Joanna James
While Vietnamese food is famous the world over, Mui Ne lauded for its fabulous beach vibes is also loved for its fab cuisine, which is often centred on fresh seafood. Is your mouth-watering already? Read on to know which foods you must try when visiting Mui Ne.
A typical Thai salad, oozing with freshness and zesty lime, this fish salad is made with minced garlic, ginger, lemon, galangal and of course, loads of fresh Ca Mai fish. The dish is simple and can be whipped up in minutes, if you want to have it back home; all you need do is cut the fish into strips add the zest and combine it with green peppers and crushed peanuts – delicious! While there are plenty of Mui Ne restaurants serving this dish, you should visit places serving authentic Vietnamese cuisine for a full experience, there are many like L'Anmien easy to access if you are a guest at Anantara Mui Ne Resort.
This is a thick noodle dish popular across south and central Vietnam. The 'thick' noodles are actually a type of handmade rice vermicelli cooked in a flavoursome pork broth base. To make the broth, minced pork and pigs bones are simmered to a delicious consistency after which additional ingredients are added.
Banh Hoi or Hoi Cakes are made with vermicelli and well fermented rice flour, moulded into little bundles. The cakes are served rolled tight over which peanuts and spring onions are sprinkled. The Banh Hoi is generally served with golden roasted pork for a fabulous flavour.
Banh xeo or the crispy yellow pancakes is very tasty, made with saffron juice, rice flour and egg yolk. A very delicious savoury dish, the pancakes are cooked in a deep pan to which shrimp, soya sprouts and fatty pork are added; it is then folded over and served with a bowl of fish sauce, fresh vegetables and fragrant herbs.
This is a speciality dish from Phan Thiet in Mui Ne, the popular little cakes are formed from pureed rice which in turn are filled with spring onions. The cakes are cooked without the aid of oil in miniature clay pots, the process causes them to swell and in turn become crispy. Banh Can is served with a dipping of fish sauce and salty crackling sprinkled over.
Phan Thiet is a lovely sweet potato cake which is often a big hit amongst children. The cakes are made by shredding the sweet potato before binding them into disc shapes and deep frying. They are then dipped in a sweet caramel sauce kept to dry and eaten. Many tourists leave Mui Ne with a few packets of this lovely sweet snack, which you can purchase from shops at the Phan Thiet market.
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