January 22, 2016

Self Guided: Dalat Food Tour

Nguyen treats Dalat as his regular weekend retreat so he gave us his top picks of street foods. We had one evening to fit it all in (our stomaches) with hopes of not disappointing him when reporting back. He had high expectations for us. Exhibit A, email: 

Here is what we managed to accomplish:

1. Nem Núong "Bà Huńg" - grilled meat DIY spring roll. 
Cost: $3.25 for 2 servings that is actually 4 servings. 
We just sat down and within a minute all the food was put down with zero communication. I assume this small establishment sells only this food. Wrap-your-own spring rolls. So dangerous for a first stop due to over-consumption potential. I had 5 and then Sarah made me stop. 


2. Bańh Cân - small fried pancake with egg. 
Cost: $2.75 for 2 servings. Again, a full meal on its own. 
This is also a place where you just sit down and the food comes, no ordering required. The idea is to dunk them into spicy broth and meatballs. We didn't know so the man demonstrated for us.


3. Bańh Khot "Cô Nàm Vuńg Tāu" - fried rice pancake with shrimp. 
Cost: $4.50 including a fresh strawberry shake (which was $100 of delicious on its own). 
This was our second "please demonstrate how to eat this" stop so the waiter showed us how to place the little pancake in a lettuce leaf with herbs/veggies and then roll her up. By this third stop we were already very full so we had determined to communicate 1 human's worth when ordering instead of two. We were successful. 


4. Vietnamese Pizza - same. 
Cost: $1 for 1. 
The night market has these stands everywhere. It's basically rice paper grilled with some veggies, beef, and an egg cracked on top. Then rolled up like a burrito eaten as such. Honestly we almost skipped this due to complete lack of hunger, but we are resilient.

5. Hoa Sua - bread with hot soy milk.
Cost: $2 for two milks and two breads. 
Dalat gets cool at night so the hot drink was welcome. This was a small stand in an alleyway with tiny communal tables -- nearly every seat was full. 


Here is the original list from Nguyen should you find yourself hungry in Dalat. 

No comments:

Post a Comment