“A lifetime of traveling, talking and eating throughout the country may not be enough to discover all that Vietnam has to share”.
(Luke Nguyen, The Food of Vietnam)
Hi, I’m Sophie and welcome to Delightful Plate! The world probably doesn’t need another food blog, so I appreciate you visiting us here.
My life partner and I created this blog, first of all, as a place to document all the fun we have in the kitchen. Both he and I love good food and enjoy trying new things in the kitchen, whether it’s a new ingredient, new knife or new kitchen appliance. To some extent, this blog is like a diary that allows us to record our life experiences and look back on them later.
The second reason we created Delightful Plate is we want to showcase Vietnamese cuisine, which has much more to offer than just pho noodle soup and banh mi. Creating contents for Delightful Plate is a great experience through which both of us re-discover our Vietnamese heritage.
Through the blog, we hope to preserve the authenticity of Vietnamese cuisine. We also hope we can help you recreate the dishes you love and connect you with Vietnamese culture more.
What you will find on Delightful Plate
You will find both traditional and modern Vietnamese recipes here. I hope through my recipes, you will have better understanding of not only Vietnamese cuisine but also Vietnamese culture. We were both born in Vietnam, so you can trust us that we know what we are talking about when we say “authentic”.
Besides Vietnamese dishes, Delightful Plate will sometimes have recipes inspired by flavors and ingredients from other cuisines. I went to the U.K. for postgraduate study and subsequently moved to the U.S, which has given me access to many new ingredients, spices, and kitchen appliances as well as chances to try many international dishes. We love to cook food from other cuisines at home.
Writing is not my forte and English is not my mother tongue, so I often worry if my posts are well-written enough. I started the blog with the thought that I need to keep my posts concise and straight to the point. In each post, I try my best to describe the cooking process and how the dish tastes.
I will also share my thought process for the recipe as well as useful/meaningful information such as the origin of the dish or characteristics of ingredients. I apologize in advance if I sound too boring, but don’t hesitate to let me know that so I can improve.
What you will not find on Delightful Plate
There are certain things I try to eat in a small amount if possible. They are dairy, refined sugar and highly-processed food. They sadly give me terrible mood swings and skin issues. Moreover, I believe in the importance of eating fresh and nutrient-dense food, so I mostly use natural and wholesome ingredients in my recipes.
I don’t follow any food trend. What I share on Delightful Plate is what my partner and I genuinely enjoy eating.
We do have Amazon affiliate links and ads to offset the costs of running a website. However, we don’t do sponsored posts. Everything we write on the blog is what we think, and we pay for all ingredient costs and travel costs ourselves.
Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy spending time at Delightful Plate!
Sophie
Hello Sophie,
I just came across your blog and read your “About” page. You have nothing to worry about regarding your writing or english grammar. It is clear you are paying attention to what you write. It seems a majority of native-english-speaking bloggers can’t even take the time to proofread their posts so you are way ahead of the curve. I look forward to trying some recipes. BTW, I stumbled onto your blog searching out asian-inspired pork-on-a-stick. I also looked at your Vietnamese fried egg roll recipe. I hope you will do a video, as I have tried this in the past and failed so spectacularly that I have not attempted it since.
Hi Chuck,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment! I really appreciate your encouraging words :). If you try any of the recipes, please feel free to let me know what you think. There’s actually a video in the fried rolls recipe which is about in the middle of the post: https://delightfulplate.com/vietnamese-fried-spring-rolls/. I hope you will find it helpful :).
Sophie …
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
I look forward very much to making the pho chai for my wife and I
When it cools down here (Texas), we really enjoy pho!
Never tried apple or fermented black beans, but they sound like a great combination with the spices and savory ingredients … and fresh greens, too!
Your English is excellent, don’t worry about a thing. Much better than my Vietnamese, for sure.
Luke Nguyen was one of our favorite TV cooks. We enjoyed the culture of your Vietnamese heritage!
Ed
Hi Ed,
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m really happy to know that you enjoy Vietnamese food and culture. I’d love to hear how your pho chay turns out.
I haven’t watched any of Luke Nguyen’s shows but I have almost all of his cookbooks. His restaurant in Saigon is beautiful with some pretty tasty dishes.
Thanks again for visiting and sharing your thoughts :)!
I’m anxious to try your recipes!
Thank you! I look forward to hearing how they turn out for you.
Thanks!
This looks amazing <3 Everything in this blog is truly you, from the colours, presentation, to the words and pictures:).
Sophie, your blog posts are beautifully written, so you don’t need to worry about that, I recently found delightfulplate.com and will be visiting often, especially since I, too, must avoid sugar and processed foods. The shrimp appetizer was delicious!
Hi Alice,
Thank you for your kind words! I’m glad to hear that the shrimp appetizer turned out great for you.
I used to have a huge sweet tooth but sugar usually gave me bad mood swings. Cutting down on sugar intake wasn’t very easy for me at first, but it made me feel so much better in the end.
I look forward to hearing how other recipes turn out for you.
Thanks!
Hi Sophie,
Not to stalk you but I was impressed by your YouTube channel and a little surprised that not many know of your channel yet. You’re production is great and I can see you are doing what you love. I started my channel recently too as I’m a chef professor and I wanted to have an additional outlet to share with my students as well as alumni.
Anyway, if you connect back that’s great. Otherwise have a fantastic day.
My Instagram is @BiteandChiu in case you want to stalk back 😉
Sally
Love the recipes! So glad I found this website. How come there’s no Pho Bo recipe on here?
Hey Guys! I have just come across your blog and it is great! Absolutely loving the genuine Vietnamese recipes and the “look n feel” of your blog. One of your post that really hit home was… the TENNIS!!! I am a crazy tennis fan!!! Really good to see tennis and Vietnamese food combine in 1 blog. Keep up the good work.
Scruff
Hello Sophie, I’m recently retired and have been cooking with my newly acquired Instant Pot Ultra. I found the instant pot congee recipe on your site and will try it out tonight . There are quite a few Vietnamese dishes on your site that I want to make but before I get there I want to learn my cooking craft with the Instant Pot. Do you have Instant Pot versions for those Vietnamese recipes?
Warm regards,
Thanh Vu
Hi Thanh,
Thank you for leaving me a comment and congratulations on your retirement and your recent Instant Pot purchase! Please let me know how the congee turns out for you.
At this moment, I have Instant Pot instructions for the following dishes: pork congee, fish congee, beef stew pho noodle soup and chicken corn soup. Could you let me know which Vietnamese dishes on my site that you want to cook in the Instant Pot? I may be able to give you some suggestions. Do you use Facebook? There is a very active Vietnamese Instant Pot cooking group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1743007402687050/. The members are Vietnamese home cooks and they share how they use the Instant Pot to cook Vietnamese food.
Thank you so much for visiting my site! I will try to add more Instant Pot recipes going forward.
Best regards,
Sophie