Must-try delicacies at the Saigontourist Group Food and Culture Festival 2025

The contest is a new feature of this year's festival, the voting results were conducted from 46 delicious dishes, representing a total of more than 600 delicious dishes from 46 units participating in the festival. The contest judges are experienced culinary experts, long-time culinary instructors and representatives of the festival organizing committee. The journey of discovering and experiencing 46 dishes representing the units can be seen as an interesting culinary tour for the judges through the creativity, styles, flavors, and ingredients of the dishes bearing the identity of the three regions of the North, Central and South, as well as local products.

The jury members took turns visiting each competition venue to enjoy the decorative art, then tasted the dishes and listened to the presentations of the dishes that each unit had carefully prepared, showing creativity in presentation as well as putting into it the passion and love for the dishes of their homeland. After the process of evaluation, appraisal, debate and consultation, in the late afternoon of the same day, the jury unanimously announced the voting results and officially announced them at the opening ceremony of the Saigontourist Group 2025 Food and Drink Festival.

Specifically, the list of Top 10 must-try dishes at the Food Culture Festival, Saigontourist Group's Delicious Dishes 2025 (randomly arranged, without ranking) is as follows: Fried seafood with silkworm nest (Majestic-Mong Cai Hotel); Ban Xa Lua pork wrapped in frog thigh leaves - sticky rice (Binh Quoi Tourist Village); Moc Bach Diep Lien Hoa sausage (Continental Saigon Hotel); Spicy fish vermicelli with red phoenix flowers (Grand Saigon Hotel); Black chicken stewed with yam (Rex Saigon Hotel); Red ginseng stewed with lotus (Van Thanh Tourist Area); Stir-fried pig fangs (Saigon - Con Dao Resort); Majestic beef rib pho (Majestic Saigon Hotel); Seafood vermicelli with crab (Dong Khanh Hotel) and grilled Huong Thao pig (Kim Do Hotel).

Nghe An eel soup - wet rice cake

Phan Thiet seafood dragon fruit salad

The list of Top 10 regional specialties to try at the Culinary Culture Festival, Saigontourist Group's Delicious Dishes 2025 (randomly arranged, without ranking) is as follows: Cao Bang sour pho (Saigon - Ban Gioc resort); Cu Ky vermicelli with squid rolls in Ha Long (Saigon - Ha Long hotel); Phan Thiet dragon fruit salad (Saigon - Mui Ne resort); grilled lamb ribs with leaves stir-fried with Ninh Thuan dong (Saigon - Ninh Chu resort); Nghe eel soup - wet rice cake (Saigon - Kim Lien hotel); Bo Chinh Phu Yen ginseng-braised tuna eyes (Saigon - Phu Yen hotel); Tay Nguyen bitter eggplant soup (Saigon - Ban Me hotel); Da Lat sturgeon soup (Saigon - Da Lat hotel); Bo Chinh ginseng-braised chicken for the king - Quang Tri (Saigon - Dong Ha hotel) and Saigon broken rice with pork ribs, pork skin and sausage (De Nhat hotel).

Bo Chinh Phu Yen ginseng tuna eye dish

Saigon broken rice with pork chop and pork skin

The list of Top 10 must-try drinks at the Saigontourist Group Food and Culture Festival 2025 (randomly arranged, no ranking) is as follows: Ngoc Linh - Kon Tum forest scent (Binh Quoi Tourist Village); salt coffee (Continental Saigon Hotel); sticky rice milk coffee (Grand Saigon Hotel); pho mojito (Rex Saigon Hotel); Dong Dinh pressed pineapple (Saigon - Phu Yen Hotel); brown rice honey tea (Saigon - Dong Ha Hotel); molasses green tea (Saigon - Kim Lien Hotel); De Nhat mint mocktail (De Nhat Hotel); peach artichoke jasmine tea (Saigontourist School of Tourism and Hotel) and tamarind and kumquat tea (Majestic Saigon Hotel).

In a quick exchange on the sidelines of the competition, Mr. Chiem Thanh Long - culinary expert, head of the competition jury - commented: "This year's festival has a lot of dishes, up to more than 600 dishes, so the jury has expanded the voting list to 3 top lists, instead of just 1 top like last year. Besides the dishes, there are also drinks to show the richness and diversity of Vietnamese cuisine. This will help diners attending the festival have more choices. The dishes brought to the competition, each dish has its own appeal and uniqueness. Among them, we were most impressed with the fried seafood rolls of the Majestic Hotel - Mong Cai, attractive because of its delicious taste, beautiful decoration, eye-catching and very elaborate preparation. The second is the stir-fried dolphin fish dish of the Saigon - Con Dao resort. This dish is strange and interesting because the fish meat is chewy like poultry and is very nutritious".

Mr. Chiem Thanh Long added: "Through this competition, we realize that Vietnamese cuisine is extremely rich and diverse, each region has a different way of preparing dishes. On that basis, those working in the tourism and culinary services industry should develop and improve; units should also have exchanges and learn from each other, for example, the South should add dishes from the North, Central and vice versa".

Units that are honored to win the Top "must-try" delicious dishes at the Saigontourist Group Food and Culture Festival 2025 will be awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the organizers, which will be hung in front of the unit's booth. This is also an "identification mark" for festival diners to recognize, taste and experience the delicious dishes that have been voted, in addition to their favorite dishes and drinks.

Saigontourist Group Food and Culture Festival 2025 organized by Saigon Tourist Corporation (Saigontourist Group) is open to the public from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. every day, continuously from March 27 to 30, 2025 at Van Thanh Tourist Area, Ho Chi Minh City. Saigontourist Group Food and Culture Festival 2025 surpasses previous festivals in terms of the number of dishes and drinks with over 600 delicious dishes selected and refined from all three regions of the country, local products.

In addition to cuisine, the festival also offers many unique cultural and artistic activities such as water puppetry, street magic circus, Thai xoe dance, quan ho, don ca tai tu, Khmer monkey dance, Ben Tre sac bua singing, bai choi singing, Hue singing, Tay Nguyen gong performances of the Xo Dang ethnic group, traditional stone instruments, and call-and-response singing. Visitors to the festival also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a space filled with a festive atmosphere imbued with the cultural identity of the three regions, experience the highland market, and try on costumes of the ethnic groups in the East and Northwest highlands.

In addition, the festival also attracts visitors with traditional craft village activities, making folk cakes with more than 50 types of cakes, experiencing leaf wrapping, baking, steaming, frying cakes with artisans, learning to make vermicelli, weaving hats, making rice paper, baking rice paper, brewing wine, making fu linh cake, ka tum cake of the Khmer people in the South. This year's craft village area will be added with activities of making wooden clogs, making paper pinwheels, Hoi An lanterns, experiencing making pottery, Dong Ho paintings, making paper flowers with artisans from Thanh Tien paper flower craft village in the ancient capital of Hue.

To participate in the festival, visitors buy entrance tickets with coupons attached to use the service, with a package price of 200,000 VND/adult, accompanying children are free. For more information, contact hotline: 0901 889 709 - 0855 556 879 or visit the website: www.saigontourist.com.vn.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/cac-mon-ngon-nhat-dinh-phai-thu-tai-le-hoi-van-hoa-am-thuc-mon-ngon-saigontourist-group-2025-196250328114446405.htm