Last week we went on a walking food tour of Hoi An. Our guide, Vi, is pictured above. She asked the kids to squat while she stood on her toes for the photo. We were the only ones on the tour, so enjoyed many stories of local food and life in general in Vietnam.
Our first stop was a Bánh mì stand. We have had Bánh mì’s from at least five different stands now, all different, ranging from good to excellent.
The next stop was the stand pictured below where we ate Cao lầu, a dish that can only be made Hoi An… long story why. Wikipedia tells it pretty much as we heard it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_l%E1%BA%A7u)
Next stop… iced coffee. Nothing new since Matthew has been downing a huge glass every day for many years.
We then headed to try Xi Ma (black sesame sweet soup). Logan bravely tried it, and it was good, although the color took a little getting use to.
Walking to our next destination, we passed flowers for sale for Tet. Flowers filled nearly every sidewalk in the city, making getting across town a challenge.
For our last few courses, we were welcomed into a local house. The six year old grandson provided entertainment while we ate bánh khọt (mini pancakes with quail egg topped with vegetables and fish sauce seen in photo below) and spring rolls.
We were stuffed as our food tour ended. But we were told we did not eat near as much as many Americans.
Our kitchen here is not ideal, so I am still not cooking very much (definitely a kitchen problem… not laziness). We eat breakfast at home. But it is relatively easy to grab a Bánh mì for around $1 for lunch (so why not???). And for dinner, we continue to dine out. So I include a few more photos below.
Fried Cao lầu
Banh Bao Vac (white rose)
Vegetable Cao lầu
The picture of Logan is from our first day here. She is eating Cao lầu and smiling. 
Bun filled with coconut. This is not my favorite dessert here, but I guess I downed the others so fast Matthew couldn’t get a photo.
Wonderful food!
Very interesting and colorful dishes! Is pork the primary source of protein in that area? I assume that the Vietnamese also have access to poultry and fish, but red meat is not very common?
I even looked up the Wikipedia article about the “special well water,” which definitely left me with questions!!!