GEORGE TOWN, Nov 1 — Penang is not only the place for iconic hawker delights but is fast becoming a destination for international cuisine, from elegant French food to the fresh distinct flavours of Vietnam.

Vietnamese dishes such as phở and rice paper spring rolls are firm favourites found in Vietnamese restaurant chains everywhere but were only introduced in Penang about three years ago.

It must be noted that when it comes to Vietnamese food, there are some ingredients that play a major part in all of the recipes.

Almost every dish features fresh greens from lettuce to spring onions to bean sprouts and basil. Also, the quintessential fish sauce is an important condiment to complement some of the dishes.

So, be prepared for light, or even heavy dishes served with a side of vegetables and accompanying fish sauce, sometimes even fermented fish sauce.

All food prepared at Ye Wei are made fresh daily by the Vietnamese cook, Thuy.

Ye Wei Restaurant is the first Vietnamese restaurant to introduce the warming, comforting phó (rice noodle soup) along with other Vietnamese signature dishes to Penang. The no-frills restaurant, operated by a local and his Vietnamese wife, first opened in 2012.

Currently located along Hutton Lane, the restaurant offers an array of Vietnamese dishes that are customised according to their customers’ preferences.

The menu may show only a selected few Vietnamese dishes such as phó bộ (Vietnamese beef noodle soup), gỏi cuốn (Vietnamese spring rolls) and bún mang vịt (duck and bamboo shoot vermicelli soup), but the restaurant actually offers close to 200 different types of Vietnamese dishes.

One of the signature dishes to try at Ye Wei is their gỏi cuốn, a different type of spring rolls made with fresh greens and thin rice paper.

Gỏi cuốn or Vietnamese spring roll served with the sour fish sauce. Next to it is sam bộ lương, a sweet dessert drink with mixed barley, jelly and seaweed (left). Bánh khốt (right).

Fresh green vegetables, rice vermicelli, slices of savoury roast pork are wrapped in thin rice paper and these rolls are then dipped in a sweet and sour fish sauce before eating. These are best eaten immediately while the rice paper is still fresh, soft and tender to the bite otherwise it will dry up and be hard to bite through.

Another appetiser to try has to be the bánh xẻo or an omelette filled with bean sprouts and minced pork. It is labelled as “Vietnamese crepe” but tastes more like an omelette and again, it comes with the ubiquitous fish sauce.

The omelette is also served with a plate of fresh lettuce and basil leaves so that you can make your own version of a spring roll by putting bite-sized portions of the omelette, bean sprouts and minced pork into the lettuce, wrap it up with some basil and dip it into the sour fish sauce before eating!

This result in a burst of freshness from the bean sprouts, basil and lettuce, saltiness from the pork and perfectly complemented by the sour fish sauce.

Another version of this egg dish is the bánh khốt, round bite-sized “cakes” made from eggs, green beans, shrimps and pork that are then deep fried. These are also served with fresh greens and the ever-present fish sauce.

The bún riệu, a sour red noodle and crab soup.

For the main dishes, instead of trying out the phó, we opted to try the bún riệu, a sourish pungent red soup with vermicelli and crab meat. Though the soup is red in colour, almost like curry, it is not spicy at all. It is a sourish and salty concoction with a pungent aroma enhanced by the funky fermented fish sauce or nước mâm.

Now, the nước mâm is not something for the faint-hearted or those who can’t stand the strong pungent aroma that is likened to that of rotting fish. However, despite the strong aroma, adding it to the sourish soup improves the whole dish and gives it another dimension of flavours.

The clear soup vermicelli noodle with shrimps, pork, beansprouts and a lot of vegetables at Ye Wei.

As with most Vietnamese dishes, the soup also comes with an abundance of raw bean sprouts and basil that balances out the strong flavours of the soup and the fermented fish sauce.

For clear soup, they have the hư tíu năm vàng or clear rice noodle soup with shrimps and pork meatballs. This is a clear soup dish that is also full of flavours from the pork, shrimps and the fresh greens of spring onions, bean sprouts and lettuce.

Vietnamese desserts are almost like our local Nyonya kuih; most are steamed and use local ingredients like bananas, beans, pomelo and tapioca such as the bánh khoái mi tâm bị (steamed tapioca cakes) and bánh chuối hấp (steamed banana cakes).

The dessert... steamed tapioca cake (left), coffee pudding (right), steamed banana cake in the background and chế buổi, a coconut milk drink with green beans and pomelo skin.

They also have the bánh flan, a light pudding with a cultural significance as it reflects French influences in Vietnamese cuisine.

The flan offered here is a smooth creamy concoction with a custard consistency that was made interesting with a sweet coffee syrup instead of the usual caramel.

Ye Wei boasts of food cooked home style by the owner’s Vietnamese wife, Thuy. Everything is fresh and only cooked upon order.

Kedai Makan Ye Wei 106 A, Hutton Lane Tel: 04-226 2500 Time: 11am-11pm (Closed on Tuesdays)  

Huong Que Vietnam restaurant at Melaka Street.

Another Vietnamese restaurant that opened recently is Huong Que Vietnam. Located within George Town, it also offers a variety of Vietnamese rice noodle and rice dishes.

Over at Huong Que, they offer almost the same items as Ye Wei except they also have a wide choice of snakehead dishes.

Their cảnh chưa cả lộc, a Vietnamese special snakehead fish soup with sweet pickles, is a warming flavourful soup in a hotpot.

Vietnamese special snakehead fish soup with sweet pickles.

Despite it being a fish soup, especially snakehead, there is no strong fishy smell to the soup. Instead, the pickles, ginger and plenty of vegetables give the light clear soup a sweet fresh taste.

This can be eaten as is but if you want something more filling, it can be eaten with plain white rice or as a side dish to share.

They too have the bún riệu but with a few varieties so we picked their pork leg noodle and for the clear soup noodle, we picked the chicken noodle soup.

The pork leg bún riệu is a slightly sour concoction in a red soup. Though similar to the one offered at Ye Wei, this one is not as flavourful and the fermented fish sauce that comes with it is more pungent.

Adding it to the red soup gave the soup a saltier flavour but due to its strong funky aroma, you will have to be a great fan of fermented fish sauce to be able to fully enjoy it. Fortunately, the vegetables in the soup balanced out the flavours slightly.

Clear soup chicken vermicelli (top) and pork leg noodle at Huong Que.

The chicken noodle soup is their chicken version of phó that is light on the tastebuds and very easy on the palate. The raw bean sprouts and vegetables are served on a separate plate so you have the option of eating it with the noodles or separately.

Steamed rice cakes with coconut milk.

Finally, for dessert, we tried the bánh bộ nước cột đưa or steamed coconut and rice flour cake in coconut cream. The cakes are of a spongy consistency that is rather bland so the sweetened thick coconut cream gave it a rich sweet taste while a sprinkle of salted crushed peanuts added just the right touch of saltiness.

Huong Que also offers bánh mi, a French baguette sandwich of roast pork and vegetables, another popular Vietnamese cuisine with French influences.

Huong Que Vietnamese Food 37, Lebuh Melaka, George Town Tel: 0164963434 Time: 11am -11pm (Closed on Tuesdays)