🍬 A Taste of Childhood – Vietnamese Snacks That Grew Up With Us

🍬 A Taste of Childhood – Vietnamese Snacks That Grew Up With Us
Some memories don’t need photographs.
They come back the moment you taste something familiar —
a piece of dried banana, a cube of palm sugar, the sour bite of tamarind.

In Vietnam, childhood was never just about growing up.
It was about what we ate —
with our fingers, from plastic bags, behind schoolyards, or on quiet front porches.

 
🎒 Pocket Money and Sweet Discoveries
When I was a child in the Mekong Delta, school would end with a rush — not home, but to the snack cart across the gate.

My husband tells the same story —
his pockets jingling with coins, heart set on his favorite:

Bánh in – dry, crumbly rice flour cookies stamped with dragons
Chuối sấy – chewy, sweet banana slices wrapped in cellophane
Me chua tẩm ớt – tamarind dipped in chili salt, tongue-tingling and addictive
Kẹo kéo – sticky toffee candy spun on a stick, often shared with friends and fingers
We didn’t eat for nutrition.
We ate for joy.
And sometimes… for rebellion.

 
🌳 Afternoons That Tasted Like Childhood
There were no brands. No packaging design. No expiry dates.

Just:

A plastic bag twisted at the top
A lady who knew all our names
A wooden table under a tamarind tree
And a handful of flavors that felt like summer
We sat on curb edges, licking salt off our fingertips.
Sometimes we traded bites. Sometimes we fought over them.
But always, we tasted freedom.

 
🍡 Snacks That Grew With Us
As we got older, our snacks changed —
but never really disappeared.

The tamarind became a dipping sauce for seafood
The chuối sấy became a topping on modern smoothie bowls
The bánh in made its way into fancy gift boxes during Tết
The kẹo dừa from Bến Tre still sits in every grandmother’s living room
They’re still with us.
Not just in stores — but in how we remember being young.

 
💛 Why These Snacks Matter
Because they weren’t just food.

They were:

A reward after a long day at school
A comfort when we scraped our knees
A celebration when we shared something rare
A small rebellion when we chose chili over milk
And today, when we bite into those same snacks —
we don’t just taste sugar or salt.

We taste our childhood.
And we smile.

 
🌙 Final Thought – The Flavor of Then
There are flavors that follow you.
That wait quietly until you come home, open a jar, or walk past a roadside stall.

And when they arrive —
they don’t ask for attention.
They simply say:

“Do you remember?”
And you do.
Because Vietnamese childhood doesn’t fade.
It lingers — in plastic bags, on dusty shelves, and in every bite that makes us pause.

 
Next up:
📖 In the Land of Fish Sauce – How Vietnam Turns Fermentation into Magic (revisited for deeper exploration of regional nước mắm)