Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table

A journalist and blogger takes us on a colorful and spicy gastronomic tour through Viet Nam in this entertaining, offbeat travel memoir, with a foreword by Anthony Bourdain.

Growing up in a small town in northern England, Graham Holliday wasn’t keen on travel. But in his early twenties, a picture of Hanoi sparked a curiosity that propelled him halfway across the globe. Graham didn’t want to be a tourist in an alien land, though; he was determined to live it. An ordinary guy who liked trying interesting food, he moved to the capital city and embarked on a quest to find real Vietnamese food. In Eating Viet Nam, he chronicles his odyssey in this strange, enticing land infused with sublime smells and tastes.

Traveling through the back alleys and across the boulevards of Hanoi—where home cooks set up grills and stripped-down stands serving sumptuous fare on blue plastic furniture—he risked dysentery, giardia, and diarrhea to discover a culinary treasure-load that was truly foreign and unique. Holliday shares every bite of the extraordinary fresh dishes, pungent and bursting with flavor, which he came to love in Hanoi, Saigon, and the countryside. Here, too, are the remarkable people who became a part of his new life, including his wife, Sophie.

A feast for the senses, funny, charming, and always delicious, Eating Viet Nam will inspire armchair travelers, curious palates, and everyone itching for a taste of adventure.

This immersive dive into Vietnamese food culture serves up a taste of real life in Southeast Asia:

• An Expat’s Journey to Viet Nam: Follow an ordinary guy from a small English town as he trades his predictable life for the chaotic, intoxicating back alleys of Southeast Asia.
• Finding Authentic Local Food: Discover the author’s “Four Questions Theory” for getting past the tourist traps and finding the street-level culinary gems that locals love.
• A Culinary Tour of Hanoi: Experience the city through its food stalls, from the smoky grills on the boulevards to the steaming soup vats of the Old Quarter, all served on iconic blue plastic chairs.
• Foreword by Anthony Bourdain: Read the heartfelt foreword by the late Anthony Bourdain, who championed this book and celebrated the author’s immersive quest for real Vietnamese flavor.

“Graham Holliday is one of the great gastronauts, a charming and intrepid try-anything explorer who makes the rest of us food writers feel hopelessly inadequate (and woefully underfed). You’d be a fool to delve into Viêt Nam’s spectacular cuisine without him as your guide.”—Peter J. Lindberg, editor at large, Travel & Leisure A journalist takes us on a colorful and spicy gastronomic tour through Viêt Nam in this entertaining, offbeat travel memoir

Growing up in a small town in central England, Graham Holliday wasn’t keen on travel. But in his early twenties, he saw a picture of Hà Nội that sparked his curiosity and propelled him halfway across the globe. An ordinary guy who liked trying interesting food, he moved to the capital city and embarked on a quest to find real Vietnamese food. In Eating Việt Nam, he chronicles his odyssey in this enticing, unfamiliar land infused with sublime smells and tastes.

Funny, charming, and always delicious, Eating Việt Nam will inspire armchair travelers, those with curious palates, and everyone itching for a taste of adventure.

“Holliday writes with exhiliration…[his] loving, laddish descriptions will make gonzo gourmands salivate.” - The New York Times Book Review