The sights & delicacies of Hoi An (Vietnam)

Although Hoi An was one of the most touristy places I visited, it made it to my Top 3 favourite places in Vietnam. Why?!

What I loved about Hoi An

• Colourful and inviting shops, restaurants and houses. They looked pretty even after dusk, when all their hanging lanterns were lit up
• Excellent food! All the street-food and food I tried in restaurants was delicious!!
• Thu Bon riverside – I loved walking by the river at night time in the Old Town and the nice reflections in the water!
• I really just enjoyed walking all over town, riding a bike out of town and past nice green rice fields.

Some buildings in Hoi An (here mainly shops & hotels)

Shops in the Hoi An

Temple in Hoi An

Hoi An riverside

Another temple in Hoi An

Buffalos and rice fields spotted during my bike trip around Hoi An

Cooking Vietnamese dishes at Golden Lotus Cooking School

I took part in a very nice cooking course while staying in Hoi An. We were a small group and each of us could pick a recipe. The morning course started off with a trip to the market to fetch all the ingredients we needed. The market was really impressive and it was great being able to ask Linh (cooking class teacher) questions about the produce on the market.

Outdoor part of the market

More fresh veg!

We bought the special noodles for “Cao Lao” from this old lady

This is where we bought freshly grated coconut

The dishes we learnt to cook:

• Stir-fried beef with lemongrass, garlic and chilli
• Pork in coconut sauce
• Marinated & barbecued beef skewers
• Banh xeo: rice flour pancake filled with pork, shrimps & bean sprouts. I believe there are different ways of eating them: we rolled ours in rice paper with slices of green banana, star-fruit and mustard leaves… I loved them!

Making delicious ban xeo (crispy pancakes) with a pork and prawn filling. We ate them rolled in rice paper with green banana, star fruit, mustard leaves and other greens.

• Cao Lao, a really nice local dish made with special noodles, marinated pork slices and herbs. I love this dish!
• Fried pork spring rolls
• Some red snapper fish dish

(Street)food I tried in Hoi An

In case you are wondering if I tried any ice cream in Hoi An: I actually think that I did. I vaguely remember that the ice cream shop I visited had unusual flavours (from a European perspective), but the texture was not so good. But there was so much other delicious food in Hoi An to make up for this! Here are some of the things I liked the most:

Top: I tried cao lao, one of the specialities in Hoi An from a street-food cart… delicious! Bottom left: delicious hot drink from Morning Glory restaurant, made with kumquat, sea salt, honey and ginger. Bottom right: sweet potato, coconut and green bean grilled cakes, bought from a street vendor

There were several stands serving “chè” dessert & since they seemed quite popular, I was curious of trying! I asked for a little bit of everything: lotus seed, corn, black bean, … I quite liked it!

Dau hu sweet ginger tofu. I saw people eating this the previous night & thought it looked nice! I really enjoyed it! 🙂

 

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