Fish cakes, bánh căn and the seafood evening

An evening eating like a local: tiny clay-pan rice cakes, fish-cake noodle soup, jellyfish noodles, grilled pork rolls and a final plate of shellfish by the water.

Area

Nha Trang town

Start from

Central Nha Trang

Distance

about 3–4 km of walking and short rides

Time needed

evening

Best season

All year

Difficulty

Easy

Transport

On foot and short ride-hailing hops

Tickets & rules

None

Why go

Nha Trang eats from the sea, and its specialities are quite different from those of Hanoi or Saigon. The star is chả cá, a springy fish cake made from pounded fresh fish, which turns up sliced in noodle soups, grilled on sticks, or fried in golden slabs. Bún chả cá, the noodle soup, is a breakfast dish but many stalls serve it all day.

After dark, the city’s small streets fill with smoke from charcoal grills. Bánh căn, little round rice-flour cakes cooked in clay moulds with an egg or a prawn on top, are eaten with green mango, herbs and a fish-sauce dip. Nem nướng, grilled pork sausage from nearby Ninh Hoa, is rolled at the table in rice paper with green banana, star fruit and cucumber, and dipped in a thick, slightly sweet sauce.

End the night the way everybody does here, at a plastic table near the water with a plate of grilled scallops topped with spring onion and peanuts, snails in lemongrass, and a cold beer. It’s loud, messy and one of the best parts of being in Nha Trang.

The story

Bún sứa, rice noodles with fresh jellyfish, is the dish that surprises visitors most. The jellyfish is crunchy rather than slimy, cut into translucent ribbons and served in a light fish broth with fish cake. It is a speciality of this stretch of coast and you rarely see it elsewhere in the country.

Nem nướng Ninh Hòa takes its name from a town about 30 km north of Nha Trang, where generations of families have made the pork rolls. The secret, cooks say, is in the dipping sauce, made from sticky rice, pork liver, garlic and chilli. Many families guard their own versions.

Dam market, a round modernist building near the river, has been the city’s main market for decades. It’s worth a wander in the late afternoon, when dried squid, fish sauce, salted fish and swiftlet-nest products are piled high. The swiftlet nests come from the islands of Khanh Hoa, where for centuries collectors have climbed into sea caves to harvest the edible nests of cave swiftlets; they are one of the province’s most valuable traditional products.

Nha Trang’s food has also been shaped by tourism: you will see menus in many languages, but the best places are still the ones with Vietnamese families crowding round.

Getting there

The food streets are spread around the centre, especially the blocks inland from Tran Phu and around Dam market. Walk between nearby stalls and use ride-hailing for the longer hops.

Seafood places line the coast road to the north and the south, and there are clusters along the river near the Xom Bong bridge.

A suggested plan

1. 5:00 pmDam market for a look at dried seafood, fruit and local snacks.
2. 6:00Bánh căn at a street stall, eaten fresh off the clay moulds.
3. 7:00Nem nướng Ninh Hòa, rolled at the table.
4. 8:00A bowl of bún sứa or bún chả cá if you still have room.
5. 9:00Grilled shellfish by the water and a slow walk on the beach.

Where to stay

Stay central so you can walk home. The streets a couple of blocks back from the beach have the best concentration of small local eateries.

Good to know

• Point and smile; menus at local stalls are often only in Vietnamese.
• Order shellfish by weight and ask the price per kilo before it’s cooked.
• Try the local fish sauce dips, but ask for chilli on the side.
• Cold sugarcane juice and fresh coconuts are everywhere and good for the heat.