Instant food in Vietnamese meals

6am, Ngoc Ha (27 years old, office worker in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) wakes up. Living alone in Ho Chi Minh City, Ha chose a rented house near the company to save time, even if she forgets something, she won’t be afraid of missing work, running home and then coming back, it only takes 15 minutes.

So if the morning is the busiest time for everyone, for Ha it is the relaxing time at the beginning of the day. Turn on some soft music, warm up with some Yoga movements, then turn on the stove to boil hot water; soak some green cabbage and carrots in salt water. The menu for the week is always prepared, Monday is spicy and sour instant noodles with beef, beaten eggs, green cabbage, carrots and a little spicy chili.

 

It sounds complicated, but the beef was marinated the day before, the vegetables were washed very quickly, the noodles boiled in water for a few minutes and you have a delicious breakfast. Make a cup of coffee, inhale the strong aroma lingering throughout the room, she puts on lipstick, hugs the documents she is reading, and then at 7:30 takes her motorbike to work.

Ha’s job is mainly to plan communications for partners. Unscheduled meetings are not uncommon. There are days when the meeting lasts until noon, the surrounding restaurants are closed, and with the company’s hot water kettle, she immediately makes a bowl of instant noodles, adds a sausage, some seaweed… to recharge for the remaining half of the working day. Instant foods make meals more convenient and easier, with rich spices, and don’t need to be too elaborate to be full. Therefore, Ha’s desk drawer always has a few packs of Hao Hao noodles or instant noodles, pho, and vermicelli to respond promptly to urgent meetings and overtime at night.

Instant food also helps Ha’s meals become more diverse, without having to think too hard about “what to eat today”. Just changing the side dishes, sometimes stir-fried dry, another day served with broth… will immediately taste different. Today the broth is cooked with meat, tomorrow it’s changed to shrimp, there’s no feeling of repetition.

On the weekend, she and her friends organized a party, although she’s not good at cooking, thanks to instant food, she was able to prepare many delicious dishes. Stir-fried noodles with seafood and vegetables, vermicelli salad, hot and sour hot pot served with noodles, scooped into bowls and the whole group took turns slurping… Or like near Tet, she brought her friend, also a partner from England, to Vietnam for a trip, but there weren’t any pho restaurants near her house open. Ha “put out the fire” with a package of instant pho, added sliced ​​beef, some green onions, this friend still praised it as delicious, making Ha feel relieved.

 

 

Like Ha, many people choose instant foods to diversify their meals, shorten preparation time and still have a delicious menu.

“Since its appearance, instant foods have shown their necessity, especially in the industrial age, some countries consume very strongly,” Associate Professor, Dr. Le Bach Mai – former Deputy Director of the National Institute of Nutrition said and cited data from the World Instant Noodles Association (WINA). Accordingly, China consumes the most instant noodles in the world with more than 40 billion packages sold each year. Indonesia ranks second with 12.5 billion packages and India ranks third with 6 billion packages. Vietnam is also not out of the development flow of instant foods with nearly 50 enterprises of various scales participating in this field, bringing the total output to approximately 5.2 billion packages each year.

The obvious advantages of instant food in a busy life are the savings in time, cost and effort in preparing meals every day. Instead of spending many hours preparing and cooking, with just one type of instant food such as noodles, vermicelli or pho combined lightly with eggs, vegetables or meat, depending on preference, consumers have a complete meal, replenishing energy for the working day. In addition, instant food is rich in both types and flavors, making meals more fresh and interesting.

Unlike the period when industrial food first flourished or penetrated the Vietnamese market, Vietnamese consumers are increasingly more strict with instant food. According to Ms. Mai, although the demand for consumption has not decreased, the safety and meeting the nutritional needs of the body of instant food are increasingly valued, becoming important criteria for manufacturers to score points and satisfy consumers.