Every country and every region in the world has some local dish that they’re famous for. The Italians have their pizza, the Poles have their sausages and the American South has their fried Twinkies. I’m really not putting America in a good light. We also have fried butter. Way more classy than fried Twinkies. Take that the world (and your arteries).

Anyway, Vietnam seems to take this concept of a national dish and breaks them down to an obscene number of regional specialties. It’s a country that’s smaller than California but somehow boasts an abnormally high number of regional delicacies. You can drive a few hours up the mountain to a small village, and then drive a few more hours down to the coast and you’ll find half a dozen specialty dishes native to each village.

There’s even a word in Vietnamese for local specialty. The word “đặc biệt” translates to “special”. Add a slight variation to change the word to “đặc sản” and it translates to “local specialty.” There may be countless regional specialties throughout country but Nha Trang is renowned among the Vietnam some of the best (or the most unique) snacks and dishes. And if the Vietnamese say Nha Trang has the best food, well I’d like to remind everyone that these are the people who brought you divine food like Beef Noodle Soup (phở), Baguettes (bánh mì) and Spring Rolls (gỏi cuốn). With an endorsement like that, the food here’s bound to be good.

So let’s go over some of these angelic snacks that Nha Trang boasts. Let it be noted that I am going to exclude the vast array of seafood dishes that are grilled, steamed or sautéed. Vietnam’s huge coastline allows for a massive variety of seafood type dishes. Any seafood restaurant in Vietnam will contain at least a dozen types of fish that the average westerner has never even heard of let alone eaten. So Nha Trang, like many other coastal towns, will include plethora of fishy meals that would be too countless to name. I’d like to focus on the dish rather than the type of fish.

One of the best kinds of fishes I've ever eaten. But a story for another time

 

But first and in keeping with my overly talkative fashion…

 

Should You Visit Nha Trang?

This is a question I get asked a lot by friends traveling to Vietnam. Nha Trang is 400 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh and is often a convenient pit stop for many tourists heading up north to Hoi An. But Nha Trang has had a big image problem among westerners these last few years and honestly, I can kind of see why.

A decade ago, Nha Trang was a slow and sleepy coastal town. When I visited in 2013, it was a nice laidback resort town. Now it’s transformed into a small but rapidly developing resort city that caters primarily to Chinese and Russian tourists. The Khanh Hoa province has reported that Chinese and Russian tourists made up 80% of their tourism revenue the past year.

Eighty percent. Menus, signs and restaurants pop up catering to Chinese and Russians. Stores in the tourist area will happily take Chinese Yuan instead of the local currency. Due to this high influx of Chinese and Russian tourists, the town has developed to cater to a specific type of tourist.

Russian and Chinese tourists come here for the beaches and the all-inclusive resorts much like how Americans go to Cabo or the British go to Mallorca. They’re here to sit on some sand, enjoy the sun, eat familiar food and get pampered. A fine way to enjoy a getaway vacation.

However, many westerners travel to Vietnam for a cultural experience. They wish to see the people go about their everyday lives, eat the local food and see unique landscapes and buildings. Going to Nha Trang and seeing high rise resorts, eating borsch at a restaurant or partying in a Russian styled techno club to 6 AM is not why many westerners go to Vietnam. These differences in expectations are the crux of the problem.

You wouldn't even know you're in Vietnam from that menu

 

You can still get a cultural experience in Nha Trang, it’s just a lot harder. You’ll have to wander far out of the tourist quarter and go deep into the local area of town. If you want to find unpopulated, pristine beaches, you’ll have to head to the outskirts of town. If you want to explore the countryside and see provincial life, you’ll need to book an off-the-beaten-track tour or rent your own motorbike.

The problem is that doing any of these is simply harder than it would normally be. Nha Trang simply no longer caters to that kind of tourism.

So should you visit Nha Trang?

If you want a nice beach resort town, then absolutely. What about if you want a cultural experience? Well I’d be hard pressed to recommend you go, but if you’re willing to make the effort to go off the beaten path and have the time to spare, you’d certainly have a good time. And if you don’t, well I can guarantee that you’ll at least enjoy the food.

Without further ado, let’s look at some local specialties!

 

Nem nướng

Recommended Restaurants:

Nem nướng Ngọc Tiên

59 Lê Thành Phương, Vĩnh Ngọc, Thành phố Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa

Or

Nem nướng Vũ Thành An

15 Lê Lợi, Xương Huân, Thành phố Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam

A good nem nướng is the key to any man’s heart. Quite literally translated to ‘grilled sausage’, this dish is one of Nha Trang’s most famous dishes. It’s a sausage made with ground pork (up to half of it being fat) and flavored with shallots, garlic, black pepper and fish sauce. Take the pork sausage, add a layer of lettuce, lemongrass, mint, other herbs and some grilled noodles for a crunch and wrap it all in rice paper to make a blissfully glorious roll. Dip in peanut sauce to overwhelm the taste buds in deliciousness.

Like many dishes, this can be found in other areas of Vietnam, but many of my friends insisted it would be a disservice to eat nem nướng outside of Nha Trang. They were so insistent about this, that they even refused to show me any nem nướng restaurants in Saigon, saying that I must go to Nha Trang to properly bask in its true glory.

Well I’m glad I did because it certainly has lived up to the reputation. If you’re in town, those two restaurants are worth a visit to enjoy the real deal.

Trust me, my photography skills does not do this dish justice

 

Bún cá

Recommended restaurant:

Bún Cá Nguyên Loan

123 Ngô Gia Tự, Phước Tiến, Thành phố Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam

Bún cá is another easy dish to translate. It simply means ‘fish soup. Made from a fish base and contains rice vermicelli noodles with fresh slices of fish, fish balls and fish cake. Many restaurants will even serve this with fish guts, jellyfish or smaller fishes like mackerel or anchovies. Top it off with herbs, a squeeze of lime and chopped up lettuce and bean sprouts to make a truly fresh soup.

Bún cá has spread to most of Vietnam, but its roots are still remembered with most of the populace calling the dish “Bún cá Nha Trang”. Like nem nướng, it’s best here, not only because people know how to properly cook the dish, but the ingredients are extremely fresh, often being ocean to table.

I think this is the seraphic soup that gave birth to angels

 

Bánh canh

Recommended restaurant: Same as above

I like the translation for bánh canh. It means “cake soup”, which requires a bit more background to understand the etymology. Bánh canh is a thicker rice noodle that also uses tapioca which makes the noodles more cake-like when they’re being made. This makes the noodles reminiscent of Udon noodles from Japan.

The soup uses a pork base and is a bit sweeter. Despite the pork base, the meat is complimented with different types of seafood. In Nha Trang, the specialty topping is to get ground-up fish in the form of fried fish cakes. The other toppings are usually fresh herbs, salad and bean sprouts. Another must try of Nha Trang.

Even the storefront is inviting

 

Bánh căn

Recommended restaurant: Still working on this one.

I’m not really sure what this dish directly translates to but it’s delicious so that’s good enough for me. The chef takes liquid rice flour with a bit of egg and pours it into a little disk-shaped mold. The edges of the cake are fried while the inner side gets cooked but remains soft and spongey. Then it’s topped off with a little shrimp, squid, green onion or ground beef. Dip the whole thing in fish sauce and you got yourself a nice Nha Trang meal.

This makes for a soft but slightly chewy dough with fresh seafood. A great meal that’s absolutely worth trying on your visit.

Those little squids are pretty bomb out here

Well, those are my big four must tries if you find yourself in Nha Trang. Now, let’s move onto Nha Trang’s specialty snacks! These snacks may be able to be found outside of Nha Trang but are usually not of the same quality or are significantly more expensive. As far as there is concerned, they can range from pleasantly familiar to downright odd. Let’s check them out!

 

Xoài Sấy Dẻo (Dried Mangos)

Everyone loves dried mangos. The Khanh Hoa province also has a thriving mango industry. Ripe dried mangos are harvested, sliced and dried. Nha Trang’s dried mangos have reached a level of renown in Vietnam due to their high quality. The best part is that the price for a bag is less than half of what you would pay at home, and way tastier.

 

Bánh xoài (Mango Snack)

Directly translates to ‘mango cake’ but I find this direct translation dubious at best. It’s essentially dried mangos, but instead they pound the mangos into a pancake. They purposefully don’t select the ripest mangos, so this mango pancake becomes a tarter cousin of the dried mango.

 

Bánh Khoai Lang (Potato Snack)

While we’re on the subject of pounding things into a flat disk, there’s also bánh khoai lang or ‘potato cake’! It’s the same idea as the bánh xoài but made with potatoes instead. Also very tasty and, of course, nowhere near as sweet.

 

Ghẹ sữa ram (Spiced Milk Crabs)

Looking for something more exotic than dried fruit? You also ever see those tiny little crabs scuttling underneath the palm trees along the beaches? You wonder if anyone would ever eat those things? Well look no further than ghẹ sữa ram.

The species of these tiny little crabs are selected for their long legs and softer shell. They’re salted and dried, and fried in a variety of spices. It makes for a very crunchy, oily and wonderfully seasoned snack. Just don’t look too closely at all the little appendages.

Look at all those wee lil' legs and claws

 

Mực rim me (Dried cuttlefish with tamarind sauce)

This dish is perfect for anyone who likes their dishes on the fiery side. This dish is dried squid dipped in a tamarind sauce with many herbs and spicy peppers. A fair warning: while the texture is going to be a lot more familiar than those little crabs, the spices are more exotic for the average westerner. Plus it’s hella spicy.

I wonder how much squid went into this bowl

 

Cá Mai Mè (Sesame Fish)

Let’s continue with all the seafood since Nha Trang is a coastal town. Dried little fishes coated in fish sauce, peppers and sesame seeds. Also be warned: it’s definitely on the fishier side but well worth trying since the flavors are wonderful and it’s very cheap. I am personally very partial to these little things.

 

Hải Sâm (Sea Cucumber)

Well, I personally haven’t eaten sea cucumber, but when I found it at the local store, I knew I had to include it on the list for more adventurous folks. This is truly a local delicacy since sea cucumber costs around a couple hundred dollars per kilogram.

They’re caught, their skin cleaned and dried before being sold. If you’re interested in purchasing one of these, its’ not so easy to prepare. You need to soak the thing in water, clean the internals and then cook. Sea cucumber can be turned into numerous dishes but most often is boiled to extract the flavors and turned into a very seafoody soup.

Vietnamese people find this to be a wonderful delicacy and believe a sea cucumber soup holds numerous health benefits (I’m very skeptical). If you’re gunning to try this, you’re best off going to a local seafood restaurant and simply ordering a sea cucumber soup rather than buying the dried specimen and trying to cook it yourself.

Also could look like you walked into the wrong section of an adult store

 

That’s all I have for now. In the future, I’d like to delve into their wide variety of seafood. But we’ll see if I have enough time in Nha Trang for that endeavor.

 

Shit Vietnamese People Carry On Their Motorbikes

People here can load their motorbikes up with so much stuff that it defies the laws of physics. Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, Issac Newton or Murphy Cooper (from Interstellar) would learn a lot more about classical physics if they spent some time in Vietnam. You can find a lot more impressive motorbike loads online but here are some of the things that I have seen on a near daily basis that never ceases to amaze me.