I flew into Ho Chi Minh city and immediately transferred to Da Nang. From Da Nang, I was picked up by the taxi that I had arranged before I left the US, and traveled to Hoi An. Hoi An is an old city that reminds me of Kyoto, Japan somehow. Hoi An survived the Vietnam war and many buildings were well preserved. Hoi An is very famous for lanterns and is a very walkable and efficient city. Compared to Da Nang, where I first landed, I saw that almost all the motorbike drivers were wearing helmets. It seems that the police here enforce the use of helmets more strictly.
My very first "Vietnamese" food (?) since my arrival in Vietnam is this ice coffee with condensed milk. As soon as I saw the coffee coming, I regretted that I ordered "iced" coffee because the ice may not be safe. I wasn't sure whether tap water or bottled water is used to make the ice... My decision is to finish the coffee before the ice starts melting. I finished it in a few seconds.... Because it's still concentrated, it was very sweet.... Still tasty, though.
After the coffee, I went for lunch. The first stop was for steamed dumplings, called white rose. This is a local specialty of Hoi An. This restaurant specializes in white rose and fried wonton - just two dishes. Everything is handmade. The filling is pork and shrimp. There were two different shapes but I didn't find much difference in taste.
White rose wasn't enough to be a full lunch, so I moved on to another restaurant that serves Cau Lau, which is another of Hoi An's specialties. This is not the typical soup noodle, like pho. It has a very small amount of soup / sauce at the bottom and should be eaten by tossing everything together. It's served with pork, pork skin and veggies. This is my first Cao Lau, so I don't know whether this is a good one or just "ok" one. But I thought it tasted a bit bland. The portion was tiny....
I could have had more food for lunch because the white rose and cao lau weren't enough. But I decided to save some room for the dinner, which is a street food tasting tour in the evening.
The first stop on the tour was Banh Mi. This particular stand the guide took us to was visited by Anthony Bourdain. The menu had his picture on it. I don't usually try food places just because some celebrities visited them or mentioned them. But I have to say this banh mi was amazing. The stand is called Banh Mi Phuong and the sandwich I had was with ham and pate. The pate was well seasoned and it was served with their original hot sauce. I didn't know what it was exactly but it was tasty for sure.
The next dish was an egg pan cake. It's similar to the famous Vietnamese pan cake, Bahn Xeo. But this is much smaller and eaten by rolling the pancake up in rice paper. The accompanying sauce was similar to peanut based dipping sauce for spring rolls but it seemed there were more ingredients in this one.
At the next stop, I had the second white rose of the day. This restaurant (Vuon Xua) was located in a small alley where nobody would find it unless they knew the city really well. It had a very nice decor using different types of bamboo. Tastewise, it wasn't much different, but somehow their fried shallot tasted more cohesive with the dumplings.
At the same place, I had the fried won ton, topped with shrimp cooked with spicy tomato sauce. It tasted more Chinese than Vietnamese. Although the guide described this as Vietnamese pizza, I thought this is more like tortilla chips with shrimp and salsa...
The entree (that's what the guide said) is Com Ga, chicken rice. Rice is cooked with chicken broth (therefore, it's slightly yellow) and topped with shredded chicken meat and veggies. There were limes, fresh chili and chili condiments on the table. The fresh chili was amazingly spicy. It was definitely spicier than regular jalapeno. Size-wise, it looked like Thai chili. Chopped up blood cake and organ meats were included. This stall is very small, run by a local lady, so there's no name. But very crowded with locals.
This is very unique dish called Banh Dap from Quan Cam Nam. Two types of rice crepes (one crispy, one soft) are placed together in an alternating fashion. Then, before eating, the stack of crepes is smashed together ("Dap" means "smash") and pieces are torn off and dipped into a sauce made with anchovy.
It's a good start of for the trip. Some of the street vendor's hygiene was questionable. I hope I won't be in trouble tomorrow. Let's see..
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