Phú Quốc

Vietnam's island of pepper, fish sauce, and a still-wild interior.

Your host · Vietnamese

Linh

Island host

Linh wears áo dài the color of gulf water and a nón lá at her side. She will tell you which sim berry makes wine, and where the dugong still graze.

Phú Quốc sits in the Gulf of Thailand, famous for pepper and nước mắm, with a national park still holding forest. Vietnamese is spoken in the market and on the night boats.

Field notes

10 fruits

Coconut
Dừa
Cocos nucifera
Young coconut water on Sao Beach. Grated coconut in bánh. The tree of the gulf.
Pineapple
Thơm
Ananas comosus
Island pineapples, sharp and small, sold in bags of chili salt.
Mango
Xoài
Mangifera indica
Green with fish sauce and chili, or ripe and sagging with juice.
Papaya
Đu đủ
Carica papaya
Green in gỏi, ripe at breakfast. A tree in every garden.
Banana
Chuối
Musa
From chuối sứ to tiny sweet ones. Fried in batter at night.
Dragon fruit
Thanh long
Selenicereus
Pitaya of the Vietnamese coast, magenta or white flesh, mild and cooling.
Rambutan
Chôm chôm
Nephelium lappaceum
Hairy red, a rainy-season kilo from the mainland that still feels local.
Jackfruit
Mít
Artocarpus heterophyllus
Young mít in a kho; ripe bulbs sold in plastic on the ferry.
Watermelon
Dưa hấu
Citrullus lanatus
Sliced on ice, the beach fruit of a gulf afternoon.
Soursop
Mãng cầu
Annona muricata
Spiky green, white pulp, blended into a thick juice.