Ever pondered the menu of an ethnic restaurant, unsure of what to order? Ever wonder what those exotic dish names mean? Our "Deciphering the Menu" series is here to help. We feature a new cuisine in each installment to help you decide what to order at a new restaurant or just learn more about your favorite dishes. We'll lay out in plain English what some of the common ingredients are and how they're used from dish to dish. Even if you've never left your hometown, you'll sound like a world traveler once you're finished reading our handy guide.

As alldedicated foodies are probably aware, Vietnamese cuisine is the nextbig thing on the restaurant scene. True Vietnamese cuisine varies byregion. Northern Vietnam is the birthplace of Vietnamese civilizationand has strict traditions regarding spices and other ingredients. Manyof today's most popular dishes in Vietnamese restaurants originate fromthe North. Southern Vietnamese cuisine is more influenced by that ofChina, and so includes sweeter ingredients and exotic herbs. In centralVietnam, small plates similar to dim sum are popular, and the spicesused are distinctive from any other part of Vietnam. In the UnitedStates, Vietnamese cuisine has become popular for its simple, fresh andhealthy offerings. It's proved an easy addition to the palettes ofthose who already love Thai and Chinese flavors, but because it isstill a relative newcomer to the mainstream dining scene, many peopleare still unfamiliar with the ingredients of the dishes they've come tolove. Here, we break it down in characteristically simple fashion tokeep you ahead of the game when it comes to in-depth knowledge of thelatest trend in ethnic restaurants.

I enjoy eating fruits, vegetables, grains, and yogurt, and I do my best to get my weekly dose of Omega 3’s. I try to stay away from anything fried (except the occasional basket of fries) and only buy whole wheat bread.  I do admit to having a sweet tooth and enjoy ending most meals with something sweet and chocolaty, but then again, who doesn’t?

I recently had the opportunity to sign up for one of Jill Pettijohn’s (of Jill’s Café in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn) nutritional cleansing programs.  That’s five days of nothing but natural, organic and freshly made juice to detox your body. It consists of six beverages a day, including a daily green juice, three lemonades, two soups, and one nut milk (non-dairy).

Jill has been guiding people through these programs for five years.  As her website states,

"This cleanse is designed for people on the go, to be able to continue to work while clearing the body of toxic residue, rest the digestive tract and boost the immune system…Juices and soups make it a very simple way to take in nutrition in a very concentrated form and allow the body to benefit from the healing forces of nature.  Taking into the body whole and living foods untreated with herbicides and pesticides, uncooked and untreated gives us the full benefit of what Mother Nature has provided, it is an energetic whole, an original creation.”

With nothing to lose, except a few needed pounds, my liquid diet adventure is about to begin…