We enjoyed our last one so much, we decided to do another with I love Hoi An, the Hoi An offshoot of the Hue tour. Again, we were picked up by two young women, Linda and Nhi. Our tour guides had a high bar to exceed from our last hosts.
The streets of Hoi An were hopping as it was the full moon. This is a holiday for the Vietnamese, where they light lanterns on the water. This celebration is to honor the dead, and there are offerings on every block where they burn money and light incense along with other offerings to their dead ancestors.
Our tour guides had expertly navigate their bikes through heavy traffic and pedestrians.
We zipped around on the motorbikes, with our first stop at the beach. There we had Ngheu hap sa (Clams in lemongrass soup) and Muc hap (squid). The clams were yummy in the soup. The squid was the best squid we had, but still not that great.
From there, we went to get Banh xeo (rice cakes). We made that dish yesterday but this version was superior.
Next we went on a hunt to find Banh Mi. The first place was out! And the 2nd place was crazy busy, so we opted for Cao Lao and Mi Quang (noodle dishes) first. This was definitely my favorite dish of the night.
We then zoomed through the crowds around Hoi An to find Banh Mi. We eventually found some but you could tell it was their third choice. It was still tasty but not near as good as the Banh Mi we had yesterday.
Our final stop was to get Che Bap, which was similar to the dessert we got in Hue but with just one ingredient – creamed corn with coconut milk. This was superior dish to us. It was close to our villa that we are staying at, on an island in the river near the old town. Apparently they are known for their corn, which makes sense as we see corn everywhere.
The food on this tour was superior to the last one. I would suggest that every dish other than the squid was better than anything on the last tour. However, we didn’t quite get the insight into Vietnam and Hoi An as we did in Hue. The tour guides were lovely and charming. They just didn’t quite offer the same depth we heard before. Again, it was good to see Hoi An on the back of a motorbike. And to learn about the local cuisine. Hoi An is just crazy touristy and that took away from the adventure.
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