Relax. When it comes to cooking Vietnamese food, you don’t need to know your way around a kitchen perfectly. But you do need to be comfortable with chopping and tasting and knowing what you like. Don’t be alarmed if you taste your dishes and they don’t seem salty or sweet enough. Simply adjust the spicing to your own liking. Vietnamese cooking is truly about tasting as you go–adding more salt, sugar, vegetables, herbs. This is how the art of Vietnamese cooking has been passed down from generation to generation, kitchen to kitchen.