9 things to miss about Vietnam (7-9)
Pho Ga
7. Soups. I’m continually amazed by the variety of Vietnamese cuisine. It’s difficult to pin down to one set of typical dishes, but I’ve fallen in love with the range and deliciousness of soups. Of course, there’s pho: clear soup, thin rice noodles, bits of chicken, and then you add beansprouts, fresh herbs, and chili sauce. And then there’s Da Nang’s My Quang: a bit of sweet oily soup at the bottom of a big bowl of thick, fat noodles, topped off with peanuts, dried pork and shrimp with a bitter leafy garnish, then squeeze lime and pile on more herbs, mix together and yum. Finally, the amazing and sublime Bun Cha Ca: a sweet chili soup with rice noodles, pineapple and bamboo, served with bits of boneless deep-fried fish, topped off with more pineapple and bamboo and half a plate of fresh beansprouts. Don’t tell me your mouth isn’t watering.
8. Sinh To. We’ve been very impressed at how health-conscious Vietnam is, generally speaking, and this is no better illustrated than by the only desert that seems to be available on every streetcorner: fruit smoothies. Sinh To is a blend of fresh fruit with a bit of condensed milk and ice, and you can buy them everywhere for 7000-12000 dong (less than a dollar) customised with whatever tropical fruit happens to be on offer. Or, as I discovered, there’s the popular personal favourite Sinh To Bo (or butter fruit shake) made with avocado.
9. Landscape. Da Nang has been blessed with gorgeous beaches, impressive mountains on the horizon, and a peaceful river. And somehow it’s still a Vietnamese secret. The locals take full advantage of the natural surrounds, with huge groups flocking to the beaches on national holidays, Dads playing with their toddlers in the sand on the weekends, hundreds of people enjoying the river promenade at sunset, and couples cuddling on their motorcycles, parked 10 metres apart along the harbourfront. Somehow all of the foreigners have taken the bad advice of their guidebooks and ridden their taxis straight from the airport to nearby Hoi An (which is charming, but packed with visitors). Da Nang has been left to us to discover. We’re going to miss it!
