Our eyes darted left to right, trying the best we could to find even the tiniest gap in the traffic so that we could cross Mậu Thân and make our way towards the riverside centre of town. Hundreds of scooters buzzed past in both directions, weaving past each other. Vinh, our tour guide for a night of sampling Can Tho’s culinary delights, motioned for us to follow him as he took a bold leap forward and walked out into the mass of mopeds. With seemingly no regard for his own safety he kept walking, our small group following in disbelief, as the traffic missed him, weaved around him and let him continue his suicidal walk across the road. I quickly learnt that if you want to cross the street in Vietnam it is best to ignore the traffic and just walk – There is no point waiting for a lull will never come.
We had met Vinh and our group of gastronomical explorers outside Hotel Xaoi on the edge of town. Vinh is in his early 20’s, tall and slender, and an English student at Can Tho University. He hosts these tours part-time as a way to practise his (already perfect) language skills and meet people from all over the world. He seems passionate about the city and its food and explains that the most important reason for him guiding these tours is to introduce tourists to both Vietnamese and Mekong cuisine.
STOP ONE
Restaurant Nem Nuong Anh
We wandered down Nguyen Viet Hong, a shopping street filled with quirky clothes shops, bars, and cool coffee spots and were ushered us into a rather nondescript looking restaurant by Vihn, Its tiled walls and metal tables gave it the impression of any old high street takeaway. I looked incredulously at the menu – Every dish was listed in Vietnamese and I didn’t understand a word. It didn’t matter, we were here for one dish and one dish only; Nem Nuong.
The naming convention for street food eateries in Vietnam is pretty simple; take the name of your signature dish and… well, that’s it. You just take the name of the signature dish. Occasionally the owner will add their name to the end, maybe a flourish such as a number or the word ‘cafe’ but that is about as complicated as it gets.
There is one problem with this simple method naming though; copyright laws in SE Asia are pretty lax. As soon as a dish becomes popular, copycats will pop up all around town, each of them claiming to serve the best of that particular cuisine. This makes a tour and the knowledge of a local guide invaluable. Why go for the impostors when you can have the original and best.
We huddled around the clinical looking tables as platters were gradually brought to us. Rice paper, pineapple, small bundles of noodles, banana and finally the pièce de résistance; a plate of delicious-looking barbecue pork sliced into bite-size chunks, its caramelised skin glistening under a scattering of crushed peanuts.
Following Vinh’s lead, we diligently piled all the ingredients into the rice paper and rolled them into tight tubes before dipping them into the little ceramic sauce bowl and trying to stuff them into our mouths without dripping the delicious liquid down our shirts. Although I had sampled spring rolls in both Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc, they hadn’t contained noodles and fruit like these. The mix of sweet pineapple and savoury fish sauce was incredible. If this was just the start, I couldn’t wait to see what the rest of the tour had in store for us.
STOP TWO
Restaurant Bánh Cong Cô Út
Bánh Cong is a savoury muffin made from a mixture of green beans, little shrimp and minced pork, which is steamed and then deep-fried in a flour dough to give a crispy pie texture. At the entrance to the restaurant, two women stood over smoking woks of hot oil and let us watch as they set about making their signature dish. One by one they would fill a ladle with meat, fry it, and then cover the cooked filling with batter. Two shrimps would be pressed into the top and the whole thing would be fried again to make a little parcel of joy. Somehow the proprietors had managed to keep the recipe secret meaning that Restaurant Bánh Cong Cô Út was the only place you could sample this unique dish.
We broke the pies up with our chopsticks and set about loading the insides into a spread wasabi leaf with some mint and a sprinkling of pickled vegetables. On its own, the wasabi has a bitter taste that I despise but surprisingly the mixture of the mint, pie and sauce masked the pungent flavour and merged together to form a subtle taste that I could fully get behind.
STOP THREE
Bia Lanh 74
A short walk from the Bánh Cong is Bia Lanh 74, essentially just a set of plastic tables and chairs scattered on the pavement. It is known for serving that staple of South-East Asian cuisine, the hot pot. As we crouched on our haunches around the tiny table as small gas burners and metal pots were placed in the centre. Inside was a steaming, bubbling mix of aubergine, minced pork, oyster sauce, spring onion and ginger. We sat chatting, quenching our thirst with an ice-cold Larue while we waited for the dish to heat up – It was worth the wait.
The aubergine practically melted in my mouth and the oyster sauce gave it an incredible umami flavour. Alongside this, the waiter brought out another pot, the filling almost identical except that the aubergine was replaced with tofu. I normally find tofu bland but this was infused with ginger and was so delicate that it almost dissolved on my tongue as soon as I put it in my mouth.
Up until this point, the strangest thing I had ever eaten was Cuy, the Peruvian dish of guinea pig, roasted and placed on your plate whole. I can’t say that I enjoyed it – the taste was reminiscent of fish and pork mixed together, there was barely any meat on its tiny body and it’s hard to enjoy eating something that you would happily keep as a pet. Like I say, that was up until now.
Vinh placed a plate down on the table, crisp pieces of meat sat atop a salad looking like tiny barbecue ribs. It was a field mouse. This use to be a fairly common dish for farmers on the delta until the wide use of pesticides made them scarce. It is now a local delicacy and doesn’t come cheap (by street food standards) but I am always up for an eating challenge and there’s no better way to experience the local culture than devouring it.
picked the tiny portion up with my chopsticks and set about nibbling the thin layer of meat off the bone. It was surprisingly delicious, tasting almost exactly like the pork ribs you get at Chinese restaurants.
By this point, we were all suitably full. I could barely eat one more bite but we had one final stop to make; desert.
STOP FOUR
Xoi ngot – Street Food Vendor
We made our way down towards the riverside to find what was apparently the best sticky rice place in town. The owner was sat on the roadside by a huge metal, spooning white and brown rice into a sweet wafer, topping it with coconut and sugar, before wrapping the whole thing in rice paper. She has been serving this dish in the same spot for 20 years and is so popular that there was a constant stream of mopeds pulling over to sample her sweet creations. We had to keep stepping out of the way as mopeds queued up, usually with a small child perched precariously on the front.
It was a strange mix of savoury and sweet, the sugar counteracting the blandness of the rice. It was good but by this point, I had eaten so much that I couldn’t bring myself to stuff any more food into my mouth. We left with swollen bellies and fatigue from digesting all the incredible food. It was time to head back to the hotel and sleep it all off.
What we ate
Nem nuong – Pork BBQ rolled up in rice paper with rice noodles, lettuce, thin banana slices, Asian basil, mint, pineapple, coriander, fresh herbs and leaves. With a side of dipping sauce: 18,000 VND
Banh Cong– a traditional Can Tho pie cake made from a mixture of green beans, little shrimp and minced pork, which is steamed and then deep-fried in a flour dough: 10,000 VND
Ca tho – Eggplant with minced pork in a claypot
Tau hu tho– Tofu with minced pork in a claypot
Chuot chien – Fried mouse
Xoi ngot – Waffles with Sticky Rice
Tour Information
The tour is free and takes place at 6.30 pm each night. It runs on a pay what you like basis where you only pay for what you eat and then tip your guide at the end (I recommend $5-10). The tours do fill up so it is highly recommended that you book online if you don’t want to miss out.
Mekong Tours
Hotel Xoai, 93 Mau Than Street, Can Tho
+84 907 85 29 27
Online bookings
27 Responses
Hey Dave,
Nice post with amazing photos to company, thanks for sharing and yea as you said: copyright laws in SE Asia are pretty lax 🙂
Awesome food tour. I love visiting different places and exploring their authentic cuisine. And when it comes to street food, I get so crazy that I control myself.
What a fabulous sounding tour, Dave! This sounds like the perfect introduction to Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnam is ridiculously high on my bucket list and I’ve never eaten Vietnamese food – we don’t have much in the UK. I’ll try most things, but field mice? Not sure about that! Thanks for sharing on #FarawayFiles
This looks amazing! I love having Vietnamese here in Canada but I’ve never been to Vietnam and had the real deal – it’s definitely on my bucket list! A food tour would totally be up my alley. I wonder if they have something similar in Cambodia. I’m really hoping that I’ll make it out there this year.
I had eaten Vietnamese food in the UK before heading out there but the real deal is so much better (maybe we just have bad Vietnamese places in the UK, I’m not sure)! While I was in Vietnam I spoke to some people that had just been to Cambodia and they had an amazing time. They said the food was great! Hopefully you make it there this year – It’s on my list for 2018!
OMG – so hungry now. Love the idea the food tour – not sure I would ever order field mouse on my own. Thanks for sharing with #FarawayFiles – great post! Erin
I don’t think that I would have either but when it’s put on a plate in front of you, it’s hard to say no! and it was surprisingly delicious!
Dave, Vietnamese food is probably my favourite cuisine. I love the balance of flavours and textures. Where we are from in Australia we live on a street with over 30 Vietnamese restaurants and they are very good. The situation in London is dire! I’ve had several recommendations but they haven’t been any good. I need my pho!! Thanks for joining #FarawayFiles
I’ve heard that Austrailia is amazing for pretty much all types of Asian cuisine – I suppose it’s one of the benefits of being so close! It quickly became one of my favourites too, I hadn’t tried too much before because as you say, the situation here is dire (I can imagine its much worse up here in Leeds than in London!). We have a half decent Pho place but it just isn’t the same!
The food looks quite tempting … Heard a lot about street food in Vietnam and traffic too 🙂 I can completely agree with you when you say, you just have to ignore the traffic and walk or else you are never going to cross the road 😀
I visited Vietnam but I didn’t try Banh cong! Well, i think I just got another reason to come back there 🙂
The way you described the traffic situation and your guide in that opening paragraph, I could’t help but giggle. I could just imagine myself if I were there – totally scared for my life! As for the food, it looks amazing. I’ve always been intrigued by Vietnamese cuisine and all the bloggers featuring their pho did not help to quell my curiosity.
Oh, Pho! I became totally addicted to the stuff! I think I had it for breakfast every day for two weeks! I hadn’t tried much Vietnamese cuisine before this trip but it’s now one of my favourites, I could only eat Vietnamese food for the rest of my life and be perfectly fine with that.
You’ve absolutely captured exactly why it’s so helpful to take local tours – you just get such a different feel for a place when you’re introduced to it by a local, especially when it’s someone with a passion for the subject! We did couchsurfing on our last trip, and our hosts were such an amazing source of information, we got to try some fantastic hole-in-the-wall restaurants we probably wouldn’t have ever even noticed otherwise.
I haven’t tried couch surfing yet but that seems like the perfect way to get to know locals and have a genuine experience. I’ve found AirBnB is similar but maybe to a lesser extent; It gives you chance to meet a local and find out as much as you can about a destination!
I would be interested in joining this food tour. Your guide seems nice and organized. I like that he also demonstrated how to eat the local foods properly. Street foods are overwhelming and you cannot really determine which one is authentic. I like noodles a lot but I cannot buy every noodle dish that I’d see. Haha!
Yes he was fantastic! He spoke perfect English and had so much local knowledge. It’s really hard to know what to order without the local know how so this tour definitely helped me to be confident about ordering street food!
I tried the cuy in Arequipa too, it was pretty unique. The Nem Nuong dish looks pretty tasty, I thought they were mango slices but banana slices must be good too! I’m not a foodie but this looked like a fun tour and a great alternative to a Gregg’s sausage roll!
Is that unique in a good or bad way? I found it unique in a pretty terrible way – let’s just say I wasn’t a fan! I think the New Nuong was by far my favourite – The yellow slices you’re thinking of are probably the baby sweetcorn or pineapple slices! It was fairly unique to have so many fruity flavours in a savoury spring roll but it definitely worked!
Taking a guide sounds like a good idea. I would have no idea what anything was so the help would be welcomed. I haven’t done a food tour or anything like that before but this has got me really keen to try one
I think because the language is so different to English it is hard to even guess what each dish is so a guide definitely helps! It even gave me the confidence to order when I was in other cities!
I wish I knew about this when I was in Can Tho! Food tours are such a great way to learn more about a place (and find the best food!). It looks like this would be a really good one to do. I’ll have to keep it in mind when I head to Vietnam next!
It’s such a shame you didn’t get to do this! I bet you still managed to find awesome food in the city though, it seems to be everywhere! What did you think of Can Tho?
Lol, I could totally relate to the 1st paragraph! When my parents visited Vietnam, they basically told me the same thing … crossing the road was hell! I totally wanna go on one of these food tours. According to me, locals know best and they’ll take you to the best (and cheapest) spots. The food looks delicious, especially Bánh Cong!
It’s something you have to get used to very quickly in Vietnam – If you wait for the traffic you could be standing on the roadside all day! I completely agree, it’s always best to get the local knowledge. I wouldn’t have tried any of these dishes if I hadn’t taken a tour with Vinh!
If I would be in Vietnam or any other Asian country, I will never forget to go on a food trip too! I’d love to try authentic Asian dishes!
I tried to do one everywhere I visited in Vietnam as the food was so varied in each region it was the best way to find out the delicacies specific to each city! I’d highly recommend it.