Délicieux: How France Influenced Vietnamese Cuisine  Pimsleur
Approach • FrenchComments (2)  The French set up shop in Vietnam
in 1859, and after quite a few skirmishes, created “French
Indochina” in 1885. They remained in Vietnam until they were
booted out in the mid 1950’s, but those 95 years in between
created some major changes in Vietnamese cuisine.  Prior to the
initial French occupation, the Vietnamese diet focused primarily
on fish, vegetables, herbs, and noodles. Beef was not used
widely until the beginning of the French occupation, but today
it is a staple of the cuisine, featuring prominently in that
most comfortable of comfort foods: Pho.  Pho is a hearty hot
soup perfect for those winter blahs, and consists of slices of
various kinds of beef and beef balls swimming in beef stock and
flavored with basil, lime juice, hot peppers, and sauces.
Besides Pho, beef is a main ingredient in many entrees such as
butter beef, beef stew, beef with lemongrass and black pepper
beef. The French are famous for ri