Xoi: Vietnam’s most versatile street food
Xoi is made from glutinous rice — a short-grain variety that turns soft and sticky when steamed, completely different in texture from the plain rice served with Vietnamese meals. It is one of the most deeply rooted foods in Vietnamese culture, eaten daily as a quick breakfast or snack, but also served at weddings, festivals, and ancestral offerings.
For travelers, it is one of the most practical foods to know: cheap, filling, and available almost everywhere — from early-morning street stalls to market vendors and local restaurants. Most people eat xoi in the morning, and many stalls sell out before 9 or 10am, but it can also be found as a snack or light meal throughout the day depending on the region and the type of xoi.
What is xoi: ingredients and varieties
The base: glutinous rice
The foundation of every xoi dish is glutinous rice, also called sticky rice. Despite the name, it contains no gluten — “glutinous” simply refers to its texture. Unlike regular rice, glutinous rice is almost entirely starch, which is what makes it clump together and turn dense and chewy when cooked. Before steaming, the grains are soaked in water for several hours to soften them. Salt is added during soaking — not just for flavor, but because it affects the texture of the final dish. The rice is then steamed rather than boiled, which keeps the grains intact while giving xoi its characteristic stickiness.
Xoi is usually served scooped from a large bamboo basket that keeps it warm, sometimes wrapped in banana or lotus leaves to hold it together and add a faint herbal fragrance. In its most basic form, it can have four flavor profiles: nutty, plain, salty, or sweet — though nutty and salty are by far the most common in everyday street food.
Savory xoi (xoi man)
Savory xoi is what most travelers will encounter first, particularly at breakfast stalls in Hanoi and other northern cities. The base is the same steamed glutinous rice, but it is served with a range of toppings that turn it into a proper meal.
The most common toppings include mung bean paste, crispy fried shallots, pork floss, Chinese sausage, braised pork, fried egg, and pate. Most stalls let you mix and match, so a single bowl can have several toppings at once.
The most iconic variety is xoi xeo — the dish most associated with Hanoi street food culture. The rice is soaked in turmeric water before steaming, giving it a warm yellow color. It is served with a layer of smooth mung bean paste, a generous handful of crispy fried shallots, and sometimes a drizzle of rendered fat. Simple as it sounds, the combination of textures — soft rice, creamy beans, crunchy shallots — is what makes it so good.
Other common savory varieties worth knowing:
- Xoi ga — topped with shredded poached chicken, one of the most popular options in both the north and south
- Xoi thit kho — served with caramelized braised pork and egg, richer and heavier than most other varieties
- Xoi lap xuong — served with Chinese sausage, often combined with pork floss and a boiled quail egg
Sweet xoi (xoi ngot)
Sweet xoi is less common as a street food staple but widely available at markets and dessert stalls. It tends to be eaten as a snack rather than a meal, and is particularly popular in the south.
Common sweet varieties:
- Xoi dua — made with coconut milk, slightly sweet and creamy
- Xoi gac — made with gac fruit, which gives the rice a vivid red-orange color and a mildly sweet flavor; traditionally made for weddings and Tet
- Xoi nep than — made with black glutinous rice, which has a slightly nutty, earthy taste and turns a deep purple when cooked
- Xoi la cam — made with the magenta plant, producing a striking purple color; often combined with mung beans
- Xoi xoai — sticky rice with fresh mango and coconut milk, a Thai-influenced variety that has become popular in Vietnam in recent years, especially in summer
Sweet xoi is generally eaten as a snack at any time of day, while savory xoi is almost always a morning dish.
Regional differences
Xoi looks and tastes noticeably different depending on where in Vietnam you eat it. In the north, particularly Hanoi, xoi tends to be simpler — the focus is on quality rice with a few well-chosen toppings, often wrapped in leaves and eaten quickly at a street stall. Mung bean paste and fried shallots are the defining elements. In the south, xoi is typically served with more toppings, richer sauces, and a slightly sweeter flavor profile overall. Ho Chi Minh City stalls often pile on Chinese sausage, pork floss, fried egg, and shredded chicken all at once.
In the northwestern mountains — areas like Ha Giang, Son La, and Dien Bien — ethnic minority communities prepare a distinct version called com lam, where glutinous rice is cooked inside bamboo tubes over an open fire. The bamboo infuses the rice with a subtle woody fragrance, and it is served by cutting the tube open. It is a completely different eating experience from city xoi and worth trying if you are traveling in that region.
Nam Dinh, a province south of Hanoi, is known among Vietnamese food lovers for having an unusually high concentration of skilled xoi makers. The city’s old quarters have long been associated with traditional xoi production, and it is sometimes referred to informally as Vietnam’s sticky rice capital — though this is not something most foreign travelers will have heard of.
Allergy concerns for xoi
Xoi can contain a range of ingredients depending on the variety and the stall, so it is worth knowing what to look out for before ordering.
- Gluten — Glutinous rice is naturally gluten-free despite the name. However, cross-contamination is possible at stalls where soy sauce, pork floss, or processed toppings are used, so those with celiac disease should be cautious.
- Peanuts — Xoi lac is made with peanuts as the main topping. Peanuts also appear as a garnish at some stalls, so always check before ordering.
- Soy — Pork floss, Chinese sausage, and many dipping sauces contain soy. Soy sauce is also a common condiment served on the side.
- Shellfish — Some stalls add mam tom (fermented shrimp paste) as a condiment or mix dried shrimp into certain varieties. It is not always visible, so worth asking if shellfish is a concern.
- Eggs — Fried eggs and boiled quail eggs are common toppings on savory xoi, and eggs are used in some sweet varieties as well.
- Sesame — Sesame seeds appear in some varieties, particularly xoi vung, which is made with sesame and peanuts.
- Coconut — Sweet xoi varieties such as xoi dua and xoi xoai are made with coconut milk.
Most stalls serve several varieties side by side, so switching to a simpler option is usually easy. If unsure about ingredients, point to the tray and ask the vendor to show you what goes in — even without shared language, most vendors will understand and show you the toppings separately before serving.
For a full overview of navigating food allergies while traveling in Vietnam, the guide on traveling in Vietnam with food allergies covers what to watch out for and how to communicate dietary needs on the ground.
Origins of xoi
Xoi has its roots in Tai tribal culture in Southeast Asia — not in China or India as many assume. While those countries are often credited as the foundation of regional food traditions, sticky rice and its customs developed largely independently across Southeast Asia, with each ethnic group developing its own ways of growing, preparing, and eating it. The Tai tribes carried these traditions with them as they migrated from Yunnan into what is now northwestern Vietnam, bringing glutinous rice cultivation into the highlands long before it spread to the rest of the country.
For centuries, glutinous rice was a staple crop in the mountainous northwest, where the terrain suited its growth better than regular rice. Over time, wet rice — the kind used in everyday Vietnamese cooking today — gradually replaced it as the main daily food. The reasons were practical: wet rice is easier to grow, produces more reliable harvests, and can be cultivated at least twice a year. Glutinous rice, by contrast, is more difficult to process and yields less predictably. As a result, xoi shifted from an everyday staple to something eaten on specific occasions — though it never disappeared from daily life entirely, particularly as a breakfast and street food.
Today, xoi remains deeply embedded in Vietnamese culture beyond the breakfast stall. It is served at weddings, Tet celebrations, ancestral offerings, and local festivals, where certain varieties carry symbolic meaning. Xoi gac, with its vivid red color, is traditionally prepared for weddings and important ceremonies. Xoi do — made with red beans — is a common offering at temples and family altars.
A few details about xoi that do not appear in most travel guides: before synthetic adhesives existed, cooked sticky rice was used in Vietnam as a practical glue for paper, hand fans, and thin bamboo items. It was cheap, widely available, and worked well enough for lightweight materials. On a more cheerful note, Vietnamese parents still give their children xoi with beans before important exams — the word for beans (dau or do) sounds like the Vietnamese word for passing an exam, making it an edible good-luck charm. And in Vietnamese, the word for raspberry is “qua mam xoi,” meaning “fruit of the xoi tray,” because the clustered shape of the berry resembles a tray of sticky rice.
Tips for eating xoi and finding the best xoi restaurant
Go where locals go — and go early
Xoi is first and foremost a breakfast food, and the best stalls run on a short clock. Most sell out between 9 and 10am, and some of the most popular spots are gone even earlier. A stall with a crowd of locals is always a good sign — it means the food is good and the ingredients turn over fast, which matters more than it might seem for a dish where toppings like braised pork and fried egg sit out in the open air.
Start with xoi xeo if you don’t know where to begin
With dozens of varieties available, xoi can feel overwhelming at first. Xoi xeo — the turmeric-yellow sticky rice with mung bean paste and crispy fried shallots — is the most iconic variety and the best starting point. It is simple, widely available, and gives a clear sense of what good xoi tastes like at its base. From there, adding toppings or trying other varieties becomes much easier.
Know what you’re ordering
Most xoi stalls do not have English menus. Knowing a few Vietnamese names goes a long way:
- Xoi xeo — sticky rice with mung bean paste and fried shallots
- Xoi ga — with shredded chicken
- Xoi thit kho — with caramelized braised pork and egg
- Xoi lap xuong — with Chinese sausage
- Xoi gac — sweet, red-colored rice made with gac fruit
- Xoi dua — sweet sticky rice with coconut milk
- Xoi lac — with peanuts
When in doubt, point at what someone nearby is eating. It works every time.
Watch out for the shrimp paste
Some vendors serve mam tom — fermented shrimp paste — as a condiment alongside savory xoi. It has a very strong smell and a pungent, salty flavor that catches many first-time visitors off guard. If you want something milder, ask for nuoc mam (fish sauce) or nuoc tuong (soy sauce) instead. If shellfish is an allergy concern, ask before sitting down, as some vendors mix dried shrimp directly into certain varieties.
Sweet or savory: know the difference before you point
At stalls selling multiple varieties, it is easy to end up with sweet xoi when you wanted savory — or the other way around. The rice can look almost identical across varieties, especially when viewed from the side of a bamboo basket. Before pointing, look at what other customers have in front of them, or gesture at the tray and wait for the vendor to show you the toppings. Sweet xoi is usually softer in color and served without the shallots and pork toppings that define savory versions.
Street stalls over restaurants
Xoi is street food at its core, and it is almost always better at a pavement stall than in a restaurant. The rice is kept warm in bamboo baskets, toppings are prepared fresh in the morning, and the whole operation is built around speed and volume — both of which work in your favor. Restaurants that serve xoi as part of a broader menu rarely give it the same attention. If you see a vendor with a large bamboo basket and a small folding table, that is usually the right call.
How much does xoi cost
Xoi is one of the most affordable foods in Vietnam. A basic portion of xoi xeo at a street stall costs between 10,000 and 20,000 VND — roughly 40 to 80 US cents. Add toppings like braised pork, chicken, or egg and the price moves up to around 25,000 to 50,000 VND, still well under two dollars. Prices at sit-down restaurants like Xoi Yen in Hanoi are slightly higher but still very reasonable by any standard. Expect to pay a little more in tourist-heavy areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Use Google Maps — with some nuance
Searching “xoi” plus a neighborhood name in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City on Google Maps is a reliable way to find options nearby. Highly rated spots with thousands of reviews are generally trustworthy, but they also tend to attract more tourists, which can affect the atmosphere and sometimes the price. A stall with 50 reviews and a 4.8 rating from what are clearly local customers often turns out to be the better meal. Filter for places that open early — anything with hours starting at 6 or 7am is likely a proper xoi stall rather than a restaurant that happens to serve it.
Consider a street food tour
Eating xoi as part of a guided street food tour is one of the best ways to experience it properly — alongside other dishes, with a local who can explain what you are eating, why it matters, and where the best versions are found. A good guide will also take you to spots you would never find searching online. Local Vietnam runs street food tours in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City that include xoi alongside other essential dishes. Have a look at all our street food tours here.
For more practical advice on eating street food in Vietnam — including how to find good stalls, what to watch out for, and other dishes worth knowing — the guide to street food in Vietnam covers everything in one place.
Other iconic Vietnamese dishes
Xoi is a good entry point into Vietnamese food culture, but it is just one piece of a much larger picture. Before the trip, it is worth getting familiar with the dishes that show up most often — from street stalls and local markets to sit-down restaurants across the country.
- Pho — A clear, slow-cooked broth served with rice noodles and either beef or chicken, eaten at any time of day but most commonly for breakfast.
- Banh Mi — A French-influenced baguette filled with a combination of meat, pate, pickled vegetables, fresh herbs, and chili — one of the most practical and widely available street foods in Vietnam.
- Bun Cha — Grilled pork patties and sliced pork belly served in a light dipping broth alongside rice vermicelli and fresh herbs, a Hanoi specialty eaten almost exclusively at lunch.
- Goi Cuon — Fresh spring rolls made with rice paper, filled with shrimp, pork, vermicelli, and herbs, served at room temperature with a peanut or hoisin dipping sauce.
- Banh Xeo — A crispy, turmeric-yellow rice flour crepe filled with shrimp, pork, and bean sprouts, torn into pieces and wrapped in lettuce leaves before eating.
- Com Tam — Broken rice served with grilled pork, a fried egg, shredded pork skin, and a side of fish sauce — a staple of Ho Chi Minh City street food culture.
- Banh Cuon — Thin, steamed rice rolls filled with minced pork and wood ear mushroom, served with fried shallots and a light dipping sauce.
- Pho Cuon — Fresh pho noodle sheets rolled around beef and herbs, eaten as a roll rather than in broth — a Hanoi dish less known to visitors but worth seeking out.
- Nem Ran / Cha Gio — Crispy fried spring rolls filled with pork, vermicelli, and vegetables, known as nem ran in the north and cha gio in the south.
- Bun Rieu — A tangy tomato-based noodle soup made with crab paste, tofu, and pork, topped with fresh herbs and sometimes blood pudding.
- Hu Tieu — A southern noodle soup with a light pork or seafood broth, commonly eaten for breakfast in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta.
For a broader look at what to eat in Vietnam — including regional differences, what to try where, and how to navigate the food scene as a traveler — the Vietnamese food guide is a good place to start.
