Cao lầu: the noodles you can only eat in Hội An

Cao lầu is Hội An in a bowl: thick, chewy, golden noodles, slices of pork, a handful of fresh greens and crunchy squares of fried noodle dough, with just a few spoons of rich sauce at the bottom. It is not a soup, and you will hardly find it anywhere else.

The legend of the noodles

The story goes that real cao lầu noodles must be made with water from the old Bá Lễ well in Hội An, and soaked in lye from the ash of trees on the Cù Lao Chàm islands offshore. That is what gives them their bite and their colour. Whether every bowl still follows the rule or not, nobody in Hội An will tell you it doesn’t matter.

Where the dish came from is argued over: some see the noodles of the Japanese merchants who once lived here, others the pork of the Chinese. Hội An simply calls it its own.

What’s in the bowl

• The noodles: thick and springy, closer to udon than to phở.
• Thịt xá xíu: pork marinated and cooked the Chinese way, sliced thin.
• Greens and herbs: lettuce, mint, basil and bean sprouts, often from Trà Quế, the herb village outside town.
• Croutons: squares of noodle dough fried until crisp.
• The sauce: a little dark, savoury broth from the pork, just enough to coat.

How to eat it

1. Stir everything up from the bottom so the sauce coats the noodles.
2. Add a little of Hội An’s chilli sauce from the table and a squeeze of lime.
3. Eat it while the croutons are still crunchy.

Hội An’s other dishes

• Mì Quảng: turmeric-yellow rice noodles with a little broth, pork or shrimp, peanuts and a rice cracker.
• Cơm gà: Hội An chicken rice, the rice cooked in chicken stock with turmeric.
• Bánh bao bánh vạc: “white rose” dumplings of translucent rice dough filled with shrimp.

How to order

• “Cho tôi một tô cao lầu.” One bowl of cao lầu, please.
• “Không cay.” Not spicy.

Taste it with us

Our Lantern Making with a Family session in Hội An comes with a cao lầu snack at the workshop, between bending the bamboo and stretching the silk.