Vegetarian food in Central Vietnam

I found Vietnam a rather delightful place to visit. Part of the reason is that it was quite easy to find local Vietnamese vegetarian food.

It appears that there are many vegetarians in Vietnam. In addition, on the 1st day (new moon day), 14th (full moon's eve), 15th (full moon's day) and the last day (new moon's eve) of each lunar month, many Vietnamese observe a vegetarian diet. As a result, many stalls changed to selling vegetarian food. So it will be nice to time your visit to coincide with these days.

Especially if you are visiting Hoi An, be there on the full moon's eve. The lights on the old town are switched off and the lanterns are raised. It was quite delightful to wander around.

I also found that around many big temples, there will be vegetarian food.

It is quite easy to identify vegetarian food stalls. Look for the words "Quan Chay". Sometimes, the Chinese word 斋 is also used. "Chay" is pronounced the same as the Chinese word. i.e. "zai" as in banzai. (As opposed to the Thai or Chinese Hokkien which pronounce with the "ay" as in gay.)

Tell the Vietnamese, "an chay" (un zai), and they will know you are a vegetarian.

Before arrive in Vietnam, I was looking forward to eating pho (pronounce it like "fur"). But I found that it wasn't really that common here at all. (Later, my Vietnamese friend told me Pho is mostly a northern dish.) It was difficult to get good pho. The nice pho are the fresh pho. But unless you go to a restaurant that specialize in pho, you are likely to be served dried pho. Those are not good at all. You will be better off asking for bun (prounced like boon), which I found is more common in Central Vietnam and much nicer.



DANANG

I flew direct to Danang in Central Vietnam Jul 07. It was in the evening when we checked into a guesthouse facing the river along Bach Dang. We asked if there were any vegetarian stall nearby and was directed to a stall near the Con Market.

It was just a few steps along the street leading away from the market. If my memory serves me, it's the Hung Vuong Street. It was a local stall. No English spoken and no English menu. Luckily the owner's relative from USA was there and helped us order something. But you can easily order something by asking for bun (rice noodles) which I found is the most common fare in central Vietnam. If you visit the Pho Da Pagoda at Phan Chu Trinh, there is also a vegetarian restaurant within the temple compound.

HUE

In Hue, I found a vegetarian restaurant off Le Loi. This looks like a Chinese owned restaurant. Since it is located right in the tourist district, it does have a English menu and some English is spoken. However, I was there a couple of times and found that the cliente was mostly local. It looks like a popular restaurant with the locals. The food was actually pretty good.

The Tinh Tam vegetarian restaurant is located at 24 Chu Van An, just off Lei Loi, roughly at location 78 on the map.


Hoi An

I spent many days at Hoi An and it was quite a delightful place to stay.

The local vegetarian stall in the old town was a nice discovery. It is very difficult to locate and quite obscure. We asked around and were told there was one in off Le Loi. But we just could not find it. Finally, someone led us there. There was no big sign for the stall and it was actually converted into the restaurant from the front yard of a house. It was easy to miss.

I hope I got it right on the map. It is on a small alley just west of Le Loi, running parallel to Le Loi between Tran Phu and Nguyen Thai Hoc. If I read the sign board correctly, the restaurant is Quan Chay Dam (i.e. Dam vegetarian shop)

English was not spoken there. But there is a menu on the fence. I simply pointed to something on the menu. The first time, I ended up with mi kuang, a thick yellow noodle. When I pay, the stall owner took out the notes from the money box to show me the amount. The food was good and cheap. The noodles were only 6000 dong a bowl (roughly about S$0.60 only!).

For the next few days, I came here to have breakfast and lunch. During lunch, they serve rice with cook dishes. One of my favourites was a bun sandwiched with vegetarian ham and salad sauce. It was only 3000 dong a piece and I packed a few to eat else where for the rest of the day. (nice to bring to the beach)

The menu at Quan Chay Dam. Available: Mi Quang, Pho and Cao Lao. Bun are rice noodle dishes while com is rice. Not sure what is nuoc.	location of Dam vegetarian stall. If I remember correctly!
Nice setting at Quan Chay Dam	My lunch: a bowl of Mi Quang and a bowl of Pho

My friends were not vegetarian. Although they were quite willing to oblige, they aren't that keen to eat at that local stall all the time. Fortunately, we found a very good restaurant along the river front. The food was so good that we ate there every night.

I think the restaurant was called River View, or something that had river in the name. It's at the junction of the river front road Bach Dang with either Le Loi or Hoang Van Thu. It is not featured in the guide books.

The fresh salad rolls were really good. The vegetarian hot pot was fantastic. The "curry" was very nice too, though it is very different from the curry we get in Singapore. After we were there a few times, the owner recognized us and offered to cooked to our taste. He noticed that we like spicy food. The spicy tofu dish which he cooked was simply fantastic.

For the 3 of us, all our meals were less than $18 for 4-6 dishes, including drinks as well. Which was really good value for money.

I was at Hoi An on the 14th and 15th of the lunar month. I am not sure if it happens at other places in Vietnam. But in Hoi An, I suddenly found that the street hawkers turned to selling vegetarian food. If you dare to squat at the road side with the locals and eat the street fare, you will be spoilt with choices! Not all stalls change to vegetarian food. But those that do are easily recognized because they put up a sign that says "chay". I had breakfast at roadside and the old lady actually knew enough English to chat at little.

The street fare, however, are not found in the old town. I was staying in a guest house at the junction of Tran Cao Van and Thai Phien. There is a good gathering of street hawkers around here every morning. If you are staying along the Nhi Trung street were most of the guesthouses are found, it's just a very short walk to Thai Phien.

I also found that outside Cafe Bobo there was also a street hawker selling vegetarian food on the vegetarian days. But it was immensely popular and very crowded, so I did not try to eat there. But it must be really good to attract such a big crowd.

Finally, if you go to the Cua Dai beach just a few km from Hoi An, you must go to Karma Waters. They have a website http://www.karmawaters.com/

The food there is good. And they run eco-tours as well. I chatted with the owner Paul quite a bit and he let me tried paddling the Bamboo round boat, which was quite fun.

I simply love Hoi An and would like to visit again!