Yesterday we decided to book one of these food-tours that we see trough Tripadvisor all the time. We signed up for an 4 hour evening walking tour with Hoi An Food Tour, this tour includes lots of different experiences – together with a group of max 12 pax.
The trip is 35$ pr person, and includes everything. (food, drinks, other fees). We met at their main office in town, togheter with 6-7 kids (not kids, 20-30 year olds,. Its just me feeling old 🙂 ) and off we went, snirkling trough allyways and back roads of Hoi An old town, until we ended up at White Rose – our first stop of the day.
Here we got to see how they made dumplings, working 7 days a week for 250$ a month. The White Rose is special in Hoi An, because it pretty much them that provide the whole area with dumplings. If you eat a dumpling in any of the resturants, or street vendors, it comes from this place.
To sample the food here, fresh out of the steamer – and not reheated in one of the other places – is extra special. They also have a ‘open’ wonton, or a hoi an pizza as they call it – delicious!
After this we moved on to try the best Bahn Mi in town, or the world – now, this is something you hear a lot, everybody has the best, But I have to say that Bahn Mi Queen comes pretty close. The towns nr1 tourist spot is the Bahn Mi Phuong, once visited by Anthony Bourdaine – who proclaimed it the best in the world.
The bahn mi here was my fav, at least so far. The secret in the combination of meat and family recepie sauce. As our guide told us, they have understood that bahn mi has become a ‘thing’, but for them it is just a very usual breakfast option. But tourist are crazy for them, and it is available in more n more countries.
I have tested these in Oslo, and they are not even close. I think this comes down to the fact that we use regular french baguette. The bahn mi baguett of Vietnam is actually made of three types of flour, rice flour beeing one of them – this gives it the superfluffy inside ans supercrispy outside.
Onward! And time for the optional food stop – the balute egg. Our guide said that on average 40% would try this asian snack – originaly from the Philipines.
So the balut egg is a fertelized egg, duck. So its not a classic egg for eating anymore, but a 14 day old featus – that you eat directly from the egg. It is steamed for a long time and is hot. It dont look very appetizing at all, you can google it for pictures yourself – i didnt get any other pictures than this, because I was focusing on if I was actually able to eat it.
I was, and one of the canadians also, one egg each. I have to say it tasted pretty good – the eggwhite was hard and not to be eaten, the yoke was hard but tasty – the.. featus.. was.. is hard to explain. All in all – taste good – looks horrific. Smells .. interesting. Done that, probably never eating it again.
It came with some spices and a sauce, and was a ‘hit’ for the locals. There was one guy eating two of them while we where there – probably not wise to eat to many, they are highly nutrsoius. Also – none of the balut places are very advertised, no signs and no showing of what they sell. You have to ask for it and they bring it out of a box they have next to them.
Anyways – moving along.
Cao lau! A signature dish from Hoi An. To break it down its a pork broth with thick noodels – some greens and pork meat. Also for topping there are some crispy bits that many mistake for pork crackling, but it is actually fried noodels that has been dried out for a couple of days first. – lovely dish.
This resturant does not exist on either google maps or tripadvisor. And it have a very genuine local feel – only serving this one single dish.
Now, there are a few ‘rules’ here, regarding this dish. Lets see if I can remember them all 🙂
- Water must come from the ancient well in town
- The ashes (yes, the ashes) used for soaking the noodels. Have to come from the nearby island Cham
- The organic vegetables have to come from the local village (Que village)
It tastes wonderfull, and again – with the guide telling us of the story behind, it do add a extra touch.
Before the dinner at a private home we did stop for some excelent coffee. No pictures, I forgot – but the Vietnam coffee is delicious. So drink coffee here as much as you can, the iced one is best.
We where taken to a private home where to lovely ladys (wearing superman aprons, they where super cooks!) served us a magnificent meal. Starting with fried springrolls as shown on the picture above. Supernice.
This was followed by some very nice pancakes with small egg’s on top m, and the a rich sweet soup with banana.. and some stuff Im not sure what is. People around the table talked about some likness to bubble tea – not sure what that is either.
We also got the chance to make our own fresh spring rolls – they turned out nice enough. It is also a nice thing to put in some activities – nice icebreaker to get people talking when everybody does something they are not good at.
It was very cool being at someones home getting to try fresh made local food. And it didt feel imposing or weird or anything – it was just very nice. And excelent food! But needless to say, a lot of us now really started to get filled up to the max!
Next – Bingo
This was an 15 minut type of easy gambling/game. You bought a paddle with three different words on it.
And then there was a lady singing popular vietnameese songs, and they where refering to one of these words – so when the word was revealed in the song – a guy would hold up a board with the word. If this was one of your words – wave had, get a tellow flag. Abd the ut was all about being the first to get three flags, and win a pretty decent price.
Well, hard to explain – you kinda need to had bern there. But it was fun 🙂
I ended up with that one flag – Maren to. Im planning to go back tomorrow for a second try!
After the bingo, we got a 40 minute boatride on the river. It was pretty packed with boats – and lots of people all setting small lantern afloat and making wishes. Nice views and some much needed fresh air 🙂
Great 4 hours spent – met some new people. Tried lots of good food, Its probably a reason that this food tour is top rated on tripadvisor 🙂
