Vietnamese herbs: a guide to the herb plate

Sit down to bún chả, bánh xèo or a southern bowl of phở and a plate of leaves comes with it: rau sống, “raw greens”. It isn’t garnish. It is half the meal, and the reason the same dish tastes a little different with every bite. Here are the ten herbs you will meet most, and what to eat them with.

The ten herbs

• Húng quế (Thai basil): purple stems and a sweet, aniseed bite. Torn into phở in the south, and on most southern herb plates.
• Húng lủi (mint): a small-leafed mint, close to spearmint. In fresh rice paper rolls (gỏi cuốn), and with grilled pork and noodles.
• Tía tô (perilla): big leaves, green on top and purple underneath, grassy and a little peppery. With bún chả, bún đậu mắm tôm and bánh xèo.
• Kinh giới (Vietnamese balm): lemony and minty. Tía tô’s partner on the northern plate, with bún chả and bún đậu mắm tôm.
• Rau răm (Vietnamese coriander): narrow, pointed leaves, peppery and hot. The classic with chicken salad, and with trứng vịt lộn, the fertilised duck egg.
• Ngò gai (sawtooth coriander, or culantro): long, saw-edged leaves that taste like coriander turned up loud. On the southern phở plate and in canh chua, the sour soup of the Mekong.
• Rau mùi (coriander): the familiar one, chopped over soups and tucked into bánh mì.
• Diếp cá (fish mint): heart-shaped leaves, strong and sour, with a taste some call fishy. It sits on the plate for bánh xèo. People either love it or don’t; try one leaf first.
• Thì là (dill): not the herb you expect here, and the soul of chả cá, where it is piled into the pan with turmeric fish. In the north it often turns up with other fish dishes too.
• Lá lốt (betel leaf): glossy, heart-shaped leaves, usually cooked rather than eaten raw. Wrapped around minced beef and grilled, they make bò lá lốt, smoky and peppery. A cousin of the leaf people chew with areca nut, not the same one.

How to eat them

1. Pick the leaves off the stems. Thick stalks are tough; leave them on the plate.
2. Tear them into your bowl. For noodle soups, tear a few leaves straight into the broth, a little at a time, so they stay fresh.
3. Or wrap. For bánh xèo, nem lụi and grilled meats, take a lettuce leaf or a sheet of rice paper, add a few herbs and a bite of food, roll it up and dip.
4. Mix and match. Nobody uses every herb in every mouthful. Find your favourites.

• “Cho tôi thêm rau.” More herbs, please.
• “Rau này là rau gì?” What herb is this?

Names change north to south

• Coriander: rau mùi in the north, ngò or ngò rí in the south.
• Sawtooth coriander: mùi tàu in the north, ngò gai in the south.
• Thai basil: húng quế, often just rau quế in the south.

Go easy at first

Raw herbs come with almost every meal, and they are raw. If your stomach is new to Việt Nam, start with a few leaves and build up over a few days. Our guide to picking a good street food stall has more on eating well without regrets.

Learn them in the market

Herbs are easiest to learn where they are sold, by smell. Our Market-to-Wok Cooking Class in Sài Gòn starts in Bến Thành’s back lanes with a market auntie, then you cook four southern dishes in her home kitchen, eat lunch together and take printed recipe cards home.