Ask around about Vietnamese street foods and you’ll be told about phở bò (beef noodle soup), bánh mì (French baguettes) filled with slices of ham, liver pate and salad, and gỏi cuốn (fresh spring rolls) usually filled with pork and prawns. I love street food, but as a vegetarian I always end up heaving a big sigh when I’m excitedly told about only meaty foods.

After hearing about these foods again and again, and after only a quick glance around the streets, I didn’t have much hope for veggie-friendly Vietnamese street food. However, as I started exploring the small side streets, heading out earlier in the morning and later at night, and looking at what all the street vendors had in their carts and baskets, I found that there is plenty of vegetarian street food in Vietnam!

There are signs everywhere advertising cooking classes in Vietnam. All claim “authentic Vietnamese food,” “the best pho in town,” and “delicious, fresh spring roll masterclasses.” I love cooking, and so does Luke. We often quarrel because we both want to do the cooking, even more often we bicker during the cooking, and we even prefer eating in to eating out. So naturally we wanted to take our bickering out of our own kitchen and into someone else’s.