Vietnam Part Two. Hoi An

Hoi An Is an atmospheric and delightful town on the east coast of central Vietnam and is of the country's main tourist centres.

Hoi An



Whilst there we visited a restaurant called "Bale Well". It was a small basic cafe selling street food and it was manic to say the least.

The Menu.

The Host.

The Chef.

The Food.

Satay style barbecue pork served with salad greens, herbs and vegetables with a spicy sauce, rice paper rolls and rice pancakes washed down with a cold beer. The place was buzzing the food was great and the host a bit of a character! what a great night.

Whilst in Hoi An we visited The Red Bridge Cooking School. This involved a gudied tour around Hoi An market before moving on to the school itself.

Grissom was our guide.

It had been a long day.



Fish anyone?

And so after a bit of a dodgy boat ride it was off to the school to do some cooking.

The Teacher complete with mirror.

Whilst at the school we learned how to make Hoi An Pancakes(Bánh Xèo) which are rice batter pancakes wrapped in rice paper rolls and filled with Pork, Shrimps(Prawns), Spring Onions, Bean Sprouts, Lettuce and the usual lashings of herbs (Vietnamese Basil, Coriander, Mint, Bitter Herb).

The rice paper rolls are made by soaking white rice in water for at least seven hours. Then washing it well. Then its blended with water and salt and left for an hour. The next step is stretching some muslin over a pot of boiling water and spooning some of the mixture onto the muslin and spreading it thinly. It then sets and you are left with a rice paper roll.


Masterchef Vietnam at Work.



The Pancake mixture was Rice Flour, Water, Salt and Turmeric Powder which was left to sit for an hour. The Pork and Shrimp are then lightly fried and the Pancake batter is added along with a few Bean Sprouts and Spring Onion. The Pancake is then fried until crisp. To serve wrap the Pancake and Herbs in the Rice Paper Roll and serve with a Peanut Butter Sauce for dipping.

They tasted good too.

So you can see that the one item menu that we enjoyed in Bale Well was very similar to the one that we made in the Red Bridge School both are Banh Xeo, which is the generic name for the type of Pancake, however the fillings may be different.
I suspect that the ingredients and the methods of making Banh Xeo differ from region to region.

So thats just a very brief glimpse of Hoi An and its food.