Hoi An part 2
Food: There was much good food in Hoi An, but I’m going to give the award to the 30000 VND ($1.50) pho and tea two doors down from the hotel/resort we were staying at. Lovely fresh flavours, lots of fabulous chilli paste, and very unpretentious – the owners’ small child was running around (at least we thought it was the owners’, it could have been anyone’s) and was happy to be picked up and smiled at. It wasn’t an official recommended place, just somewhere we wandered into walking back one night.
Also not official but very popular with our group was the local fresh beer hall, 3000 VND (15 cents) for a beer, and tasted smooth, fresh, not hopped to high heaven. If anyone knows of a better 15 cent beer in the world, tell me and I’ll buy if we meet there. This place also did great cheap fried spring rolls, a quick couple of rounds and snacks for six topped out at maybe $5. The last night we were there they had a new thing, beer served in half coconut shells. A couple of the group looked at these a bit funny but the beer tasted much the same and heck, it’s not like I haven’t drunk wine from a bottle in my life.
The chilli paste/sauce. Hoi An does a wonderful chilli paste/thick sauce. It looks like it will burn you 8 ways from Sunday, the richest fiery red where one drop on your sin would lead to spontaneous human combustion. It appears like the most rabid rottweiller. But it’s not, it’s none of these (well, it’s a little like the rottweiller, looks fierce but is just big and gentle and wants a tummy rub. The flavour is full of chilli flavour, sweet, fruity, a little savoury, and only a small amount of heat that is so balanced that it could be eaten by the spoonful. If I didn’t think Australian customs would shit bricks I’d bring back a barrel.
Hoi An has good geography, meaning it’s great for seafood, growing rice, herbs, all the good things for making their local noodle soup. It has to be made with the right noodles, with water from the right well, and we took a 2 hour cycle tour in 40 degree heat to see how it’s all done. A dozen food-loving types aged from late 20s to 50s (a guess) on bicycles riding around the Vietnamese countryside at over 100 degrees, that’s my kind of extreme travel. Just about damn near killed a few of us – especially adding the rented bike factor, some of our velocipedes hadn’t been serviced since Uncle Ho was in short pants. My front wheel had a pronounced angle, making it impossible to ride no hands or even keep straight at slow speeds. Made dodging piles of drying rice a challenge. The soup does taste good.
At the end of our bike tour was a cooking class with a local celebrity chef, and she was quick and funny. A great experience, a mix of stories about where she came from, and definitely a love of food. Had a go at making the local rice paper roll, using banana leaf like a sushi mat and including a fried spring roll inside with some prawn and pork and fresh herbs. Also made an attempt at the rice flour dumplings, trying to get the crimping right is harder than it looks. Then the local noodle soup, lots of noodles, mung beans, pork, herbs, lots of mint, and then I added a good dollop of the chilli sauce. Very nice indeed.
Other foods tried included stir fried silkworm wrapped in lettuce, random pork organs done the same, lemongrass icecream, and if you don’t think that food can save your life, you’ve never had a coconut icecream on a stick after a long hot day shopping and cycling. Just from a local street seller, a long cone that was probably just frozen coconut cream but it was great. Also had a local roll food experience, take two rice paper quarters, add lettuce and herbs, local kim chee, a shrimp fried spring roll, and then some barbecued pork, roll and eat. Repeat until ready to explode.
Hoi An is hot in May, and unlike Hue there wasn’t a good storm to cool everything down. Drank a lot of water, every clothing shop would offer a bottle on entry. Also had a massage, was very pleasant. L and I discussed coming back here one day, with more cash, and getting some wacky custom clothes and shoes. One day…