What a Southern Vietnamese Meal Is: Grill, Braise, Soup

A Southern Vietnamese meal at Bếp Rơm stands on three legs: one grilled dish, one braise to eat with rice, one bowl of soup, plus greens and rice for the whole table. A mâm is a set of dishes laid in the middle of the table for everyone to share. I am Loan, the head chef. I grew up beside a wood stove in the Mekong Delta and cooked twenty years in my family’s rice restaurant before we opened Bếp Rơm. This is not a history of the Southern meal. It is how I order for a table, and why we serve food this way.

The three legs

• The grill: food with fire in it, smoky, eaten wrapped or dipped. At Bếp Rơm the fire is straw and wood: cá lóc nướng trui (snakehead grilled whole, scales on, in burning straw) or the free-range chicken with chilli salt.
• The braise: salty, rich, meant for rice. Cooked in a clay pot over a low fire, like cá lóc kho tộ (clay-pot braised snakehead) or pork belly braised in fresh coconut water.
• The soup: a bowl of liquid, usually sour or plain, to cool the salty and the hot. Canh chua cá lóc (sour soup with snakehead), canh khổ qua nhồi thịt (stuffed bitter melon soup).

Then two things nobody calls a main dish, though the table tips over without them: greens (water spinach stir-fried with garlic, or boiled vegetables with kho quẹt) and rice. A meal stands when all three legs are there, with greens and rice. Without soup the table is dry; without a braise there is nothing to eat with the rice; without a grill the meal has no fire.

Ordering for 2

Two people cannot finish three legs plus greens, so keep it compact. The pair mâm is VND 440,000 (VND 220,000 a head): bánh khọt tôm (six small turmeric rice cakes with prawn, VND 98,000), free-range chicken grilled with chilli salt (VND 268,000), stir-fried water spinach with garlic (VND 68,000) and 2 bowls of rice (VND 30,000). The single prices add up to VND 464,000; take off 5% and round down to the nearest VND 10,000 and you get VND 440,000.

To be honest, the pair mâm has a grill and greens but no braise and no soup. If you want all three legs, add one dish at its single price: canh khổ qua nhồi thịt (VND 98,000) or canh chua nấm đậu hũ (vegan sour soup with mushroom and tofu, VND 88,000). VND 98,000 added to VND 440,000 makes VND 538,000, about VND 269,000 a head. The chicken is spice level 2; the chilli can come on the side.

Ordering for 4

The family mâm is VND 890,000 (VND 222,500 a head) and has all three legs: lotus stem salad with prawn and pork (VND 148,000) to open, cá lóc nướng trui (VND 358,000) as the grill, pork braised in coconut water (VND 148,000) as the braise, sour snakehead soup (VND 158,000), water spinach with garlic (VND 68,000) and 4 bowls of rice (VND 60,000). The single prices total VND 940,000; less 5% is VND 893,000, rounded down to VND 890,000.

The snakehead weighs about 800 g and you wrap it in rice paper with herbs and dip it in mắm nêm (fermented anchovy dip, pounded with pineapple and chilli). The pork comes with an egg and pickled mustard greens. For a table of four, the two sit well together: one to wrap, one to spoon over rice.

Ordering for 6

The round mâm is VND 1,290,000 (VND 215,000 a head): lotus stem salad (VND 148,000), bánh xèo tôm thịt (sizzling rice-flour pancake with prawn and pork, VND 138,000), cá lóc nướng trui (VND 358,000), honey-grilled pork chop (VND 228,000), cá lóc kho tộ (VND 178,000), sour snakehead soup (VND 158,000), water spinach with garlic (VND 68,000) and 6 bowls of rice (VND 90,000). The single prices total VND 1,366,000; less 5% is VND 1,297,700, rounded down to VND 1,290,000.

Six people get two grills (the fish and the pork chop), one braise (the clay-pot fish), the soup, the greens, and a bánh xèo to wrap in herbs for everyone. Snakehead appears in three dishes of this set: grilled, braised and in the soup. If someone at the table does not eat fish, swap a dish; a mâm can be changed dish by dish at single prices, and the 5% is applied to the final sum.

Prices include 8% VAT. Drinks are extra.

Add greens and rice

Greens and rice are what many tables forget to order. Water spinach with garlic (VND 68,000) is in all three sets above. If the table wants more greens, kho quẹt rau luộc (VND 128,000) is a thick, salty pot of pork belly braised with dried shrimp and fish sauce, served with boiled vegetables and tubers; spice level 1. Rice is VND 15,000 a bowl, cooked in a cast-iron pot.

The common mistake: ordering three grills

The mistake I see most is a table ordering three grilled dishes, because grilled dishes sound appealing. The result is three dry plates at once, no liquid, nothing to spoon over rice, and a bigger bill than it needs to be: three grills such as cá lóc nướng trui (VND 358,000), pork chop (VND 228,000) and grilled tiger prawns (VND 248,000) are already VND 834,000 before rice, soup and greens. Swap one grill for a braise and a soup and you have a fuller meal for less.

One more thing to say plainly. Many dishes in a mâm contain fish, crustaceans, egg, soy or peanut. Each dish lists its allergens in the nine groups on the braises, soups and rice page. The kitchen is shared, so we cannot promise there are no traces. A table with vegetarians has its own vegetarian mâm, listed on the set menus page.

What we do at Bếp Rơm

I choose the family mâm for each table: if you tell us someone eats mild food, someone is vegetarian, someone does not eat fish, I swap dishes in the set and recalculate at single prices. The braises cook in clay pots over a low flame until the coconut-brown sauce thickens. The grilling is Tư’s work; he is the fire keeper.

For a family of three generations there is more to weigh in choosing a family restaurant. To read about me and my work in the kitchen, see Trần Kim Loan’s page. Once you know the number of guests, book a table.

Updated 5 October 2026. Prices include 8% VAT, valid until 31 December 2026.