Last month my girlfriend and I went to Quang Ngai to visit a friend. This part of Vietnam is definitely not on the tourist trail, and when you get there, it’s not hard to see why. Outside of visiting the My Lai Massacre Museum (pretty gnarly by the way), Quang Ngai is just a small town in Central Vietnam with funny accents and not much to do. With 3 days to hang out and check out the city, we did what we always do: eat! Here’s our quest to find the best Quang Ngai food.
Quang Ngai Food
Quan Ngon – not so ngon
We started off our Quang Ngai Food tour by meeting my friend John at a place called Quán Ngon, (‘Delicious Restaurant’) which was highly rated on Foody.vn but pretty average in the way that any place is with more than 3 pages worth of menu. The corn soup might be worth trying.
Dining Near Water
Later we went to a really cool place on the lakeside that did a fantastic stewed frog (ếch kho tộ). It took a while to cook, but that first bite was amazing. Unfortunately, right then it started to rain, so we had to move inside. Once our table had been reassembled, they had for some reason cleared our food! So one bite was all we got. (“We thought you were finished.”)
The owner apologetically offered the make us another one, but by that point we didn’t have the patience so decided to move on to this really neat area along the river with little food shacks as far down as you can see, mostly selling bánh tráng mắm ruốt and other snacks. We found one online that was particularly well-reviewed (Cô Lươm, down on the end), and it didn’t disappoint. Rice crackers that were brushed with seasoning and grilled, BBQ pickled pork sausage and very hot fetal quail eggs (cút lộn).
Cơm Gà
The next day we went for a coffee before having cơm gà, another Quang Ngai specialty, at Nhung 2 on Phan Đình Phụng. The place was packed, and the food was great.
Mỹ Khê Beach – Quảng Ngãi
After checking out the My Lai Museum (not so easy to find), we headed out to the beach for a swim and some seafood. Prices were not cheap not not extortionary: 600,000 / kilo for massive prawns (tôm sú), 600,000 for the speckled snails (ốc hương, my favorite kind). Throw in a couple cans of the local Dung Quất beer and you’ve got yourself an awesome beachside snack.
As an added bonus, there was a guy on the beach offering rides in a horse-drawn carriage for 50,000. That was pretty much a no-brainer. The ride itself was perfunctory but the best part by far was the post-ride photo shoot. This dude was very gracious and encouraging (“Sit in the front. OK now let her drive. OK now give her a kiss. Alright now get on this other horse.”) Totally worth it.
Ram Bắp – Corn Spring Rolls
That night I realized we still hadn’t tried the corn spring rolls (ram bắp), a Quang Ngai food specialty. We found an awesome place at the corner of Phan Đình Phụng and Nguyễn Nhiêm. Massive pile of rolls for 25K.
Overall we had a great time in Quang Ngai and I’d love to come back!
Want to discover some awesome local food in Da Nang? Come on my food tour!
