What and where to eat in Quang Binh

25-Oct-2019

Quang Binh is not only well known for beautiful beaches and famous tourist attractions but also for delicious food. In this article, we will list the most famous dishes in Quang Binh.  

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Banh Canh Quang Binh (Quang Binh rice spaghetti porridge)

Rice spaghetti porridge is a specialty of Quang Binh. People here like it very much- the taste of their hometown, just like the way Hanoians love pho.

This dish is a combination of fish, shrimp, pork, etc… The most important ingredient is snakehead fish. After being boiled, the fillet will be stir-fried with seasoned before being put in the boiling rice spaghetti porridge pot. Before serving, sliced onion and cilantro will be put on top.

When talking about rice spaghetti porridge, people also talk about ram (fried spring roll), usually served with this signature dish. 

Restaurants that serve rice spaghetti porridge in Dong Hoi city:

• Suong Hong restaurant: 38 Nguyen Trai, Hai Dinh commune
• Ba Hong restaurant:51 Nguyen Huu Canh street
• Gia Bao restaurant: 8 Ly Thuong Kiet street
• O Hanh restaurant: 4 Le Thanh Dong street
• Restaurant: 46 Dong Hai street
• Restaurant: 75 Le Quy Don street
• Restaurant: 10 Nguyen Truong To street
• Restaurant: 9 Do Nhuan, behind Dong Hoi bus station
• Hung Nho restaurant: 60 Duong Van An street
• Quang Phu restaurant: behind Quang Phu market

Snakehead fish banh canh

Snakehead fish banh canh or chao sat ca loc is made from rice powder and snakehead fish. The fish will be washed, boiled and removed the bones. The fish will be served separately, the customers can add it as they wish.

The fish water is light and fresh so people use it as the broth. The rice is carefully soaked and ground into powder, then the powder is made into small pieces and then boiled. The result is amazing: crunchy and soft rice noodle, delicious snakehead fish go well with onions, cilantro. 

Restaurants that serve snakehead fish banh canh:

• Restaurant: 76 Ton Duc Thang street
• Restaurant in Nguyen Thai Hoc street, next to Nam Ly kindergarten
• Restaurant at the crossroad of Ha Huy Tap and Hoang Dieu

Banh bot loc (rice dumpling cake)

Originally a special dish of Hue, rice dumpling cake has a different flavor in Quang Binh. If you do not give this dish a bite, you will regret it!

You can try leaf-wrapped rice dumpling cake, normal rice dumpling cake or fried rice dumpling cake. It is served with sweet and spicy sauce, together with hot chilly makes an unforgettable taste. 

Restaurants that serve rice dumpling cake:

• Me Xuan restaurant: Le Thanh Dong street
• Hoai Huong restaurant: Le Thanh Dong street
• Thai Aunt restaurant: 13 Dong Hai street
• Thuy Aunt restaurant: 11 Thanh Nien street

Bánh bèo (Bloating Fern-shaped cake)

In Dong Hoi city, you can see bloating fern-shaped cake restaurant anywhere, you can even see the making process of the dish. 

Unlike other places, bloating fern-shaped cake has a light coat, lots of shrimp, making it tastier. Besides, you can enjoy it with Bao Minh fish sauce, just drizzle the fish sauce on the cake. A dish with bloating fern-shaped cakes shaped like a flower, with a shrimp and some fat on top is sure to stay in the memory about Quang Binh trip forever.

Restaurants that serve bloating fern-shaped cake:

• Co Van restaurant: 82 Le Thanh Dong street
• Di Tiep restaurant: 27 Le Thanh Dong street
• Tu Quy restaurant: 17 Co Tam street
• Co Nhon restaurant: Dong Hai street
• Tram Dien restaurant: Ha Huy Tap crossroad
• Banh Beo Con restaurant: 133 Ngo Gia Tu street

Banh khoai (Plain rice flan)

At the first glance, Quang Binh plain rice flan looks like Southern banh xeo or Northern banh goi, but its flavor is very different from the crust, filling, veggie and sauce. 

When eating plain rice plan, you will feel the heat of the flan goes well with the odor of rice, the freshness of raw vegetable, the fattiness of shrimp and meat and the nutty yet beautiful taste of pate & peanut sauce.

Restaurants that serve plain rice flan:

• Tu Quy plain rice flan: 17 Co Tam street
• Tu Quy garden restaurant: 63 Truong Phap street
• Ly Ly restaurant: 11A Co Tam street
• Co Nam restaurant: 13 Tran Hung Dap street
• Thuy Phuong restaurant: 9 Co Tam street
• Co Van restaurant: 82 Le Thanh Dong street

Oyster porridge in Oyster Place

Oyster Place area is well known for dishes made from Nhat Le raw oyster. Remarkably, the river that runs through this area offers the best oyster. 

There are many dishes with oyster: porridge, stir-fried oyster with onion and rice pancake, soup oyster with tomato, etc… The best seller is oyster porridge. Oyster is stir-fried with spices like chilly, onion, pepper and salt. When the customer orders, the oyster and plain porridge is mixed together, making a mouth-watering dish. Otherwise, the customer can wait for the oyster to be cooked with the porridge. Though this will take more time, the flavor is tastier. 

Restaurants that serve oyster porridge:

• Nghe Tam restaurant: Tieu khu 5, Quan Hau town, Quang Ninh commune
• Hoa Huong  restaurant: Tieu khu 4, Quan Hau town, Quang Ninh commune
• Hoa Sung  restaurant: Quan Hau town, Quang Ninh commune
• O Mai  restaurant: 1A highway, Quan Hau town, Quang Ninh commune
• Thuy Duong restaurant: Phan Boi Chau street
• Thuy Duong 2  restaurant: Phan Boi Chau street
• Chi Nganh  restaurant: 18 Hoang Dieu street

Seafood

When afternoon comes in Dong Hoi city, tourists always look for a good seafood restaurant. Only with a small stove and traditional way of cooking, they will enjoy the different seafood: shrimp, oyster, fish, etc.. the way they want.

This is the specialty of people living near the sea because their way of cooking still remains the freshness and tastiness of raw ingredients. 

Especially, tourists love the dishes from squid. Squid in Quang Binh is regarded as the best in Vietnam.

The famous sea snake dishes

More special, tourists are introduced to some of the freshest, healthiest and most unique dishes, which are sea snake dishes. It is known that these special dishes had become the pride of the local people; and we believe that when tasting these special dishes, even the local would feel really proud of this strange but surprisingly tasty cuisine. Sea snakes can be made into many tasty dishes in ways such as steaming with vegetable, frying with lemongrass and chili, chopping into small pieces and put into rice papers, etc. However, the most popular sea snake dishes are sea snake blood with white wine and sea snake “ram”  (fried spring roll).

Bombay duck hotpot

Bombay duck hot pot is one of the top 100 well-known dishes that are loved by many tourists in Vietnamese food culture. If you want to have fresh bombay duck, you should come in the season from September until January according to the Lunar calendar, and the best time is in mid-October. This is the perfect time to taste hot dishes such as hot pots, especially this Bombay duck hot pot.

Bombay duck is white with a long and slim body; it is soft and does not have any scute. Its bones are so soft that we can even eat them, which are also nutritious; the meat is greasy with a nice smell. Fish that are to cook hot pot should be the freshest and have most meat. The fish are first cleaned inside – you can eat the whole fish or put away the head or tail or chop into pieces – then marinated with some spices such as salt, pepper or chilly. The soup has some common ingredients such as tomato, tamarind sauce, star fruit, sauerkraut, young bamboo, mushroom, etc. and cooked until it tastes nice.

Bombay duck hot pot is usually eaten with rice noodles and some vegetable such as mustard. This dish is quite simple; but the taste of Bombay duck and chives should include simplicity in the way it tastes, which is full of the uniqueness of Quang Binh people. Moreover, this has made the special Bombay hot pot which tourists can never forget.

⇒There are a lot of places that you can eat seafood, sea snake dishes and Bombay hot pot in Dong Hoi city:

• Restaurants along Truong Phap road next to Nhat Le beach: Duc Hanh restaurant, Red Sail restaurant, Son Hanh restaurant, Phuong Man restaurant, Center restaurant, etc.
• Cheap restaurants along Nhat Le riverside are also very popular.
• Restaurants along Quang Phu beach such as Hai Yen restaurant, Phu Cuong restaurant, Van Tue restaurant.
• Range of restaurants at Quang Truong, Bao Ninh beach.
• Floating restaurants on Nhat Le river: Binh Yen restaurant, Song Than restaurant, Pho Bien restaurant, Binh Minh restaurant, etc.

Fish from Crimson River, Phong Nha

Phong Nha Ke Bang national park, an international heritage, which is also known as cave kingdom, is a must-visit when coming to Quang Binh. After touring in Phong Nha Ke Bang and sightseeing many famous caves such as Phong Nha Cave, Heaven Cave, Dark Cave, you probably should try some dishes that are made from fish from Crimson river like carp, barb, and especially the famous eel.

Phong Nha fish are breed in Crimson River, which has extremely fresh and clean water because it is on the origin of the river and flows between limestone mountains for millions of years. The food of these fish is mostly algae in the river bed, which makes the fish really greasy and fresh and has a unique taste that no one can stimulate. From fish, local people have many ways of cooking them such as steaming or drying; the most famous fish dish is grilled eel.

⇒ Best places to eat these dishes in Phong Nha Ke Bang:

Son Doong restaurant, Vung Hue restaurant, Co Phuong restaurant, Thu Ha restaurant, Thu Hue restaurant, Phuong Nam restaurant, etc.

Bau Sen Le Thuy fish porridge

Wandering along route 1A near Bau Sen Le Thuy, you will see many simple pubs that has services for passers-by. You can visit any of them and choose your favorite fish in the lake; the staff then will prepare the dish based on your order.

Bau Sen fish porridge is not cooked sophisticatedly but it still appeals to customers with the freshness of the fish and spices that remind customers of the peaceful countryside. The hot porridge bowls make customers blow before they eat and sweat but the food still looks so nice. This dish will help tourists ease the tiredness after traveling.

⇒ Some places that serve Le Thuy fish porridge:

Tam pub, Bau Sen pub, Thanh Xuan pub, Chau Loan pub which are situated along route 1A across Bau Sen, Sen Thuy, Le Thuy.

Oyster at Roon river

Oyster at Roon river is famous for its sweetness and healthiness; in Quang Trach district, it has long become one of the indispensable dishes in the tour exploring Quang Binh food culture. If you have some time to visit the north of Quang Binh, please spare some time to try this famous oyster; you will not only taste the excellent oyster here but you can also experience the simple daily lives of the friendly locals.

⇒ Places to eat oyster from Roon river.

You can visit Canh Duong market near Roon river to buy fresh oysters and book your place to eat oyster at Binh Minh restaurant at Roon or some restaurant near Nhat Le beach.

Quang Hoa rice pancake

Quang Hoa rice paper cake is made from brown and red rice with Chinese chives; this dish is cooked quite simply but there are many kinds of toppings: snakehead fish, sweet and sour grated salad, raw vegetable, rice paper and sauce. When eating, take a piece of rice pancake, roll it with raw vegetable, salad and snakehead fish and put them into rice paper.

⇒ Places to eat Quang Hoa rice pancake:

If you want to eat quality rice pancake, you should visit Quang Hoa, Ba Don commune, Quang Binh.

Minh Hoa Boi rice – Male Shellfish

Minh Hoa is a mountainous district with a beautiful wilderness in the northwestern area of Quang Binh. Minh Hoa cuisine is also variable with many famous dishes from forests and mountains of local people such as Kinh, Chut, Bru Van Kieu people such as rock crabs, don leaves, forest honey, ant eggs, forest bamboo,...

Among Minh Hoa cuisine, the soft and greasy Boi rice is the most famous one. The ingredients for this rice are corn, rice and fresh cassava.

Male shellfish at Minh Hoa live in springs that have clean and freshwater. Male shellfish is one of the indispensable dishes of this mountainous area.

Boi rice is often eaten with male shellfish from the spring and eggplant from the forest, which has become a specialty of Nguon Minh Hoa people.

You can try the local specialties at Quy Dat Market. More specially, the mid-March festival is held in the middle of March according to the Lunar calendar, which is the perfect time for you to visit this place.

Now you can realize that the saltiness of the sea, wind and sun in Quang Binh has given creatures here a unique taste that is delicious but very natural

Some travel schedules to Quang Binh for your reference:

• 2 Days To Vinh Moc & Phong Nha

Hopefully, the information that JTA Tours shared above will provide you with useful information for your tour to Quang Binh. If you find this information useful, please share or save the article for reference when needed.

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