Hoi An Street Food Tour

Our last morning in Hoi An, the tour company surprised us with a food tour of Hoi An with Australian food "guru" Neville Dean.  Neville had retired to Vietnam and learned the good stuff about Vietnamese food in the years that he had been there.  He had made friends with the locals and provided us tourists with an "insider" view of street food.  

How do I rate his tour?  The tour was a lot of fun and Neville Dean was a good presenter although it felt a little weird listening to an Australian accent give us the lowdown on Vietnamese food.  He had an excellent rapport with the vendors and definitely showed us some excellent sources, including the best Pho we have ever had.  He guaranteed that he had checked all his vendors, that the food we ate was "safe".  In a way, he enabled us to try street food without having to run the risk of getting bad food, so for that we were thankful.   What I'd found missing was the inherent cultural background behind some of the foods and customs - not something a foreigner could learn in a few years even if he could learn the names of all the foods and dishes.   In North America, there would have been protests of cultural misappropriation...

It was an early start to the day with a breakfast drink at this roadside stall, loaded with fresh fruit and in a non-tourist area of Hoi An. 

Fruit shake with crispy coconut in side to give the shake a distinct crunch.

Tofu dessert, basically Chinese origin

According to Neville, the white bits of paper under the tables would tell how popular the place was - the more there were, the better the food because the bits of paper were actually the bills.

The best black sesame paste dessert (also Chinese in origin)

The best coconut and coffee ice cream - and no, you are not supposed to be eating ice on the street but if you were with Neville Dean, it was okay because he guaranteed the cleanliness of his vendors.

The vendor showing us the bottom of the ice maker

Snails - no no's, because of possible parasites - Neville Dean would not recommend us even trying it

BBQ pork - apparently there was milk in the marinade

The best Pho ever at this restaurant

 The best Banh Mi prepared by Banh Mi Queen - crunchy baguette with Vietnamese mint

We had what looked very much like a tasting menu at a restaurant - this was still breakfast, slowly turning into lunch

Most of these looked quite familiar since we had been eating our way down the country.

Vegan too - although we didn't try anything here

The street food tour finally wound up in a touristy family restaurant in old town - and we were served another tasting menu, with Neville Dean explaining every little bite on each of the dishes.  By this time, we had been on the street for over 4 hours, our focus was waning as was our attention span...

Vietnamese new year treats

The only thing I remembered was this most memorable spring roll, made with an unusual rice paper that looked like it was doillie - the holes made the texture crunchy but soft

Iced Vietnamese coffee - just what we needed

tequila?

You would notice by now how we had started from eating standing beside a street vendor to gradually moving into a gentrified restaurant with a table cloth, and finishing with a drink that tasted like tequila...