re: Exploring the food culture in Vietnam beyond pho

It’s sugarcane juice with calamansi kumquat, my go to drink in Vietnam. It’s 40 cents for an icy pint that is so good and refreshing. Sweet but not too sweet with a hint citrus from the calamansi. Not overly sweet like the Louisiana sugarcane juice I’ve tried before. I get at least two a day.

I don’t know what kind of sugarcane it is but it’s perfect for juicing. The juice is bright yellow most of the time or a random green every now and then.

Pork Sticky rice. Generally sticky rice is sweet or salty eaten as breakfast or at night. This one is good but I wish VN sticky rice is at the same level as Thailand’s.

That looks so good. Enjoy your trip Pete, it sure looks like you are.

Please keep posting. Everything looks fantastic.

As a lover of Vietnamese God this looks like heaven to me.
I would like to rent a motorcycle when I go and drive all over. I don't know the language but I k ow enough food words to order.

Went out to an outdoor seafood restaurant tonight. This is a very popular kind of restaurants here especially on coastal cities.

Front of restaurant


Live seafood area


Spiny lobsters = 1.95 mil/kg or $35/lb. Too rich for my blood.


A popular variety of crabs


Here are a few things we got.

Fried rice


Seaweed grapes salad. These are like roes at sushi restaurants. They pop when you bite them releasing a briny, seaweed flavored water. Goes well with the lettuce and sweet, vinaigrette dressing. First new dish I tried on the trip.


Garlic stir fried morning glory


Grilled stingray, surprisingly flaky


Last item was steamed clams with lemongrass that I failed to take a pic.

Total bill =600k or $23.50.

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Roll it up, dip it, eat it.

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That looks really good.

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when people go to a wedding, they give an envelop of cash. The bride and groom usually take the money pool and pay for all the expenses…event center, food, music, alcohol, mc, photographer.

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My vietnamese friends have told me this. He actually paid for his Uncle to fly in from Cali and paid for his hotel. However, his Uncle handed gave him $20,000. So in that instance he came out way ahead. Also, if they invite you out to dinner, they pay.

Went to a new market today during lunchtime. Cho Con(Con Market) is probably the most popular market in Da Nang, filled daily by locals and tourists.

Front of market


Outdoor part of market


Indoor part of market


The market is like a labyrinth. So many side alleys and shortcuts. But if you’re a newbie like me, you’d end up walking in circles.

While walking around, I found some Burmese grapes. I’ve been trying to find these with no success. The one time I’m not looking for them, I run into them. Life is full of jokes.



Finally found the food area. You can’t walk down this isle with being asked to stop by and dine by at least 3 Auntie vendors. You’d hear things like “sweetie, come try my bun bo hue” or “nephew, very good rice plates here”.



Finally decide on bo la lot(grilled beef with betel leave). Normally it’s ground beef seasoned wrapped like fingers and grilled. But this version is grilled split open. Never had it this way. You can eat it as is or roll it up. I’m a roller.



It comes with 2 types of dips, home made fish sauce and one I can’t put my finger on it. It looks like the peanut sauce for spring rolls except it’s not as thick, sweeter, but no peanut flavor. 40k ($1.50)



After the bo la lot, I went to the next vendor to get a plate of tapioca shrimp dumplings. Chewy on the outside until you the crispy shrimp inside and get a hit of Unami. While I was eating this, a random drink vendor asked me if I wanted drink and I went with the ambarella juice(sour and sweet). Dumpling and juice 55k($2.15).



I finished off lunch by listening to my sweet tooth. Seems like the popular item is avocado with coconut. There were 6-8 vendors offering this and 4 out of 5 people were eating this while I was walking around deciding. The avocado is a unique case in east vs west culinary usage. In America, avocado is used mainly in savory dishes….dips, salads, hamburger topping. In the Southeast Asia, it’s used mainly as desserts..smoothies, ice creams. If I told Americans about avocado in smoothies, they’d probably freak out. Likewise, if I told Vietnam locals about avocado in salads, they’d freak out. I had them both ways a day they both work.


Bottom = avocado smoothie, middle =coconut ice cream, top =toasted coconuts+ice. My favorite sweet item so far. The creamy avocado goes so well with the coconut ice cream. Then you’d get the contrast crunch of the toasted coconuts. 20k(75 cents)