Hội An street food: what to eat, from cao lầu to white rose

Hội An was a trading port for centuries, and you can taste it: Chinese-style wontons, noodles some say came with Japanese merchants, French bread, and herbs from the village down the road. Most of it is cheap, small, and best eaten on a low stool. Here is what to look for.

Noodles and rice

• Cao lầu: chewy, golden noodles with sliced pork, greens and crunchy croutons, with just a little sauce at the bottom. Hội An’s own dish; the full story is in our cao lầu guide.
• Mì Quảng: the noodle of Quảng Nam, the region around Hội An. Wide, flat rice noodles, yellow with turmeric, in a shallow pool of rich broth, with pork, shrimp or chicken, peanuts, herbs and a sesame rice cracker to break over the top.
• Cơm gà: Hội An chicken rice. The rice is cooked in chicken stock with turmeric, so it comes out golden, and it is topped with shredded chicken tossed with onion and herbs. Chilli sauce on the side, and often a small bowl of broth.

Small bites

• Bánh bao bánh vạc: “white rose” dumplings. Thin, translucent rice dough pinched into petals around minced shrimp, steamed, topped with crispy fried shallots and dipped in a light fish sauce. The story goes that most of the white roses in town come from one family’s kitchen.
• Hoành thánh chiên: fried wontons. Crisp, golden squares of wonton pastry piled with a sweet and sour tomato sauce with shrimp or pork and vegetables.
• Bánh xèo: the central version is small, about the size of a saucer, crisp and yellow, with shrimp and pork inside. Roll it in rice paper with herbs and dip it in the sauce that comes with it, often a thick peanut sauce. Much smaller than the big southern pancakes; more in our bánh xèo guide.
• Bánh đập: “smashed cake”. A crunchy grilled rice cracker with a soft, steamed rice sheet laid on top. You smash them together with your hand, which is where the name comes from, and dip the pieces in the sauce that comes with it.
• Bánh mì: Hội An is famous for its bánh mì, and the queues at the best carts prove it. A crackly loaf, pâté, cold cuts or grilled pork, pickles and chilli. What to say at the cart is in our bánh mì guide.

Something sweet

Chè bắp: a sweet corn pudding, thick with kernels, with a ribbon of coconut milk on top. Warm on a rainy evening, cool on a hot one. It is one of many kinds of chè, the sweet soups and puddings you will see in glasses all over Việt Nam.

The herbs

Half the flavour in Hội An comes from the plate of greens on the side. Much of it grows at Trà Quế, a herb village a few kilometres out of town, where families tend neat beds of basil, mint, lettuce and coriander. Don’t leave the herbs on the plate. Tear them, add them as you eat, and wrap them into anything that comes with rice paper. A morning bike ride out to the village is worth it.

How to eat your way round

• Go small and often. Portions are small. Share plates and try three or four dishes a meal.
• Try the market. Hội An’s central market, by the river, has a food area where cooks sell many of these dishes side by side. An easy way to try several in one sitting.
• Look for the one-dish stalls. A cart that sells only bánh mì, or a stall that sells only cơm gà, has had a lot of practice.
• Ask the price first if none is shown: “Bao nhiêu tiền?”
• Taste the chilli sauce on the table before you add a spoonful. Hội An makes its own, and it is not shy.

Eat with us in Hội An

Most of these dishes are not on our menu, but cao lầu is: our Lantern Making with a Family session, by the Thu Bồn river, comes with a cao lầu snack at the workshop, between bending the bamboo and stretching the silk. And if you want an early start before your first bánh mì, our Áo Dài Fitting & Photo Walk begins at the cloth market, where you choose silk and get measured by a tailor, then walks the old town in your áo dài with a local photographer, in the morning before the crowds.