Vietnamese Food Wall Art

Vietnamese food wall art shows dishes on the table and the stalls where they are cooked: spring rolls with shrimp and peanut sauce, a bowl of red chilli broth, grilled patties in amber broth, pork chop rice, and cooks working over steam and charcoal. Hanoi, Hue and Saigon each appear, some scenes sit on a street and one is set at night. The works come as hand-painted oils or archival canvas prints.

Dishes laid out on the table

One painting sets three translucent spring rolls on a round grey plate, shrimp and coriander showing through the rice paper, with peanut sauce bowls, lime, chilli and a basket of herbs on a tan wooden table. Another stands a bowl of red chilli broth with beef, pork and coriander on a dark table, a steaming pot and small garnish bowls around it, in a warm timber room lit from a side window. A Hanoi table holds a white bowl of grilled patties in amber broth among green herbs, pale noodles and a dish of chilli, with a charcoal grill glowing beside it.

Street cooks, steam and lantern light

Some paintings leave the table for the street. In one, a woman lifts noodles from a steaming pot on a wet, misty street, with a glass-fronted cart, wooden stools and a single orange lantern against slate grey-blue. Another has a woman in black bent over a charcoal grill, three prawns and a silver fish on the bars, beneath a teal awning and round lanterns in orange and yellow. A Saigon canvas pairs glazed pork chop rice topped with a fried egg with a steaming bowl, a teal mug and blurred motorbikes outside in the sun. These street scenes also hang in Street Scene, and the lantern-lit grill belongs with Night Scene.

Rice paper in the courtyard

A further painting shows the making of the food itself: batter is ladled over a steaming pot, and round rice paper sheets dry on tall bamboo racks in a sunlit courtyard. Pieces like this sit with the households and cooks gathered in Daily Life, and the amber tones suit a cream or pale wall.

Choosing food paintings for a dining wall

The slate blues of the noodle stall and the teal awning of the prawn grill suit a pale wall, while the amber broth and timber browns of the Hue and Hanoi tables sit comfortably beside wood. The lantern scenes bring small points of orange and yellow to a wall otherwise kept quiet. For a kitchen or eating area, Kitchen gathers more pieces that suit those rooms.