Hoi An the food capital of Vietnam

Mouthwatering smells around every street corner, a passion for food that is infectious and cold fresh beer being served in laid-back, chilled out bars for 3000VD (10p) you have reached Hoi An.

The Thu Bon river meanders it’s way through this picturesque French colonial town and it’s stunning epicenter in which life beats around, is a magnet and conqueror to all that come here.

Restaurants line the riverfront and streets, giving a truly Mediterranean feel to the town. Every night the town comes alive with lanterns glowing and radiantly shimmering on the calming river, setting a nice romantic tone in which to sit down and enjoy some truly delicious food.

Throughout Hoi An there are hundreds of beautiful restaurants and food stalls, each specialising in different dishes that for generations, their family have been perfecting. This provides a difficult and dastardly dilemma as one could easily indulge in every passing restaurant. You don’t know where to choose because you really don’t want to miss out on anything.

I was in heaven in Hoi An, this is paradise for any foodie, here are some of my highlights:

•  We felt that this was the perfect place to learn how to cook   Vietnamese food so we embarked on an evening cooking course at Gioan cooking school. 

This cooking school had a beautiful riverside location.

    After much deliberation over the menu we selected 3 dishes:

•    Country Pancake- discovering these delights when on our Easyrider tour of the Central highlights made the lure of how to cook this flavoursome speciality to much for our taste buds. We stopped off and feasted on these for lunch at the side of the road during our motorbike tour.  We loved them so much that we really had to know how to make them at home- Pancake day will never be the same again!
• ·  Pork Clay Pot- A mouthwateringly good caramelised pork and onion dish.
• ·  Cao Lau- One of Hoian's famous local noodle dishes. The Cou Lau noodles can only be purchased in Hoian but the sauce that accompanies the dish is so good we thought is would be great to learn how to cook this.

  

   Our lesson started with a trip to the local market to buy our ingredients: 

Fresh Vetgeables and herbs

 

Chili sauce

Onions

Cou Lau Noodles

Back to the school to start cooking up a storm...

All our ingredients at the ready.

Our starter

Making the batter

The batter should be able to coat the back of a spoon.

The pancake

Adding herbs to the pancake and wrapping the delight in rice paper

The finished article

On to our next dish

Finely chopping bulbs of garlic to be used in the sauces and marinades.

Testing the oil is hot enough using chopsticks.

Adding the noodles to the sauce

Pork Cou Lou

And our final dish Pork Clay pot.

Cooking the marinaded Pork.

Add the sauce to the pork and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

The completed dish!

•    Hoi An has two beautiful beaches both positioned about 4km from town. As the sun goes down the food venders come out offering beer and afternoon snacks. The perfect way to enjoy the sunset.

Rice crackers, Soy sauce and chili dip, washed down with an ice-cold beer.

•       Hoi An is bursting with the best street food each stall serving just one dish that their families have perfected over the years.

  

• Hoi An is best at night lit by lanterns, lined with bars and restaurants; this place really comes alive! We managed to find a hidden gem far removed from the busy backpacker bars. A bar on a boat with two guys playing guitar and selling fresh beer by the bowl. The chilled out festival feel was the perfect way to finish the day.

A bowl of beer

 

Hoi An is a food lovers dream, this is somewhere I would recommend for anyone to visit.