Foodle

Hội An is the town I’d tell a friend to just eat their way through.

It’s small, and most of what you’ll want costs a couple of dollars and comes from someone who’s cooked that one dish for years.

Six plates I’d send anyone to, and where to find them:

- Cao lầu — the noodle Hội An is known for, thick and chewy, with two cuts of pork and crackly croutons. Cao Lầu Thanh.
- White rose — translucent shrimp and pork dumplings under a pile of fried shallots. White Rose Restaurant.
- Mì Quảng — turmeric noodles, pork and shrimp, a sesame cracker to snap on top. Ông Hải.
- Fried wontons — crisp, loaded with a bright tomato and shrimp topping.Miss Ly.
- Cơm gà — the local turmeric chicken rice. Cơm Gà Hiền.
- Bánh ướt thịt nướng — grilled pork and soft rice sheets you wrap yourself. Cô Thu BBQ.

Save it for when you go. Which one are you starting with?

Next stop: Huế.

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Banh bot loc: tapioca dumplings that turn completely clear when steamed, so you can see the shrimp through the wrapper. Shrimp, pork, fried shallots, fish sauce.

They come from Hue, the old imperial capital, where the story goes even the small snacks were made for the royal court. Tiny, see-through, unforgettable.

📍 Banh Loc Me Cai, Hue.

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Bun Cha Ca Ba Phiem - Da Nang (Vietnam)

Da Nang is a fishing city. This is what that tastes like.

Bún chả cá: fish cake noodle soup. Every corner has one. Locals argue about who is right.

The fish cakes are made in-house , the broth leans slightly sweet from vegetables.

Breakfast food here. I’d take it over most dinners.

Following Da Nang’s street food this week. Stick around.

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Bánh Mì Heo Nướng Lu (Ông Phú Đạt) - Da Nang (Vietnam)

This pork was roasted inside a clay jar.

In Da Nang they call it heo nướng lu. The jar traps the heat, the fat drips down, the skin does the rest.

Into a bánh mì: crackling, herbs, and whatever that sauce is. I didn’t ask. I should have.

Ông Phú Đạt, Da Nang. Bánh mì is a different animal in this city.

Save this for Da Nang.

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Bun Mam Ba Dong - Da Nang (Vietnam)

Half the people who try this sauce never order it again. The other half can’t stop.

Mắm nêm. Fermented anchovy sauce. This is the dish Da Nang locals eat, not the one they show tourists.

Rice vermicelli noodles, roast pork, young papaya, herbs, and that sauce pulling everything into line.

I grew up on Brazilian food. Nothing prepared me for this. In a good way.”

Bà Đông, Da Nang

Would you order it? Tell me below.

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Quán Long Gió - Lap An Lagoon (Vietnam)

I don’t usually build a day around a shellfish. This one I did.

Lập An Lagoon is about 800 hectares of brackish water at the foot of the Bạch Mã range, an hour or so out of Huế. From the road it reads as scenery, and most people stop for the photo and keep driving.

It’s a working farm. The stakes and floats out in the shallows are oyster beds, worked here for roughly twenty years, and the restaurants along the shore exist downstream of that. I came to eat oysters in the place that grows them.

Locally they go three ways: raw with lime and chili, grilled under scallion oil, or cooked down into cháo hàu, rice porridge. I had them in the shell first. Then the porridge, which is the house specialty and turned out to be the best thing on the table. Rice broken down soft, oysters folded in whole and still tender, scallion and pepper on top. Savory without being heavy.

Then the meal got away from me. Whole fried fish. Shrimp skewers off the coals. Beer, then more beer. All of it eaten outside, water a few meters off.

Quán Lộng Gió, eastern shore of Lập An, Phú Lộc. Order less than I did.

Which meal completely got away from you?

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I was in Kunming, Yunnan, recently and made a detour to Yiliang, a neighbouring county about 54 km away. The purpose of my escapade? To seek roast “little knife duck” or 小刀鴨. There are three famous must-eat ducks in Kunming, namely麻鴨, 番鴨 and 黄褐鴨. “Little knife duck” is the smallest sub-variety of 麻鴨 - weighing around 750 grams.

In this recipe, the duck is carefully selected when they are 40 days old, marinated, then placed under the mild sun till its skin is totally dried. The bird is then roasted to crispiness with burning pine hair “rope” in a special clay urn.

The traditional way of eating it is dipping the meat in either salt and pepper, green onion, or sweet bean sauce.
#roastduck #streetfood #duck Less