Vietnam the third: day 13, Hoi An
See yesterday’s post: same same but different.
More clothes fittings, getting some of our more elaborate garments finetuned — there’s just something about the mandarin collar on my jacket that means it won’t sit level, hopefully a button adjustment will fix.
Foodwise, I got to go back to Banh Mi Phuong, the other heavyweight banh mi joint in Hoi An, with all the good press, endorsements from Anthony Bourdain, etc blah blah. Last time we were here, I rated Phuong over Madam Khanh, as the filling was fresher, greener, and overall just had the edge. Sadly if today is anything to go by, the quality at Phuong has dipped a little: while it was still very good, it was a little disappointing. The fillings weren’t as balanced, there was certainly room for more fresh greens, and the bread was a little stale. The second is probably the greater issue, because what’s a banh mi if it doesn’t have an amazing crunchy yet soft bread roll. I noticed that Phuong also have a far more extensive menu, with other dishes, whereas Madam Khanh is just the banh mi, which can be a sign in Vietnam of things dropping in quality: at the cheaper end of dining, I’ve certainly found the best food in Vietnam is at places where they do only a few things and they do them well.
Dinner we splurged at Morning Glory Signature, on the Hoi An Island. The food was excellent: Banh Xeo, super crispy and full of amazing pancake and shrimp and pork flavour, served with pork skewers and a peanut sauce; stuffed squid, full of glass noodles and pork and caramelised in an amazing sauce; and a side of fried eggplant, again in an amazing sauce of garlic and ginger and all sorts of goodness. So much good food, unfortunately the service was a little off tonight, it was a bit of a struggle to get waitstaff attention, and a couple of things got forgotten. We didn’t mind too much, as we were sat next to an interesting couple from Melbourne, and we had a solid chat with them — first time in Vietnam, so it was good to hear their perspective.
In this morning’s wanderings we stopped for a coffee at Faifo, a fairly cool looking coffee place in the ancient town (with prices to match). Had a caramel coffee, but didn’t really taste the caramel, just the coffee. Across the street was an apparently picturesque alleyway, where tourists were frequently stopping to be photographed. It says a lot about this part of town that when three guys in hoods were loitering around the entrance to the alley, it was because they were changing camera lenses. At one point there was even a queue for the alley.
That’s today in a nutshell, and tomorrow will be similar, just getting last minute fittings etc, before we’ll then have to work out packing it all.