Lemon vs Lime

There are plenty of limes at every neighbourhood market in Vietnam.  It's a SEA native fruit.  You can find a lime tree in just about every backyard or terrace in every city in Vietnam.  There are two on the terrace of our building right now.



The green lime/lemon you mentioned may be a King orange (cam sành):

No, actually if you taste what you are depicting is what I, as you you correctly say, can buy at every market in VN, has the taste of a lemon and not a lime. When my recipes call for lemon I indeed use them. But still have not been able to find anything that tastes like a lime no matter how green it is. And yes, I am familiar with the Orange you speak of

The juice from chanh giấy gai is definitely lime juice, the kind that is used in Mexican cuisine.  Chanh giấy gai has bold fragrance, strong, bitter, very sour, very acidic taste, very thin skin, and used to make mứt chanh during Tet.

The other one, seedless lime, has milder taste (even milder than lemon), and practically no fragrance at all.

Whatever all that means. I am just trying to find something that tastes like a lime. So far no luck. Have asked several VNese and they do not know either.

You are looking for the Citrus hystrix or 'Kaffir lime', native to S.E. Asia.

Also known as Makrut lime, Mauritius papeda, or simply Thai lime, easily identified
by the indented leaves and (extremely) sharp thorns.  Crush a leaf and you will
recognise the smell; used in green curries, soups etc.

Strange you cannot find them..?    Most Viet people call them lemons, for the
'European' version of lemon  Citrus limon (Osbeck) are not commonly used here,
despite (originally) also being native to Asia.