Eating your way through Hoi An

Cao lầu, and why the noodles taste different here

Real cao lầu uses water drawn from the Ba Le well, or so every stall owner in town will tell you. The noodles come out thick and slightly chewy, tossed with barbecued pork, fresh greens, and crisp croutons cut from the same dough.

Go to the stalls inside the central market before noon. By 1pm the good ones have usually sold out, and the pot left simmering after that is never quite the same batch.

Bánh mì by the river

Madam Khánh runs a small counter two streets back from the river, and the queue by 7am already stretches past the neighbouring shophouse. Order the mixed version — pâté, a soft egg, pickled carrot, and a spoon of chilli sauce she mixes herself.

Eat it standing at the counter if you can. It travels fine wrapped in paper, but the bread loses its crackle within twenty minutes.

The market before 7am

Before the tour buses arrive, the central market belongs to residents buying breakfast. Bánh xèo sizzles on flat pans at the back corner, and a woman near the fish section sells hến rice — tiny river clams stir-fried with rice and herbs, eaten with fried rice crackers.

Go with someone who already knows which stall is which. The market has no signs in English, and pointing works, but a local elbow saves you from three wrong bowls first.

The dessert queue after dark

• Chè bắp — sweet corn pudding, best warm, sold from a cart near Cam Nam bridge
• Tào phớ — silken tofu in ginger syrup, a few coins for a bowl
• Bánh flan cà phê — coffee flan, sold at the same carts most nights after 8pm

One rule for eating well here

Follow where the motorbikes stop, not where the menu has photos. A queue of parked bikes outside a plastic-stool stall is worth more than any sign in three languages.