Da Nang evening food tour

I took a taxi to the Tomodachi House in the middle of Da Nang city. Da Nang has about 1 million residents and looked modern and bustling. After a shower and a nap I walked to the meeting point for the tour starting 1700. I had a few minutes to spare so I wandered down to the Han River where I had a view of the Dragon Bridge.

The guide, Anh, was already there. We waited for a while for the other members to turn up. There were two Aussie brothers from Adelaide, one from Ho Chi Minh City, hoping to get a teaching job, and a Dutchman teaching in East Timor. The first thing we ate was bánh mì, Vietnamese baguette sandwich, two types, one with the pork roll and another with anchovies. This shop baked their own baguettes and the bread was crisp. According to Anh, the ratio of liver to meat affects the taste and some stalls put in too much liver.

Next we went to a restaurant for mỳ quảng, Quảng noodles. This was served with two sauces, frog and eel. I was sure this place was near my hotel and as I discovered later, it was just next door.

We went to a cafe for cà phê dừa, coconut sorbet with coffee. Anh started showing us some card tricks he was learning.

Next we adjourned to a restaurant in an alley, which we would never find on our own, serving bánh tráng nướng, grilled rice paper with beef and quail eggs. As normal in Vietnam, tables and chairs were low.

For the final restaurant we hailed a taxi to a restaurant on the other side of the river where we had nghêu nướng mỡ hành, BBQ clams with peanuts, which you see on the table, and mực chiên mắm, squid fried with fish sauce.

Then the hotpot main with cá bớp um nghệ, cobia fish with turmeric and banana. The raw bananas were sliced discs with the skin on. The flesh tasted like cooked sweet potato and the skin was simply like any vegetable fibre. I liked the side of rice paper with black sesame seeds. Also on the table is tôm sú rang me, tiger prawns in tamarind sauce. The Tiger beer probably comes from a brewery licensed by the Singapore parent.

To finish off we returned to the other side of the river, near our starting point, where we had dessert of kem bơ , avocado with coconut ice cream. Anh did a few more card tricks and the group played several rounds of Tiến Lên, which is considered the national card game. Certainly people at other tables knew it and offered advice to players.

At this point the others, except Anh, wanted to go for drinks. It was past my bedtime so we split up and I walked a couple of blocks back to the hotel.