A bit of Bites and Lights

I have to dedicate a section to the culinary delights and the visual splendour of Hoi An at night.

I did not make it to the fresh food market as my friends did, as I am a bit squeamish and may not have participated in the food tasting if I had. Apparently you can find anything and everything that a carnivore can consume and it is generally still alive before you purchase it.

At Vy’s Market Restaurant I had the privilege of witnessing how typical Vietnamese street food is prepared and cooked. I was then encouraged to taste all these delights and taught how to cook 4 dishes – crispy pancakes, fresh spring rolls, jack fruit salad and banana leaf steamed rice dumplings.

For someone that is sensory seeking, it is a heavenly buffet of textures, tastes and aromas. Fresh herbs are mixed together in a blast of abundance with mint, lemongrass, lemon basil, plain basil and coriander to name the herbs I can remember. Savoury and sweet is combined to perfection, crunchy is buffered by a pillow of softer textures and finished off with a dollop of chewy and powdery. Rice seems to be the main ingredient in many dishes and comes in many forms – plain, flour, pancake, dumpling, rolls, noodles thick and stringy. It is a gluten-free eutopia. Salads are made of green fruits such as the jackfruit, papaya and mango. Even the banana flower has a place on the salad menu with shrimps and pork weighing in just as heavily and the crunch comes frome fried shallots and roasted nuts.

Food is cooked in a wok over an open fire or in clay brick ovens making the already steamy temperatures sore even higher.

I am in the east and often what is alive can be eaten cooked. I sampled silkworm salad, mini snails and spicy frog but I drew the line at pigs brain and duck embryo.

I actually rolled out of the restaurant (I cycled to my hotel) after finishing off all 4 dishes that we cooked with a cool tingle of lemongrass ice cream down the throat and ended the afternoon with a well deserved nap.

In the evening we peddled down to the old town on the river to meet up with some friends for dinner and were surprised to see how beautifully it was lit up by lanterns and candles. Every shop and restaurant displays their own string of colours, the bridges have lights and candles in lanterns are sold to be released on to the river. A contrast of light against the backdrop of a darkened sky. And the slow flow of the lanterns down the river look like a galaxy of coloured stars reflecting the heavens above.

Deep sigh, happy heart.