Hoi An…it’s complicated

Today was our last day in Hoi An-tomorrow morning we board a plane for Hanoi, followed by a car to Ninh Binh area. So…Hoi An. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the town, mainly because it is just so incredibly crowded. At night, you are literally pressing your way through the crowds, at least along the river where the beautiful lantern boats float. Also, the old town is packed full of shops with tourist crap to sell. And there is the constant honking and dodging of mopeds until evening when they largely and magically disappear.

But Hoi An is beautiful. In the old town, many buildings are 500 years old, and are painted golden yellow (we learned because the river floods and carries myrrh-coloring the buildings yellow-so they just paint them that color). At night, in the streets and river, hundreds of lanterns glow bright. And the food. Oh, the food. Often times in my experience, food served in highly touristy areas is terrible (lookin’ at you, Rome) and you need to get outside those areas to get the good stuff. Not so in Hoi An. The local dishes are mouthwateringly delicious, and there are awesome and unique dishes. The Vietnamese take coffee seriously, and again, there are regional specialties. Egg coffee and salt coffee are two of our favorites. They sound bad, I know, but they taste delicious.

This afternoon, we took a food tour with a local guy. If you travel, a great way to learn about a place is to book a tour with a guide from a website called Withlocals. We’ve always had good luck, and they tend to take you off the beaten path much more than tour websites like Viator. They also tend to be quite affordable. But I digress. Our guide took us to his favorite places, and not only showed us his favorite traditional foods, but also how to put them together. In Vietnam, again, it’s complicated. You get brought plates and bowls of stuff, but now what? Well, sometimes things are assembled and rolled in rice paper, sometimes several foods are assembled into a bowl and mixed. Usually this is the case, and chili sauce is added to taste. The Vietnamese believe in yin and yang of flavors. You want sweet and salty or sour and/or bitter. Always rice or noodles. Or something made with rice. We appreciate anyone who takes their food this seriously! (I am so dreading the bathroom scale when I get home).

Tomorrow we’ll make sure we leave time for a special coffee before we head to the airport. I’m thinking maybe an egg coffee.Read more