Da Lat Food Adventures

While in the lovely city of Da Lat, visiting the clean and lovely market with fresh fresh food abounding, we decided it was time to venture out, and dig into some local street food!  The following is a sampling of some of our food adventures thus far.

We started out at the market, and decided to try whatever snacks they were selling:

• Bahn cam (one of my favorites): deep fried glutenous rice ball filled with sweet mungbean paste and covered in toasted sesame seeds; like a delicious chewy donut!
• Bahn da: like a vietnamese rice cracker with sesame seeds and a faint coconut essence
• Bahn day: glutenous rice wrapped and steamed in a leaf of some sort (banana maybe)
• Various dried fruit: lemons, olives, sweet potato, strawberries, aloe milk, roses (I think these were actually hibiscus, but that's what the vendor told us...)

First Attempt: Failure

Walking around the first night we were determined to eat like a local, and found a busy Com Tam shop (basically a street side restaurant that serves rice, com, with various proteins in various manners).  I tried to order Com Ga (chicken), but they heard Com Ca, and this is what I got:

I did my best, and it wasn't awful, but I think you were supposed to eat the whole thing, which was not going to happen, and I could only get a couple of flakes of meat to come off.  Then they brought me another selection of Ca (fish)... this one was wiggly, chopped up, and soaking in some putrid sauce.  I took one bite, and have now sworn off ca for the remainder of our time in Vietnam.  Needless to say, Kevin helped out by getting up and pointing to the chicken and ordered that as well.  The cook seemed to get a kick out of the fact that we were there, and we didn't get sick, so all ended well!

Corner Store Staple

Walking back to our hotel we found a little convenience shop selling various snacks, including Bahn Bao (steamed buns stuffed with either pork and quail eggs, or sweet shredded coconut) which filled the rest of the void left by the ca let down. This became our go-to when we needed a snack.

Night Market "Signature Dish"

 The next night we decided to check out the night market and started with a vendor snack that was like a super thin egg crepe with bean sprouts that she grilled, topped with chili sauce, and rolled up for us... tasty!  Then we sat down at the night market (they set these up every night and they are quite elaborate) and had their Dac Biet (special) Artiso Lau Ga -  basically a hot pot with artichoke (artiso) and chicken, and you add your own noodles, lettuce and herbs.  It was okay, but not everything it was cracked up to be.  On the way home we stopped for some Sua Dau Nanh (sweet, warm, soy milk)... a favorite for warming up on a chilly Da Lat evening!

Home Run!

The best luck we had was when we ventured the other way up our street to some bright lights we saw ahead, a crowd of people, and a row of motor bikes.  We thought if this many locals are here, it must be good!

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Banh Xeo
Just up from our hotel we found a busy street stall with tons of people sitting on tiny stools eating the only thing being served: Banh Xeo.  Basically, it's like a fried crepe with shrimp, pork, bean sprouts and green onions and they give you a basket full of goodies to go with.  (Please note that what you see the lady pouring in is indeed oil... I never said this was the healthiest thing we ate in Dalat.)

After you cut your bahn xeo into managable peices (scissors included) you wrap it up in rice paper with lettuce and herbs and dip it into their sauce.  They just keep bringing you more until you say you're done... Amazing!  At about a dollar a piece we couldn't beat it, and came back again two days later!

 

Che

I had been seeing these every night, and finally had to try one!  They looked like grilled rice balls... but what I got was Oh So Much More!  After pointing to one, the lady grabbed it, cut it up (it turns out the rice balls are filled with pineapple and banana) and put it in a cup, then poured coconut cream sweet soup with tapioca balls on it, added a small scoop of passion fruit and topped it off with some crushed peanuts.

My delicious variation of Che - a sweet soup that seems to be made from anything (beans, corn, tapioca, coconut cream...).  I have yet to find another as good at this one!

Refreshments

Da Lat is also famous for some of it's refreshments, namely Tra artiso (artichoke tea), and Weasel Coffee... so naturally we had to try both!  The tea was easy, it was everywhere, but the coffee was a bit trickier.  We figured if we were going to try such a delicasy we should taste it from the source.  So, we hiked our way to Trai Ham Da Lat, the weasel coffee farm and took a little tour.  The coffee farm itself was beautiful.  It is all organic and shade grown coffee and they only pick only the best berries to feed to their weasels...

This little weasel ate some berries. He only ate the berries he wanted, we were assured that they are not force fed, which is why their annual coffee yield is so low (only about 40 kilos/year).  Then he pooped them out, somebody cleaned and roasted them, and put them on display.  Then we came along and bought them, ground them, brewed them, and drank them.

I know we mentioned earlier that Starbucks was the most expensive coffee we had consumed on this trip, but actually this was.  It ended up being about $5/ tiny cup, and honestly, it tasted like coffee.  Give me a frappucino any day!