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Discover the Unique Flavours and Characteristics of Vietnamese Food

Eating food from Vietnam is a real treat, and Vietnamese food is rapidly gaining in popularity due to its intense flavours, tasty meat and noodle dishes, and succulent stews and soups. Vietnamese food is distinctive and unforgettable. Here is a quick primer on the different dishes you can expect to find on the Vietnamese menu, and why the cuisine is becoming so popular.

The Beauty of Pho

For a start, the classic Vietnamese dish of Pho is a must-eat whether you are starting out on an adventure in Vietnamese foods or you are already an expert. When talking about a classic Vietnamese restaurant London has the top examples in the country, and these probably all serve a variation on the Pho broth. Pho is a soup made from a slightly salty broth with beef or chicken. In the soup you will also find beansprouts and noodles along with the herbs that make the dish so recognisable – coriander, basil, and ginger. Added to the mix are fish sauce and chilli. Pho is so popular it is even eaten for breakfast in Vietnam.

Spring Roll Popularity

There are so many different types of spring rolls available that it is hard to choose. For example, vieteat.co.uk has a range on the menu from thin-skinned rolls to heartier, chunkier fried rolls. The healthy version is steamed and packed with salads and lean meat. The deep-fried version has more calories and both can be dipped in sauces. They make a good starter or a quick snack.

Sticky Rice Cakes

Another staple in the Vietnamese food arsenal, the sticky rice cake is a chewy snack made from sticky rice and it can be stuffed with meat or mung bean paste. These cakes are cooked in banana leaves and steamed until tender and sufficiently sticky.

Vietnamese Salads

The salads in Vietnam are nothing like the concoctions of lettuce and tomatoes you get in the West. Crisp salads may contain green mango or papaya, grated carrot, onions, fish sauce, fragrant herbs and crushed roasted peanuts. Meat or fish can be added for a main meal. Salads are crunchy and bursting with flavour in Vietnam.

Noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine

Rice is undeniably popular in Vietnamese food but noodles provide a delicious alternative and are found in many different thicknesses and flavours. Noodles may be eaten cold in salads, stir-fried, added to soups and stews, or served as an accompaniment to a main meat meal.

Vietnamese Fruit

So many different fruits are available from Vietnam. If you can, try the dragon fruit and the mangos – yellow mangoes for desserts and juices and green mangoes for salads. Or try rambutans or papaya. The durian fruit has a foul smell but if you can get past this, the actual taste is delicious.

What is Vietnamese Coffee Like?

Coffee is a big part of Vietnamese food culture ever since the French brought this drink to the country in the 1800s. People drink it all the time, and the most popular incarnations are strong plain coffee or alternatively the highly sweet iced coffee flavoured with condensed milk.

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Use a Gatwick Airport Taxi to Open up London’s Delights

Everyone knows that London is one of the world’s great cities. If you are flying into Gatwick airport at the start of your visit, then using an airport taxi service is a great way to make sure that you reach your hotel on time, wherever in the city you are staying.

If you have flown into Gatwick for a break in London, then the last thing you want is to be kept waiting at the airport, hanging around for your transport into the city. Booking a taxi is an ideal way of dealing with this problem, as it means that efficient transport will be waiting for you at the airport. This makes reaching wherever you are going in London a much more straightforward process.

Deal with Distance

Many people who have not flown into Gatwick before will perhaps not realise just how far the airport itself is away from the city of London. Gatwick is located in the county of West Sussex, some miles to the south of London. Indeed, the centre of London is around 30 miles away and could take as long as an hour to reach in the car. A Gatwick Airport taxi is a good solution to the problem of travelling that distance.

Negotiating the journey via public transport such as the railway can take a long time. If you are not used to the way public transport functions in the UK, then this can be a confusing and stressful process, especially if you have family and luggage in tow. Your first few hours in the UK can be taken up with struggle, simply to make sure that you get to the right place so that the holiday can begin. Booking a Gatwick Airport taxi means that you can begin your break in a relaxed and settled state, rather than fretting and worrying.

See the Sights

Once you get into London, then the need to use a taxi becomes much less pressing. London’s great sights are all on major public transport routes and the transport infrastructure is very good, despite being very crowded at certain times of day. You can use the Tube to negotiate your way to many of the main attractions, especially the major museums and the locations associated with the Royal Family, such as Buckingham Palace.

Other major attractions, such as the Natural History Museum, the Tate and Wembley Stadium can be reached by public transport whilst you are in London. The main soccer grounds all tend to be on public transport routes too, if you enjoy sport, while the famous black cabs and red buses seem to be on every street if you do get lost at all.

Using a Gatwick Airport taxi to begin your holiday makes everything much simpler. By ironing the stress out of the beginning of your break, you free up much more time to enjoy what you have actually travelled to see: London and its wonderfully vibrant cityscape and sights.

AUTHOR BIO:
Jennifer is a Londoner born and bred, though her parents came from Cork, in Ireland. A travel writer by trade; her favourite destinations are the Donegal coast in Ireland and Sydney in Australia. Throughout the course of her adventures, she has benefited from first-rate Gatwick airport taxi tranfer on many an occasion.