Since the 1980s, Hanoi streets in the evening no longer see young women, in black trousers and brown blouses with baskets on their head, loudly crying: “Ow...who will buy my popcorn, peanuts and hazelnuts?”

Despite living in a big city, many Hanoians like the taste of dishes from rural areas, such as a tiny wooden bowl of steaming hot popcorn, or roasted nuts and hazelnuts in funnel-shaped paper. It is not a large amount of food but it can satisfy their taste buds in the moment.

Snacking is not only a habit of adults, but lures children as well. When the rice plants reach their ear stage, children in the countryside flock to the field to pluck young grains off the ears and roast them to chew.

In my opinion, ‘cracking’ is a type of snacking, letting people taste their favourite food while keeping their mouth working. Barley-sugar, sesame cracker candy, and many types of brittle candies — much in vogue in the old days — were also made to meet the demand. It reminds me of malt-honey candy. On a winter day, just having a ginger-flavour malt-honey candy can help you warm up.

I remember on my first trip to the Central Highland city of Buon Ma Thuot. after diner, my friends and I went out to have some coffee. Just as we sat down, the waiter put a plate of dried melon seeds on my table. Looking around, I saw such plates were put on every table, and shells were all over the ground — a real sign of how fond people are of cracking seeds.

Nowadays, crossing the cathedral on Ly Quoc Su street, one can see many youngsters gathered at shops nearby to have lemon tea and sun flower seeds. It seems that chewing gum, produced in various types and flavours, cannot replace Vietnamese people’s seed cracking habit.

Snack time is an occasion for people, not only to enjoy the dishes, but also to gossip. In another visit to a village of the Ba Na–Rongao ethnic group in Kon Tum province, I met a group of young women. Despite my effort to communicate, the girls just giggled and pretended that they did not know how to speak the Kinh ethnic language. When I was about to give up, I saw a wooden mortar of sliced green papaya mixed with nuts, I asked them whether I might have some. They invited me to try it; the dish tasted like a mix of bitter, salty, acrid, peppery and sour flavours. Overall, it was very hard to describe in words.

However, that dish helped me strike up a conversation with the women. They told me that after fishing work on the field, they always want to have something to snack right away. They slice green papaya and mix it with sugar, fish sauce, chilly and fermented powder to make the dish.

The talk also helped me learn more about the culture and customs of local people. I figured out that Bana–Rongao people have a very unique tradition: even if the groom’s family has not collected enough money for a wedding, he still can live in his wife’s house until his family can afford the ceremony.

During my stay in the village, I was lucky enough to attend a ceremony just like this. The couple smiled like flowers; the man brought a big bag of his cloths while his wife led a child in one hand and held another in the other arm. This revealed that the husband had lived in his wife’s house for years.

As long as snacking is still a daily habit of people, street vendors serving these dishes will always exist. Today, the vendors have adapted a “fast-food” serving style to meet the demands of customers. Jackfruit, pineapple and other fruits are peeled and pieces are put into plastic bags; even juices and sweetened porridge are poured into plastic cups so that buyers can take the food and enjoy it whenever they want. The sellers also update their “menu” every season to please their customers.

However, snacking fans do not just pick any vendor they catch in street; rather, they often buy from an acquaintance or from a popular shop. For example, my favourite address for roasted peanuts is a small alley off Hang Thiec street, as recommended by my friend. There is no official shop, only a small board with the seller’s name on it, and a little electric bell. You come there, ring the bell, and a man will come out and ask which one you would like, sweet or savoury flavour, and how much. After waiting for a while, he will come back with carefully wrapped paper bags of roasted peanuts.

In the same business style without an official billboard, but thanks to longtime prestige and word of mouth, there is another shop selling simmered chicken in Hang Ruoi street. You have to tread through a very small alley to reach the shop.

Without any noisy advertisement, Nguyen Ninh shop, famous for banh com (green rice flake cake) and banh phu the (husband and wife cake), still stands out from dozens of other shops on Hang Than street and is crowded with customers all day.