In the port city, visitors do not need to go to luxurious and expensive restaurants, do not need to spend large amounts of money on a meal, just stop the car in front of a roadside restaurant or lie in a small alley, order by mouth and wait to enjoy the "beauty of the world" that many people have tested and certified.
Crab cake
Among the top 50 famous Vietnamese specialties recognized by the Vietnam Record Organization, crab cake is the signature dish of the port city of Hai Phong. Even Taste Atlas, a world-famous and prestigious culinary website, also rated "Red noodle soup" as one of the 8 most delicious dishes in Northern Vietnam.
The predecessor of the crab cake appeared in the 10th century and was created by the people with more ingredients, changing the way of making it to become a specialty dish as it is today. From luxury restaurants to popular restaurants, following the gifts from winter to summer, crab cake is the dish that best shows the essence of Hai Phong cuisine and has become the pride of the people of the port city. One of the crab cake shops mentioned in the Hai Phong Cuisine Map is the superficial crab cake shop of Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy (56 years old) located in an alley about 1.5m wide and nearly 10m long at 195 Cau Dat Street, Ngo Quyen District. The shop is open from 7 to 24 hours daily at a price of 50,000 VND/bowl.
Still red rice cakes, still familiar seafood, but instead of broth and greasy crab bricks, diners will feel the sweetness of seafood meat, the saltiness of the sea. On the top of the bowl of crab cakes is yellow crab meat with a sweet taste and a little salty. Below are the fibers of the cake that are permeable to the broth, soft and slippery, but still retain their toughness due to the large and thick fibers, which do not become mushy and break or break when picked. At the bottom is a layer of large boiled green morning glory, soft on the leaves and crispy on the stem.
Spicy bread
Spicy bread, also known as bread sticks, is a famous and typical snack of Port City. One of the most famous and oldest places to sell spicy bread in Hai Phong is Ba Gia Spicy Bread Shop, located at 57A Le Loi Street, Ngo Quyen district, Hai Phong city, is more than 20 years old, open for sale from 6 am to 8 pm daily.
Spicy bread is smaller in size than ordinary bread, about the width of two fingertips, and about an arm's length. What makes the brand of spicy bread is the pate, which is prepared by the owner himself in the family workshop according to the heirloom recipe. After using a knife to cut along the length of the bread, spread the pate in the middle, eat with "chichuong" - a typical chili sauce only in Hai Phong, with a slight consistency, bright red or orange-red color, fragrant, rich in flavor, not purely spicy like ordinary chili sauce, but mixed with a slight sourness. The crispy crust, spicy and slightly sour taste of zhi chuong is mixed with a smooth, salty, and greasy pate layer in the middle to create a special taste.
A spicy bread costs 3,000 VND, diners will usually order in an even number such as 5 or 10 pieces. In addition to spicy bread, the shop also sells some types of drinking water such as Thai tea, tac tea with prices from 5,000 to 15,000 VND.
Spicy fish vermicelli
Open for sale for nearly 3 years, Cau Doanh spicy fish noodle shop is recommended by the Department of Tourism as one of the attractive destinations in the food tour journey in the city. The restaurant is owned by Mr. Pham Van Dung, a chef with 20 years of experience and currently the Vice Chairman of the Hai Phong Professional Chefs Association. The address is at 151 Ho Sen, in the food street in Le Chan district, open from 6 am - 2 pm and 5 pm - 9:30 pm, with indoor and outdoor space with a total area of 70 m2.
Instead of the traditional fish noodles with only patties and fried fish, spicy fish noodles include marine fish such as mackerel, cowfish and copper fish such as perch, raised in brackish water lagoons in Quy Kim, Do Son district, Hai Phong. There are a total of 7 types of toppings in a bowl of vermicelli (fish roe, filling, fish stomach, mackerel, beef, fish cakes and perch) combined with broth cooked from tube bones and fish bones, adding some dried seafood to create a sweet taste, such as sa sung, satisfying both the meal and the look. The special feature of Hai Phong spicy fish vermicelli is that it does not use chili peppers but uses mackerel with spicy sauce to create a spicy taste; Instead of using lemon or kumquat, tamarind juice is used to create a slight and gentle sour taste for the broth, so diners can easily adjust it according to taste.
Spicy fish vermicelli served with finely chopped raw vegetables, fresh chili, chilli or satay. A bowl of vermicelli with full toppings costs 50,000 VND, a regular bowl costs 30,000 VND.
Sparkling
Despite its strange name to people outside the province, bubbly is a familiar gift of Hai Phong people originating from the Chinese community that used to live here. Sui Din is currently popular and sold all year round on inner city streets, the most famous is Sui Din Co Ut in Cau Dat Street, Ngo Quyen District, one of the restaurants named in the city's food map. Ms. Nguyen Thi Ut, the owner of the restaurant, has been selling here for more than 10 years, the time frame is from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
According to Ms. Ut, bubbling is almost like a rice cake, made from glutinous rice flour, with black sesame and peanut fillings inside, eaten with honey. The crust is made of fragrant, large, round, and even glutinous rice. Before grinding the flour, the rice is soaked in salt water for a day, changed the water about 2-3 times to avoid sourness, and then ground into water powder, let it settle and absorb moisture. The finished product is a white, fine dry powder, mixed with water in billions to shape the crust. The filling is made from black sesame, crushed roasted peanuts and grated coconut pulp, lightly slug on the pan over low heat.
After molding, it is like a steamer's cake, with the crust spread evenly, the filling is put in the middle and then wrapped tightly at the edges so that when dropped into the pot of cake juice, it does not break. The size of the effervescent tablets is about 2/3 of the rice cake in Hanoi.
Boiled bubbly is eaten with molasses juice cooked in the color of cockroach wings, adding sliced ginger. The broth is light, sweet but not harsh and has a strong spicy taste of ginger. A bowl of bubbly din has 4-5 balls of sugar water, sprinkled with coconut, roasted peanuts, black sesame and a little ginger, sold for 15,000 VND.
In the midst of the cold weather of the North in the last days of the year, the heat and pungent taste of ginger help increase body temperature. Therefore, even though it is a familiar snack and is sold all year round, bubbly is more delicious when enjoyed in winter.
Spicy porridge
If Hanoi has rib porridge, Hai Phong has the famous spicy porridge with an attractive appearance and impressive taste. Regardless of winter or summer, when enjoying spicy porridge, you will inevitably sweat because the super spicy stir-fried chili is specially made for this porridge. This is also the attraction that makes the name of Hai Phong spicy porridge.
Spicy porridge is cooked from pureed rice flour and broth stewed with bones served with meat, dried onions, herbs, stir-fried chili peppers and stir-fry. Later, people combined a number of meats such as ribs, eel, and stir-fried river mussels with wood ears to create a dish with diverse flavors as it is today.
Coming to Hai Phong, you should try to experience eating spicy porridge at the long-standing restaurant located at 17 Tran Binh Trong, Ngo Quyen district, open from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Not only named in the Hai Phong culinary map, this is also famous as a "restaurant" of many generations of locals, especially students and students with affordable prices, from 15,000 to 25,000 VND/bowl.
Tran Binh Trong spicy porridge has a simple and typical taste of the original spicy porridge. The bowl of porridge is smooth, with a sweet and fragrant taste from simmered ribs and a greasy, protein-rich taste from eels, shrimp and the pungent aroma of fried onions and spinach. Before enjoying, don't forget to add a spoonful of spicy stir-fried chili, sprinkle with a little pepper and mix well with a smooth layer of thick rice flour. Then, feel the spicy taste slowly spread throughout your body.
Snail
It would be remiss to come to Hai Phong without enjoying the snails, from sea snails to freshwater snails sold all over the roads from the city center to the suburban districts. Owning 7 establishments spread across the Northern region, Thuy Linh snail shop located at 96 Street 208, An Dong Ward, An Duong District is one of the most famous snail shops in the port city. The opening time is from 14h – 22h30.
The restaurant serves diners fresh and diverse snail dishes such as snails, snails, nail snails, snails, snails, scallops, oysters, crabs, and shrimp. From steamed, stir-fried, roasted, and grilled snails to snail dishes that combine sauces prepared in their own way to bring delicious flavors and the most suitable for each ingredient.
You can enjoy popular snail dishes such as stir-fried nail snails with lemongrass and chili, grilled snails with onion fat, steamed snails, tofu snails with salt and chili or try unique snail dishes such as tamarind sauce snails, stir-fried post office snails with onion fat, garlic butter cotton snails, salted roasted crabs, etc grilled scallops with onion fat, steamed lobster with beer to enjoy the delicious and unique taste of the sea.
Chrysanthemum tea
Each province has a typical drink: Hanoi iced tea, Saigon lemon tea and Hai Phong chrysanthemum tea. I don't know when, drinking chrysanthemum tea has become a habit of the people of the port city, regardless of morning or night. At the port, this tea is more popular than coffee. There is even a street known as Tra Cuc Street, Phan Boi Chau Street, Hong Bang District.
The cup of chrysanthemum tea has a dark yellowish to brown color, exudes a complex aroma, is cooked from hot yellow button chrysanthemums with slender tea, kumquat, licorice and diameter. Unfamiliar people may find it difficult to drink for the first time due to the bitter taste, but gradually, the natural sweet and cool aftertaste and aroma spread throughout the mouth, the more you drink, the more you drink. Therefore, chrysanthemum tea is likened to the personality of Hai Phong people, when they first get used to it, they are liberal, strong to the harsh, and the later they are, the more they absorb enthusiasm and warmth.
The most crowded yellow chrysanthemum tea on Phan Boi Chau street is Yellow Chrysanthemum Tea opened for sale by Ms. Nguyen Thi Coi since 1989. 35 years ago, Ba Coi shop was the first and only address to sell chrysanthemum tea on this street. The shop is open daily from 7 am to 11 pm with two types of hot and cold tea priced at 25,000 VND/cup. In addition, the shop also sells some snacks such as sunflower seeds, hot chestnuts, caramel... Drinking chrysanthemum tea, eating roasted chestnuts, biting sunflower seeds has become a characteristic of Hai Phong people.
According to travelsig.vn