Modern-day Vietnamese trace their heritage back to a mythological founding by an ancient dragon king. In the legend, he fathered one hundred children with a fairy goddess – fifty of these children moved to the fertile coastal regions, while fifty ascended to the shrouded jungle hills. When most people think of Vietnamese cuisine, they think of the Kinh, the people of the rice fields and cities of the lowlands, but few know that they are but one of 54 ethnicities that call Vietnam home. Today, Vietnam’s mountainous regions are still peopled by these many tribes.