Adventures in Hoi An, Vietnam

Adventures in Hoi An, Vietnam

From the crazy bustle of Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An couldn’t be more different. Quaint, quiet and picturesque – it feels like you’re walking the streets of an ancient town and that’s exactly what it is. With no scooters or cars allowed in the town centre (it’s a walking and cycling zone only), Hoi An begs to be explored on foot. Without planning, we arrived on Vietnam’s Independence Day, which was followed by Buddah’s birthday. It was a magical experience – at night, brightly glowing silk lanterns were strung over the streets, giant fire-breathing dragons lined the river to watch over the thousands of candles floating in it’s waters; wishes sent adrift by locals celebrating the occasion. It is a breathtaking town – and the food isn’t too bad either!

You cannot go to Hoi An without noticing their mild obsession with Cao lầu. It’s everywhere! An intense pork broth/sauce sits at the bottom of a large bowl with chewy noodles and is topped with Vietnamese greens (morning glory, sawtooth coriander, mint, bean sprouts) and finished with crispy croutons. You’ll probably eat many, many bowls, just as I did, but none will compare to the one we stumbled upon down a random back alley (as is normally the case in Vietnam!).

Where? Cao lầu Không Gian Xanh, 687 Hai Bà Trưng, Sơn Phong, Tp. Hội An, Quảng Nam, Vietnam

A few metres from the Cao Lao spot, we were intrigued by an old man making what seemed like some sort of sweet. The Vietnamese aren’t big on desserts so I was super excited when he pulled off a piece of coconut toffee and started magically pulling it into fine strands. The coconut floss is placed on a thin wafer, topped with freshly grated coconut and eaten like a sandwich – it was delicious and I stood there for ages hypnotized by the process. Check out the video I filmed below:

Another dessert highlight was a lady with a cart, selling flan – crème caramel to us. Served in little cups, drizzled with strong Vietnamese coffee the soft, perfectly cooked, quivering caramel was one of the best things I ate on my trip. The next day, I went back to the same spot with a craving that needed to be satisfied, only to discover she was no longer there. I searched for Flan Lady the entire week and never found her again. So, if you find her, order 6, sit on the pavement and eat them before she leaves!

Speaking of cravings, you can’t go to Hoi An without doing a cooking class. Once you’ve tasted Vietnamese food you’re going to need to satisfy your cravings when you’re back home. There are hundreds of places offering classes so it’s easy to get overwhelmed by choices. I only had one thing I wanted to learn to make; rice noodles and with Red Bridge Cooking School being the only one (I could find) that offered this, and it being run by professional chefs, the decision was easy.

Vietnamese farmer at the Tra Que Village

Our guide took us to the outskirts of Hoi An to Tra Que garden village where most of the town’s fresh produce is grown. Fields and fields of lush green herbs thrive as far as the eye can see without the use of pesticides and chemicals. The community garden is instead sustained by a special kind of algae found only in a lagoon in Tra Que. It is said that locals can taste the difference between Tra Que vegetables and those grown elsewhere!

Vietnamese farmer at the Tra Que Village

While we’d visited the main market in Hoi An, the school took us to one of the smaller, local markets – my camera had multiple orgasms. From ladies selling mounds of fresh noodles that are cut to your specifications, to bundles of dried cao lao noodles. There were stalls dedicated to greens – including the bright green morning glory (a staple in Vietnamese dishes), a lady shredding coconut for you and the fish! Handwoven baskets hold various shellfish, crabs and glistening fish still flipping around after being plucked from the river mere hours ago. Instagram heaven!

Next, we headed to the beautiful school on the banks of the Thu Bon River. We learnt to make pho (the national dish of fragrant broth, thinly sliced beef and rice noodles), a Vietnamese chicken salad with green papaya, green mango and rice crackers and finally, rice noodles.

Rice noodles are made by soaking rice overnight then blending it to form a batter. The batter is ladled onto a simmer pot of water over which a thin piece of silk has been pulled very tightly. After a quick steam, the noodle sheet is lifted off, brushed with oil and cut into strips (or put through a cutter).

To make rice sheets (the kind used to make rice paper rolls), the noodle sheets are placed outside in the sun to dry until crisp.

Rice sheets drying in the sun in Hoi An Vietnam

After sitting down to enjoy all the traditional dishes you’ve cooked, take a quick dip in the school’s swimming pool before returning to Hoi An via boat. A day well spent!

Rice sheets drying in the sun in Hoi An Vietnam

Where? Red Bridge Cooking School, Thon 4, Cẩm Thanh, Tp. Hội An, Quảng Nam, Vietnam (Bookings at Hai Café 111 Trần Phú, Minh An)

If you need a break from all the food, a visit to the Thanh Ha Pottery Village is worth it. We rented a scooter for the day and explored the sleepy seaside village where terracotta clay is transformed into bowls, pots and whistles by locals with nimble hands. Skip the boring tourist traps and head straight to the small alleyways along the seaside where you can watch the process. We ordered an amazing Cao Lao on Pham Phan road (opposite the antique shop) and while waiting for our food, one of the locals next door taught me to make one of the traditional whistles. Vietnamese people are extremely friendly – I was blown away by their generosity and openness!

If you’ve already read my post on Ho Chi Minh City, you’ll know I went on an epic trek to find the best Banh Mi in the city. Well, it was definitely not the best in the country. That title, I think, belongs to, not Madame Khan (Anthony Bourdain’s favourite – tried it, and it was average) but to an unassuming man and his wife with a tiny little trolley down a street that very few tourists wanted to go down. He makes a fire to warm the baguettes so they’re gorgeously crusty and his pate is rich and luscious. We ate there every single day and every day we left he’d say ‘Same tomorrow?’. Visit him. His card is opposite Nhà hàng Chợ Phố in Nguyễn Hoàng street.

I seriously despise savoury pancakes but the one’s this lady makes? Boy, are they a game-changer. They’re not really pancakes as we know them. Called banh xeo or Hoi An pancakes, rice flour, turmeric and coconut cream are mixed together before being poured into a piping hot pan. It’s then topped with prawns and bean sprouts and cooked until the edges go crispy and frilly. Served with greens, you form little parcels of deliciousness which you pop into your mouth.

Where to get them? Find this lady at the Central Market, Hoi An

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

It’s hot, steamy, busy, friendly, vibrant, most of the time stinky but ridiculously delicious. Vietnam is not on most people’s honeymoon destination short-list (it was at the top of ours!) but it should be! It’s cheap, which for our poor Randela (ZAR) is a blessing, way less touristy than places like Thailand and it has the most fascinating food culture. Make a cup of tea, find a cosy spot and let me tell you about my adventures in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam…

Scooters. So. Many. Scooters. And no road rules – somehow it all works and during our 5 days in Ho Chi Minh, we saw just one minor accident. Crazy. It’s a cheap way to get around and by the 3rd day, it felt so normal that I put aside my fear and got on the back of one, for what was to be one of the highlights of the trip; a street food tour.

Yes, I closed my eyes for 90% of the time. I held on for dear life while we whizzed through the streets of Ho Chi Minh, weaving through traffic was terrifying, but the food was oh-so-worth it! Noodles in pork broth, crispy rice pancakes wrapped in betel leaves stuffed with bean sprouts and spicy peanut dipping sauce, Vietnamese BBQ (I ate frog. It was good!) and coconut ice cream for dessert, which was (weirdly) served with sweet corn, pumpkin and red beans. Not sure how I felt about that.

Book: Saigon Food Tour www.saigonfoodtour.com

The markets – oh, the markets! There are so few supermarkets in Vietnam that I didn’t see one during the 10 days we were there. Not one! Everyone buys fresh ingredients (and everything else they need) from the markets and who can blame them – the produce is just incredible. Walk into the market and your senses will be assaulted. The smell of fish paste and fish sauce is overwhelming (don’t worry, after a day, you don’t notice it anymore), it’s steamy and you’ll sweat a lot and feel completely out of your comfort zone but your eyes will be feasting on fresh wasabi, mountains of herbs, wriggling crabs and you’ll want to Instagram everything.

Move inside (even more steamy and stinky) and you’ll find bustling food stalls making everything from Pho (the national dish of fragrant broth, thinly sliced beef and rice noodles) to sticky, tender pork grilled over coals served with sticky rice, spinach and spinach water on the side (nothing goes to waste here!).

TIP 1:  As a tourist, you’ll be urged by stallholders to eat their food (they can be quite persistent), but try and suss out where the locals are eating and head there. That’s where the freshest, most authentic food is.

Find it:  Ben Thanh Market, District One

 

TIP 2:  Sometimes the best food is down the side-street from a popular tourist spot, so explore the area and get lost. Case in point: This lady who makes the most mind-blowingly delicious crab and noodle broth down a side street from the Ben Thanh Market. Yes, we had to sit at the tiniest table in the world with itty bitty chairs, yes we probably looked silly, yes it was in a tiny corridor down some back alley that was hot as hell. No, at the time we didn’t know what we were eating, but it was the most flavourful broth we had on our entire trip – so we didn’t care. Worth it!

Find it: 24-22 Phan Bội Châu, Bến Thành, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

 

TIP 3: For some odd reason, diners at street food spots throw all their rubbish on the floor during the course of the meal – squeezed limes, napkins, bones. Not normal for us, normal for them – don’t say I didn’t warn you. But don’t worry, it’s all cleaned up at the end of each evening. We came to realize that the dirtier the floor, the better the food (ie. The more locals had been eating there that night).

Chocolate. Yes, cocoa grows in Vietnam! Bean-to-bar producer Marou Chocolate’s café is a clean, modern boutique-style shop, which is a stark contrast from the chaos outside the door on Ho Chi Minh’s streets – and it’s not just because it’s (thankfully) air conditioned! Their frozen hot chocolate was refreshing and I could’ve easily had three. I stocked up on all of their single origin bars and some of their flavoured slabs – the cashew praline and coconut milk were my favourites. They also do a stunning range of pastries which will make you want to stay forever – if only to avoid returning to the hot steamy city streets aside.

Where? Marou Chocolate 167-169 Calmette, Nguyễn Thái Bình, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

If there is one Vietnamese food I miss, it’s the Banh Mi. Crusty, freshly baked baguette slathered with rich liver pate, mayonnaise then stuffed with coriander, pork cold cuts, roasted pork, pickled daikon and carrot, chilli and, if you’re lucky, crispy fried shallots, to finish. It’s the perfect sandwich and there were days I had 3 – they were that good. But with so many spots selling the famous sandwich, which is the best? Trip advisor told me that ‘The Best’ was 200m from our hotel – yasss!

 

TIP 4: 200m doesn’t sound far, but when it’s 40 degrees celcius outside, it’s FAAAAAR! FYI Ho Chi Minh has Uber Moto (scooter) which is super cheap and faster than walking.

Where? Banh Mi Hoang Hoa 26 Lê Thị Riêng, Bến Thành, District 1, Hồ Chí Minh city

The queue spilled out onto the street, and we joined the line of tourists instagramming and Snap-chatting their experience. It was delicious! But….

 

But it was not as delicious as the place we found around the corner (remember tip #2?), which, it turns out bakes the bread for ‘The Best’. Cheaper, more fillings (crispy shallots!) and, the locals were buying 4 at a time (tip #1). Tick, tick, tick! My advice? Go to both and decide for yourself.

Where? Hong Hoa Bakery, Bến Thành Quận 1 Vietnam, 62 Nguyễn Văn Tráng, Bến Thành, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

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While we found that the best food is to be found on the streets (the few restaurants we ate at were disappointing), there was one that I’d go back to in a heart-beat. A bowl of fresh rice noodles with thin slivers of raw beef is placed in front of you before being drowned in a piping hot, fragrant, spectacular broth (Bun Bo Hue, it’s called).

Where? 110 Lý Chính Thắng, ward 8, District 3, Hồ Chí Minh City

 

 

TIP 5: Each table is set with chilli, lime, fish paste and fish sauce – use these condiments to season your broth to your liking. Most dishes are served with a giant pile of fresh herbs (morning glory, sawtooth coriander, finely sliced banana flower, bean sprouts) which you add to your broth. If you’re unsure, watch the locals and copy them.

Coffee culture is huge in Vietnam and most days you’ll find locals sitting on tiny chairs, sipping iced coffees watching the crazy scooter traffic go by. I became addicted to cà phê sua đá, or Vietnamese iced coffee. A dark-roast coffee which is slowly dripped over ice with a layer of condensed milk in the bottom, it’s the only way to start a (very hot) day.

Next, we headed off to Hoi An, the ancient town – stay tuned for the post!