We ate a lot of great food during our time in Da Nang, a city not necessarily known for its cuisine. One of our first meals was at a seafood spot nearish to our hotel called Hai San Chudinh. I mentioned in my first Da Nang blog that we stayed across from Man Thai Beach which has less tourists than the popular My Khe Beach. As such, there were less restaurants catering to Westerners and most did not have any English speaking staff. Hai San Chudinh had many low tables with small plastic chairs as is typical of traditional Vietnamese restaurants. While we have sat in many a small plastic chair, if given the option of a larger and/or wooden chair, we’ll take it. Hai San Chudinh offered tall wooden tables with chairs and while no other customers were sitting at them, we did and were waited on by a shy but kind young waitress.
When she first approached we spoke in English and she held up her finger, as if asking us to wait and returned shortly with another waitress, this one a bit older (we got the sense that the young gal was possibly in training or new to the job). This would sometimes happen in an establishment where only one or two employees speak English, and the staff would go and fetch the English speakers to have them wait on us.
This was not the case in this situation, as the older woman did not speak English either. Uh-oh. The older waitress had a brief discussion with the younger waitress and walked off. It’s as if she was letting her know, this was a good training opportunity and essentially told her, “deal with it”. Deal with us she did, answering our questions as best she could, as we went back and forth using the trusty phone translator to communicate. We ended up ordering the house specialties of sea-snails in garlic butter sauce and some giant prawns fresh off the grill, which the restaurant was known for.
We weren’t really sure how to go about eating the sea-snails. There was no escargot fork, which is how I have eaten land snails. I noticed there were toothpicks on the table and gleaned that we were to use them to get the snails out. We used them to varying degrees of success as the toothpicks were rather thin and would break under minimal force. The snails were good, but very slippery and messy in the butter sauce.
Eating the prawns after touching the snails added to the mess as we peeled them, leaving us with black, buttery, grubby little paws. The few napkins we had did little to help the situation as they mostly just stuck to our fingers and offered little in the way of wipe-off power. After having a couple of prawns, we discovered we could use the sticks they were grilled on to pry the snails out with a little more force. I also pulled up a YouTube video with my grubby mitts and learned that if one used more of a twisting motion with the stick, it was much easier to free the sea-snails. We enjoyed our meal, even if we did have to put in work, and luckily had wet wipes in our back pack to clean off our hands with after. All in all, a successful first meal out.
My favorite meal was at Bếp Cuốn Đà Nẵng, a Michelin recognized restaurant. In particular, I wanted to try their bánh xèo. Often described as crispy Vietnamese pancakes, bánh xèo are savory, crispy rice flour and tumeric cakes with pork and/or shrimp, and mug bean sprouts, about the size of a corn tortilla. One places the crispy cake inside of rice paper (though some people and regions forgo the rice paper all together), stuffs it with fresh herbs such as Thai basil, mint, cilantro, mustard greens, and lettuce, then rolls it up tight and dips it in a sauce, which varies slightly by restaurant and region.
While reasonably priced, Bếp Cuốn is always very busy. Luckily, making a reservation via Facebook messenger was easy and I secured a table for us in the section of the restaurant that has A/C (one of the bonuses of making a reservation).
We ordered the bánh xèo and the signature platter which is basically an appetizer sampler with fresh spring rolls, fried spring rolls, pork skewers, and beef cooked in aromatic lolot piper leaves. The waitress was nice enough to give us a tutorial on the proper wrapping technique of the bánh xèo.
The bánh xèo sauce at Bếp Cuốn was a mixture of a a satay-like peanut sauce and spicy fish sauce. Some places just use fish sauce. Fish sauce is in pretty much in everything in Vietnam and serves as a dipping sauce often. They make the fish sauce in the fishing villages of Da Nang. As opposed to the pure fish sauce that you can buy at the supermarket in the states that essentially is just fish and salt and smells super funky (many times at home in the US I would wonder, “how can you tell if fish sauce has gone bad because it always smells so bad”), the dipping sauce is normally diluted with water, vinegar, garlic and chili peppers.
We really enjoyed our meal at Bếp Cuốn. It is a busy place where one does not dawdle or sit and chat after the meal. It’s a get in, eat, leave situation, which was perfectly fine with us.
One of our other favorite meals we had in Da Nang was at a small phở restaurant near our hotel. Pho (pronounced fuuh? like you’re asking a question) is a Vietnamese noodle soup and probably the most widely available and recognized Vietnamese food in the U.S. Pho seems simple; broth, noodles, meat, fresh herbs, but we were told by one of our tour guides that Vietnamese families rarely make pho at home, they always go out for it. The reason being that the flavorful broth is time consuming to perfect.
We probably would have eaten pho even more often than we did in Da Nang if it wasn’t for the fact that this restaurant (and many to most) don’t have A/C. Eating hot soup in the hot weather while you sweat isn’t the most pleasurable sensation. Phở Cồ Cử, the noodle shop we ate at, luckily had a number of fans blowing to make the heat a little more bearable.
I ordered the pho with meatballs and Phil got a combo of meatballs and beef brisket. Because they already have the broth simmering and they use the same broth for each type of pho, it came out very quickly. We also ordered a couple of fried dough sticks for broth dipping because, if there are fried dough sticks to be had, you order the fried dough sticks.
The soup is served with fresh herbs, limes, bean sprouts, and chili peppers on the side for one to customize as they see fit. I absolutely love the fresh herbs and lime added to the savory broth. The table also has pickled onions, spicy (very spicy) chili sauce, and soy sauce placed on the side, so one can further suit their tastes. I added just a bit too much of the spicy chili sauce on our first visit (we went twice). I enjoyed it, but left quite sweaty from the spice and heat.
Another restaurant that we really enjoyed that was quite close to our hotel was an Indian restaurant called Saffron by the Beach. I really think they missed a great opportunity by not naming it Saffron by the Sea, right? We enjoyed the paneer tikka masala, vegetable curry, garlic naan, and the best tandoori chicken I have ever had in my life. The pieces were big, a little spicy, and juicy. I have never had juicy tandoori chicken. I like it a lot but it is usually rather dry, not at Saffron by the Beach. We enjoyed it so much we ate there twice.
With just a couple of exceptions, we ate our breakfasts at our hotel, The Seashore, because it was included in the price of the room. One exception was when we decided to sleep in and have a late breakfast at the Bread & Butter Bakery.
I’d marked the bakery on our Google maps list and passed by it when I went to have my hair done. The place looked very cute and the photos of their pastries and coffee online looked drool-worthy. I knew we would have to visit at some point. Foolishly, perhaps, we decided to go late morning on a Sunday, so there was a bit of a line to be waited on (you order at the counter) and no seats left inside. Luckily, we snagged an available, shaded seat on their patio out front and enjoyed our amazing little treats.
We had a couple of Vietnamese iced coffees and Phil got a strawberry donut. The guy is a sucker for a donut. We also got a pistachio roll to share which is a croissant in the shape of a cannoli, filled with pistachio cream. I’m a sucker for most things pistachio. I also had their New York pistachio roll which is circular molded croissant dough filled with pistachio cream, then they dip the top in a pistachio flavored white chocolate and top it with tasty, decorative elements. The pastry tasted like a cronut and let me tell you, the whole thing was magical. Up until that point, my favorite pistachio pastry I had ever eaten was a pistachio cream filled croissant at the airport in Milan (Weird. I know.), but this thing took the cake, or croissant as it were. Pistachio cream, what a dream what a dream.
Truthfully, and it may come as a surprise to some, but we ate most of our dinners in our hotel room during our time in Da Nang. The Grab App that we use for taxis also has a food (and grocery) delivery option. While there is a delivery fee, it is minuscule, nothing like ordering GrubHub or Door Dash in the states where you end up paying almost double for the food to have it delivered.
After venturing out during the day in the heat and sweating up our clothes, returning and showering, we often did not want to get back out in the heat and work up another sweat walking to dinner. Luckily, there were all manner of foods we could have delivered, two of our favorites were Turkish doner kebab and banh mi. While tasty and economical, they weren’t spectacular by any means, but when in a place for 30 days, after 6 months of traveling, having the luxury of eating in becomes a welcome alternative.
Before we left Da Nang we went on a food tour and tried all kinds of good food. It was just us and a retired couple in their early 70’s from Australia named Sally and Lou. They were a trip. It was fun talking with them about all of their travels. Lou used to travel internationally for work, so they have visited a good many countries and this was a return trip for them to Da Nang. We also learned that both of their parents were born in Italy and they both spoke Italian. It was fun to talk with them about their Italian heritage and Phil’s and both of our travels in Italy.
Our tour guide Turtle, first took us to a Pho restaurant. The Pho wasn’t quite as good at the spot near our hotel, but still super tasty. Turtle told me I ate my Pho like a Vietnamese; full of herbs and chili sauce. Sally and Lou seemed impressed with our use of chopsticks, after all of our time in Asia, we’ve gotten quite good with them.
Next stop was the Cho Con market where mostly locals shop.
We tried little crispy egg cups of quail egg and cassava flour, some delicious tofu, and a chewy little treat of glutinous rice stuffed with shrimp.
Next, we went to a very local spot for bánh xèo that was tucked away down a little side alley. We never would have found it on our own. This place was so crowded! We were the only westerners in the joint. All of the other tables were full of Vietnamese families enjoying their meal together. We felt good about our bánh xèo wrapping skills, having been to Bếp Cuốn. In addition to the bánh xèo we also enjoyed little sausage skewers It was all delicious and such a fun experience.
Our final food stop was for a bahn mi. We were all so stuffed, each couple split one as opposed to everyone getting their own.
We weren’t too stuffed to gobble it down with a quickness and I failed to snap a pic.
Almost all of the food we have had in Vietnam so far has been dynamite. Next up, I’ll tell you about all of the food we had during our little side trek to Hoi An, a city near Da Nang famous for its tailors. I did, in fact, get a few custom items made, so come on back for more!
Jess Barrington Travels 