@Walter Hinteler,
Our Vietnamese chef friend's food wasn't sweet; they were from Saigon, though the family was originally (way before he was born, I think) Chinese. Well, some desserts were sweet, but we rarely had dessert.They were boat people, mother had taught him to cook; he opened his own restaurant in Hollywood, which we heard about from a Vietnamese student in our lab, it being her parents favorite vietnamese place in the LA area.
Anyway, LA was a foreign place to him, but not us, so it doesn't quite fit in this thread. I was just interested in hearing you folks talk about north south differences.
In Albuqueque, I found the Vietnamese cooks putting ginger in seemingly everything, aaaack. I like ginger, but not all the time.