Xôi: Vietnamese Sticky Rice in All Its Forms

Xôi is glutinous rice steamed until tender and slightly chewy, eaten at every meal in Vietnam but most often for breakfast. The variations — savoury, sweet, plain, dyed — number in the dozens, and the dish carries cultural weight Westerners often miss.

What it is

Glutinous rice soaked overnight, then steamed in a stacked bamboo or aluminium steamer over boiling water. Plain xôi is white. Add turmeric and mung-bean paste and you get xôi xéo. Add gấc fruit and you get bright red xôi gấc. Add black-eyed peas, peanuts, sesame, dried shrimp, mango, durian, or coconut milk, and you get the full repertoire.

The main versions

Xôi xéo — Hanoi's breakfast classic. Yellow rice with mashed mung bean, crispy fried shallots and a drizzle of shallot oil. About 15,000 to 25,000 VND a portion.

Xôi gấc — bright red sticky rice from the gấc fruit, used at weddings, Tết and ancestor offerings because red signals luck.

Xôi lạc / xôi đậu — sticky rice studded with peanuts or black-eyed beans. Cheap, plain, very filling.

Xôi mặn — savoury sticky rice with Chinese sausage, shredded chicken, fried shallots, sometimes a fried egg. Common in the south.

Xôi xoài — sticky rice with mango and coconut cream. Borrowed from Thailand but sold widely in HCMC and Đà Nẵng.

Where to try it

In Hanoi, Xôi Yến at 35B Nguyễn Hữu Huân is the famous all-night xôi house — go for xôi xéo with chả lụa and pâté. Cheaper street-side xôi xéo is sold from wicker baskets all over the Old Quarter for the price of a coffee. In HCMC, Xôi Bà Chiểu in Bình Thạnh district is a good neighbourhood spot for xôi mặn.

How to eat it

Most xôi is sold wrapped in a banana leaf or a plastic bag and eaten standing up or walking. A wooden chopstick or a folded piece of leaf does the job — proper cutlery is rarely involved. Eat it within an hour; sticky rice goes from chewy to claggy as it cools.

Honest take

Xôi xéo from a market stall in Hanoi on a cold morning, eaten on a low stool with a glass of hot tea, is one of the great cheap breakfasts in Asia. It is also probably the cheapest properly satisfying meal you can buy in Vietnam.

Related reading: Northern cuisine, Hanoi food guide, Street food etiquette, Hanoi, Bánh cuốn.