A typical daily meal in Hà Nội  – Illustration photo

Firstly, to become palatable a dish should be properly cooked with specifically good tastes and clear colors. To meet these requirements, the cook must have a thorough grasp of the techniques of using spices and other food additives. For example, small colza should be cooked with fish sauce and can be cooked with pork, fish or shrimp; gourds should be cooked with shrimp only; loofah fruits and basella alba with crabs or shrimps; beef with ginger or garlic; pork with fish sauce and onions; fish braised with galingale or saffron.

Some examples of standards for “deliciousness” are listed below:

Food	Delicious	Undelicious
Cooked rice	Soft, done to a turn	Pasty, overcooked, undercooked
Celery soup	Half-cooked	Overcooked, tough
Colza soup	Well-cooked	Undercooked
Boiled bindweed	Green, done to a turn	Yellow, overcooked
Boiled chicken or pork	Done to a turn	Overcooked, tasteless and loose
Grilled chicken or pork	Bright yellow, fragrant	Burnt
Fried fish	Brown yellow	Burnt
Braised fish	Brown yellow, dry	Overcooked
Stewed pork or ribs	Well-cooked	Undercooked

The deliciousness of food in Thăng Long-Hà Nội is also defined by cleanliness. In addition to following a hygienic and safe cooking process, Hanoians also observe some other strict rules related to experiences in traditional medicine. For example, cold food should be added with hot spices; food that is eaten raw, like some vegetables, should be well soaked in salty water; and, raw fish should be served with apricot leaves to avoid digestive problems. Also, food hygiene regulations are maintained by ensuring that all the tableware, including bowls, dishes, chopsticks, spoons, glasses, etc. are clean. As a saying goes: “Nhà sạch thì mát, bát sạch ngon cơm” (A clean house makes one feel cool; a clean bowl makes the food look appetizing). This is a compulsory standard for the deliciousness of food.

Whether a dish is good or not is finally determined by its appearance. More specifically, good food should be eye-catching. In Hanoians’ opinion, this aesthetic factor is associated with rules about tastes and spices. Some food additives like crocus, tomato and nước hàng (sugar heated until it turns into brown-yellow and thick syrup) are used in cooking not only to flavor the food but also to add more colors to it so that it becomes more appealing. If a food is not cooked properly with the right colors, it will take away one’s appetite right at first sight. For example, braised pork without nước hàng, braised fish without saffron and nước hàng, and snail cooked with green bananas and tofu without saffron.

Besides this, the decoration of dishes on a tray either in a daily meal or in a feast contributes to their aesthetic attraction. Some vegetables and roots like hot peppers, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and coriandrum sativum are used not only to create good smells for dishes but also to decorate them. These strict rules about which spices and other seasonings should accompany dishes enhance the attractiveness of the food. For example, a dish of boiled chicken will look better if dusted with green lemon leaves sliced into small pieces and a bowl of snails with green bananas and tofu soaked with saffron will become more appetizing if adorned with sliced purple palm-mint leaves. Thanks to these cooking tips, Thăng Long-Hà Nội cuisine is attractive to everyone.