[RD] Backpacking Việt Nam (2019)

[warpus]

Vietnamese Craft Beer Scene

I've written about the growing Vietnamese craft beer scene that surprised me when I first ran into it. Here's another example of it, although I do not think I stepped in for a drink.

Clearly targeted at tourists and expats, but growing incomes in Vietnam has lead to a shift in local attitudes. From what I've been reading there has also been an increase in bars selling craft beers in parts of Vietnam where tourists usually don't venture. During my travels in other Asian countries I was able to find craft beers as well, but it was very rare to find them marketed like this, targeting craft beer lovers with terminology they will understand and appreciate.

To give you an idea how much these cost, 95k works out to about $4 USD and 160k to $7. A more traditional bia hoi, which is very popular with locals and is brewed daily will set you back about 5-10k, or about 20-40 cents. It is a very light lager with a 3% or so alcohol content, usually found in the northern part of the country. Craft beers in comparison offer more flavour and usually more alcohol content.

One thing I liked about Vietnamese craft beers is that many of the beers use local ingredients, leading to unique flavours. Vietnam has an abundance of different kind of fruit growing within its borders, which has contributed to this exploration of new flavour combinations. The local love of coffee has also had an impact, but Vietnamese craft breweries have been looking to all sorts of locally grown ingredients for inspiration, such as jasmine and sugarcane.

Many of these breweries have been started up by foreigners, such as East West's head brewer Sean Thommen, who hails from Portland, Oregon. This is slowly changing as well, as craft beer has really caught on here and will probably continue to grow. Western craft beer brands usually can't compete either, as beer imports face heavy tariffs and high taxes. This has lead to a unique craft beer scene that I dare say would excite almost any craft beer lover.

 

[warpus]

Hội An After Dark

When the sun goes down the Hội An old town lights up and becomes even busier than it usually is during the day. The Bridge of Lights stands in the middle of it all, inviting pedestrians to explore both sides of the canal.

 

[Birdjaguar]

We do love using electricity, all over the world!

 

[warpus]

Walking around this place after dark was definitely an experience I will never forget. The photos and and video do not do it justice

 

[FriendlyFire]

We do love using electricity, all over the world!

Sad North Korean Noise
Yeap modern civilization been built on electricity. Though I wish we were less wasteful

 

[warpus]

Palao - A Living Museum of Chàm Cultural Heritage
At the Lune Center for the Performing Arts

Walking around Nguyễn Hoàng Island I saw a lit up dome structure in the distance. Turns out it's a performing arts center! An employee walked up to me and handed me a pamphlet and asked if I'm interested in buying a ticket. I wasn't sure at the time, as it wasn't in my plans, but the more I looked into what this was the more interesting it seemed. I walked up to the ticket booth and bought a ticket for the next show.

The show centered around the Chàm people, who used to have a kingdom in this part of the world before it was annexed by various Vietnamese kingdoms and eventually wiped off the map. The performance took us through Chàm history in a very interesting way, expressed by the mesmerizing and athletic movements of the performers.

This description comes straight from their website:

Palao seamlessly weave Cham rituals, symbols, philosophies and legends into contemporary dance and ethnic music, creating spiritually rich ambiences.

It's tough to put into words what the show was like. It was fascinating. The athletic abilities of the performers was very impressive. This trailer doesn't really do it justice, but it does give you a glimpse of what kind of show it was:

Here's a sort of promo trailer for this group:

The use of cameras or any other electronic recording devices was prohibited, but I did take a quick shot of the stage after the show was over. The pots you see on stage were a big part of the show; the smaller ones were thrown around the stage and performers were jumping in and out of the larger ones. The white pieces of fabric you see hanging from the ceiling were also a big part of the show. Performers climbed up on them, wrapped themselves in them, and performed a sort of dance while being suspended in mid-air.

A performance I will never forget!

 

[warpus]

Dinner date with the Bridge of Lights

I had a really good time taking in the show at the center for the performing arts. Afterwards it was hard to not get wrapped up in the festive yet relaxed atmosphere in the Hội An old town. Street vendors were out selling toys and trinkets, most of which could light up in the dark. A popular toy was one you could fling high up into the air and watch slowly land hopefully somewhere nearby.. I was getting hungry and ended up at an Asian fusion restaurant which offers seats overlooking the old town and the Bridge of Lights. I was lucky enough to get a seat on the balcony facing in that exact direction! This way I could eat my food and continue taking in the festive atmosphere down below.

This restaurant was more expensive than what you will usually pay for food in Vietnam, but compared to Western prices I found it somewhat reasonable. The appetizers on the menu ranged from the equivalent of about $4 USD to $8. Given how good I was feeling, the excellent view from my seat, and the high quality of the food, I was more than willing to "splurge" a bit and get the two appetizers the menu recommended and a beef rice dish for the main course.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[warpus]

Hội An Night Market

Every evening from 5pm to 10pm vendors line up on Nguyễn Hoàng street and set up one of the most popular night markets in the country. All of this takes place on Nguyễn Hoàng island, which can be reached by crossing the Bridge of Lights, but the vendor stalls do spill over to other parts of the old town as well. I'm not really one for shopping, but I did want to take in what was on offer and explore a bit before heading back to my homestay for the night.

A popular street food in Vietnam is Bánh Tráng Nướng, which is a sort of Vietnamese pizza that uses thin rice paper instead of dough. Common toppings include egg, ground pork, dried shrimp or fermented shrimp paste, fried shallots, pork floss, scallion oil, hot chili sauce and mayo, although many variations are possible, much like with a traditional pizza.

Many other street food options are available, if you are feeling those late night munchies.

 

[Samson]

Hội An Night Market

Every evening from 5pm to 10pm vendors line up on Nguyễn Hoàng street and set up one of the most popular night markets in the country. All of this takes place on Nguyễn Hoàng island, which can be reached by crossing the Bridge of Lights, but the vendor stalls do spill over to other parts of the old town as well. I'm not really one for shopping, but I did want to take in what was on offer and explore a bit before heading back to my homestay for the night.

A popular street food in Vietnam is Bánh Tráng Nướng, which is a sort of Vietnamese pizza that uses thin rice paper instead of dough. Common toppings include egg, ground pork, dried shrimp or fermented shrimp paste, fried shallots, pork floss, scallion oil, hot chili sauce and mayo, although many variations are possible, much like with a traditional pizza.

Many other street food options are available at the night market.

Did you try those "pizzas"? They look like they would just totally fall apart as soon as you took a bite. Those octopus's look really good.

 

[warpus]

Did you try those "pizzas"? They look like they would just totally fall apart as soon as you took a bite. Those octopus's look really good.

I made a note to try one later on during my trip, since I had just finished eating dinner right before visiting the night market. But then never ended up following up on that.. It will have to wait until my next visit

These pizzas are usually folded when eaten and seem to be fairly easy to eat. The rice paper becomes crunchy and you end up eating it sort of like a taco.

 

[warpus]

Second Day in Hội An
Thursday, March 14, 2019

I awoke to another beautiful sunny day, perfect for exploring more of the city. I had decided that my mission for this Thursday was to find Anthony Bourdain's favourite phở. There was supposedly an old lady working at a tiny stall at one of the market buildings that sold it. I was determined to find it, even though it seemed a bit difficult to find good information about the exact location of this stall online..

At this point I was more or less in love with this city. You could just feel the relaxed mood all around you, which seemed to extend well beyond the confines of the old town. I was very impressed with all the food I had eaten there, I really liked the festive atmosphere that engulfed the old town after dark, and I hadn't even visited any of the beaches yet! I had a great time walking around and exploring, usually taking the long way to get to wherever I was headed.

Once I reached the old town I ended up at the Fujian Assembly Hall. It was built in 1690 and functioned as the meeting place for ethnic Chinese residents and traders from Fujian, China. It was later transformed into a temple dedicated to Thiên Hậu (Tianhou), the Chinese goddess of the sea. These social assembly halls were built by Chinese immigrants or traders who spent some amount of time living abroad. There are five such assembly halls in Hội An, each built by a different set of traders from a different part of China.

I stumbled in here without a ticket by accident and was eventually asked to leave.. but not before I was able to snap a couple shots.

On my walk I also briefly stopped at the Bà Mụ Temple Gates (Cổng chùa Bà Mụ). This temple was built in 1626 and centers around the worship of 36 heavenly protectors and 12 midwives. People come here to pray for the health of their children, happiness, and a peaceful life.

 

[warpus]

Hội An Central Market and the best Phở in Vietnam

Let me preface this post by saying that this was my 2nd favourite phở in Vietnam, if we're going purely by the quality of the flavour. Which seems to make sense as a gauge of how good a bowl of noodle soup is compared to another one.. Consider though that my personal #1 bowl of phở cost at least 10 times as much and contained high end cuts of beef and generally a more expensive set of ingredients. It came in a fancy bowl and was prepared in a modern kitchen that would stand up to western standards, with an experienced head chef at the helm.

The phở I ate at the Hội An Central Market was made by a friendly old lady based on her family's recipe and sold out of a tiny stall. It cost the equivalent of $1.30 USD.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were even better bowls of phở to be found in Vietnam. They are probably out there! But this old lady definitely deserves some recognition

This is the bowl of phở that Anthony Bourdain really liked and why this stall was on my radar in the first place. Directions online were few and far between and at times contradictory, but eventually I figured out that this stall is somewhere at the central market.

Apparently the way to find it was to walk down this long corridor of food stalls and find the one with a photo of Anthony Bourdain on the wall. The thing is that if you stopped to get a better look at any of them, the person behind the counter would usually turn to you right away in an attempt to get your business. I had to walk back and forth 3 times before I was able to spot "The photo of Anthony Bourdain on the wall". It wasn't very obvious.. and I was the only customer there, which I did not expect either.

I took a seat and ordered a rare beef phở, as well as a cup of coffee from a nearby stall.

It wasn't long before my bowl of phở arrived. I did not know this at the time, but in central Vietnam phở is often served with crushed peanuts on top.

This was truly one of the highlights of my trip. I daydream about coming back here for a bowl.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Apparently the way to find it was to walk down this long corridor of food stalls and find the one with a photo of Anthony Bourdain on the wall. The thing is that if you stopped to get a better look at any of them, the person behind the counter would usually turn to you right away in an attempt to get your business. I had to walk back and forth 3 times before I was able to spot "The photo of Anthony Bourdain on the wall". It wasn't very obvious.. and I was the only customer there, which I did not expect either..

Anthony Bourdain really did help put Vietnam on the map for American tourism.
I had though it was amusing that the Vietnamese treated him like a huge celebrity. practically put on the entire show for one man and hes camera crew. But it really worked and now all the places that Bourdain visited are now foodie destinations for waves of tourists.

 

[warpus]

Anthony Bourdain really did help put Vietnam on the map for American tourism.
I had though it was amusing that the Vietnamese treated him like a huge celebrity. practically put on the entire show for one man and hes camera crew. But it really worked and now all the places that Bourdain visited are now foodie destinations for waves of tourists.

Yeah, pretty much every single restaurant Bourdain visited is now sought after by tourists, I can confirm that! What surprised me at this particular stall though was that there was nobody else there. I expected a line or at least all the seats being taken.. but I was the only person there. Probably in part because you have to go out of your way to spot it, but surprising nevertheless.

Out of all the restaurants popularized by Bourdain I visited only one was sort of meh. All the other ones were well worth the visit.. and the meh one.. It wasn't bad or anything, it just seemed like the quality had gone down. I will be covering this restaurant in my next post actually.

 

[warpus]

Bánh Mì Phượng

Anthony Bourdain called this the best Bánh Mì in Vietnam, but back when he ate here this restaurant existed in the form of a street vendor. It has been so successful that it has since been able to expand into an adjacent storefront.

I had literally just eaten a bowl of phở at the market, which is nearby.. but I really wanted to try this Bánh Mì and I still wasn't really sure how long I was staying in Hội An. I ordered the classic and it did not take long for my order to arrive.

So the thing is.. I had a really good authentic bánh mì in Hanoi that a local took me to. It was full of pâté and sauce and it was sloppy but amazing. This bánh mì was good, but I didn't like it as much. I had set my expectations a bit high.. The bun was really good, but the sandwich as a whole wasn't an amazing taste explosion that the other one was. So I'm glad I came here, but I don't know if this is really the best bánh mì in Vietnam. I only ever had two, and like I said the other one was better. This wasn't bad, and I would go as far as calling it good, but it wasn't great. The price was very reasonable as well, from what I remember under the equivalent of $2 or so.

For comparison's sake, here's the post where I talk about the superior bánh mì on day 2.

 

[warpus]

Fine Dining at Aubergine49 Restaurant

Later on that evening I had a reservation at Aubergine49 Restaurant, which happened to be located about 500m from my homestay. Aubergine49 is a European style fine dining establishment with a head chef who has international experience under top chefs in cities like London and Tokyo. I looked at the prices online and they were reasonable, with a set six course dinner available for about $75 USD.

Their menu seems to have changed so in many cases I can't really tell you what exactly you are looking at. I will do my best to describe each dish as I remember it or can find information on. The chef's vision here describes the food as Eurasian inspired fusion cuisine.

Each dish that was brought out was explained in the context of Vietnamese and global cuisine as well as all the ingredients and flavours. The waiter spoke near perfect English and helped make it a more interesting and informed experience.

I will not really want to repeat this each time, so let me also say that each dish was delicious.

The first dish was tiny. I think there's salmon in there, but I can't really remember. Since it was so small I ate it slowly, which I think allowed me to better take in the flavours. In that context the size of this dish sort of set the tone and lead to me eating the other dishes slowly as well. But it's too tiny to really justify a giant picture for, so I'm putting it behind spoiler tags.

Spoiler :

The second dish was a warm salad.

The third dish was something I like to call "Thing on a stick". An interesting texture and amazing flavour; do not judge it by its plain name and appearance.

The fourth dish was a fillet from a locally caught fish in a mushroom sauce.

Next up was a braised & pressed pork belly with caramelised shallots and ginger infused green apple

And last but not least, a dessert with holes

When I finished eating everything and drinking my craft beer I was feeling both amazed and satisfied. The Hội An food scene was my favourite on the whole trip, and this meal really highlighted that for me. I can't remember when I decided to stay a bit longer here, but the food definitely played a part in that decision. And yeah, this was a bit of a splurge, but at $75 USD it averages nicely out with the $1.30 meals I've had elsewhere.. and given the quality of the food it was definitely well worth it.

What made this experience more surreal is that to get back to my homestay I had to walk down half-lit streets on the edge of town, with fields on one side and dogs barking in the distance... and nobody really around. It felt a bit eerie, even if it was only a 7 or so minute long walk.

 

[Birdjaguar]

In NY that dinner would probably have been $250.

 

[warpus]

Third Day in Hội An
Friday, March 15, 2019

I was having such a good time in Hội An that I decided to stay a bit longer. For my first task in the morning I decided to fill up on some Bún chả Vietnamese meatballs and why not some more phở.

Spoiler :

In the early afternoon I was off to a half-day long cooking class.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I was having such a good time in Hội An that I decided to stay a bit longer. For my first task in the morning I decided to fill up on some Bún chả Vietnamese meatballs and why not some more phở.]

You cant go wrong with the staples and watching where the locals all eat
Making a good PHO stock is a lot of work, you can cheat by buying the pre-made PHO stock and fresh beef. The Pho stock is made from mostly lemon grass, garlic, other vegetables with beef flavoring
So if your ever craving for some Pho, its a quick way to make it at home

 

[warpus]

You cant go wrong with the staples and watching where the locals all eat
Making a good PHO stock is a lot of work, you can cheat by buying the pre-made PHO stock and fresh beef. The Pho stock is made from mostly lemon grass, garlic, other vegetables with beef flavoring
So if your ever craving for some Pho, its a quick way to make it at home

I've tried making my own pho, but never really tried making the broth properly. None of the substitutes have really worked either, but I'm definitely going to look this up and give it a try!