knowledgeable about local culture. He owns a YouTube channel with nearly 160,000 followers and regularly shares experiences about travel and Vietnamese cuisine in many regions.

According to Kiki, Madoka loves Vietnamese cuisine, especially spices like fish sauce, chili, and coriander. She once wished to enjoy Vietnamese dishes in Vietnam one day.

This was the first time Madoka and Fumitake set foot in Vietnam. After landing in Ho Chi Minh City and stopping here for about 8 hours, they continued to Da Nang . The first time experiencing riding a motorbike in Vietnam, the couple couldn't help but be excited, constantly cheering as they moved on the streets.

Stir-fried water spinach with garlic delights Japanese tourists (Photo: Screenshot).

In Da Nang, they stayed for 2 nights. On the first night, after checking in at 11pm, Kiki took her two friends out for a late night snack. The first dish served was stir-fried morning glory with garlic - a simple but prominent dish in Vietnamese cuisine.

As soon as she tasted it, Madoka immediately expressed her delight, clapping her hands and exclaiming words of praise. She shared with Kiki and her husband that she especially loved dishes like this. Fumitake agreed, eating and continuously picking up more because he found the dish so delicious.

Not only popular with foreign tourists, stir-fried water spinach with garlic was also ranked by international culinary website Taste Atlas as one of the 100 best vegetable dishes in the world last March and is currently rated 4.4/5 stars on this culinary website.

According to Taste Atlas , stir-fried water spinach with garlic is an indispensable part of traditional Vietnamese cuisine. Although only using simple ingredients such as water spinach, garlic, fish sauce, salt, sugar and oyster sauce, the dish still creates a harmonious and attractive flavor.

The couple ate and praised each other (Photo: Screenshot).

Madoka said that in Japan, it is not always possible to buy water spinach. There are times when she really craves this dish but cannot find the ingredients. To her, stir-fried water spinach with garlic is completely worthy of being ranked on par with other famous Vietnamese dishes such as banh mi or pho.

The next dish for supper was fried tofu served with perilla leaves and shrimp paste. Before eating, Kiki carefully introduced the two Japanese guests to shrimp paste - a spice with a distinctive smell, unpleasant at first but the more you eat it, the more "addictive" it becomes. He compared shrimp paste to natto - a famous Japanese fermented soybean dish.

Madoka shared that she had smelled shrimp paste in a restaurant in Japan before, so it was not too unfamiliar. At first the smell was a bit unpleasant, but when she ate it, it was surprisingly delicious. She said that tofu dipped in shrimp paste would have a much more prominent flavor than when dipped in soy sauce.

The couple also had many compliments for the fried tofu with shrimp paste (Photo: Screenshot).

Interestingly, Fumitake comes from a family with a tradition of making tofu in Japan, but he was surprised by the hot, crispy fried tofu in Vietnam. When served with perilla leaves and shrimp paste, the flavor of the dish seems to be elevated to a new level.

In addition, the group also enjoyed dishes such as shrimp with garlic butter sauce and beef and water spinach salad. What impressed the Japanese guests was that the ingredients used in the meal were fresh and delicately prepared.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/thu-mon-rau-viet-lot-top-ngon-nhat-the-gioi-khach-nhat-vo-tay-lia-lia-20250806092123703.htm