Cooking Vietnamese food is simple, but it can be difficult in some places to get the ingredients you need. If you don't have a local Asian market that carries specialty ingredients, don't give up: go online. In most cases, you can find the ingredients you're looking for after a short search.

Rice is an important part of most Vietnamese food dishes, but cooking it just right can be difficult. Your best bet is to get your hands on a rice cooker. For best results, cook one part right and one and a half parts water, and add 2-3 tables spoons of rice.

Be careful when purchasing an Asian rice cooker for your Vietnamese food. While they're fine mechanically, the problem comes from the fact that the American cup measure is about one-fifth larger than the Oriental cup measure, so an Asian cooker might not have the capacity you're expecting.