Hoi An is a port city in central Vietnam that has historically prospered due to trade connecting Asia and Europe. During New Year's Day 2020, my friends and I went to this ancient city to explore its uniqueness and beauty.
Love Vietnamese cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine is relatively light, the ingredients are mostly fresh vegetables and herbs, and some unripe fruits are used as vegetables, such as green papaya and plantain flowers. Food in northern Vietnam is more influenced by China, eating stir-fried vegetables and soup powder; to the south, it blends Thai and Cambodian flavors to become sweeter.
As one of the world's leading rice exporters, rice is grown all over Vietnam. Rice noodles, rice porridge, rice wine, these rice products are very common in Vietnam.
When I traveled to Vietnam, I ate the most with fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, Vietnamese sandwiches, and Vietnamese beef soup noodles. Fresh spring rolls are a cold dish made from vegetables, cooked shrimp or cooked chicken wrapped in a transparent rice skin made from rice pulp, dipped in sweet and sour sauce or peanut butter. Sweet and sour sauce is a mixture of diluted fish sauce and spices such as sugar, vinegar, and chili peppers.
Fish sauce is the national condiment of Vietnamese cuisine, and one indicator of its quality is nitrogen content, and high nitrogen content represents high quality. It is said that the best fish sauce in Vietnam comes from Phan Thiet City and Phu Quoc Island. If you are not accustomed to sweet and sour juice, you can also choose to dip peanut butter, but the taste of peanut butter is too viscous, and there is no sweet and sour sauce refreshing.
France colonized Vietnam for about 70 years and had a profound impact on vietnam's diet. The Vietnamese sandwich, which is common on the streets of Vietnam today, is a clear example. The only thing used to make Vietnamese sandwiches is French bread. The bread is cut open and filled with fillings such as cucumber strips, shredded carrots and meat.
Vietnamese beef broth is made with rice noodles, a variety of coriander and broths, and in addition to a bowl of soup powder, it is also accompanied by a plate of raw side dishes – mostly bean sprouts, parsley and basil leaves, and some with pickled green papaya or pickled onions.
Hoi An has three famous snacks: White Rose, Fried Wonton and Hoi An Powder. The appearance of white roses is somewhat similar to our wontons, the bread is shrimp meat; fried wonton is different from our common wonton, it is sprinkled on the fried shortbread with some dishes; Hoi An flour's Vietnamese name is "cao lao", it is due to the different ingredients and soup base of each store and the taste is different, this powder is narrower and thicker than the common pho, it is dry powder, it tastes a little dry and hard, and the taste is not as good as beef soup powder.
Hoi An powder
Fried wonton
"White Rose" snack
Hoi An's cuisine is closely related to a local well. The Balai Well in the city, which has a history of thousands of years, was excavated in the 10th century and has never dried up. Many people still come here to fetch water, and the locals think that the water here is very special, and the meals made from the water from this well will be even more delicious. It is said that to make Hoi An powder, you must use the water of this well to make an authentic taste.
Walk the ancient city of Hoi An and make a suit of Ao Dai
The symbol of hoi An's ancient city is a Japanese bridge, which was originally built by Japanese merchants; after the Japanese left, the later repairs of the bridge were completed by Chinese. Nihonbashi is also called "Laiyuan Bridge", which comes from the Analects "There are friends who come from afar, and they are not happy".
The bridge is special in that it has a roof, a temple in the middle of the bridge, and is guarded by a stone monkey and a stone dog on each side. These two animals are sacred symbols in Japanese culture, and many japanese emperors are one of these two zodiac signs. There is also a theory that the bridge was started in the Year of the Dog and completed in the Year of the Monkey.
Hoi An used to be called "Faifoo" or "Fai-fo", and there are still shops named after it. The old name was coined by Europeans. From the 16th to the 19th century, Hoi An was an important trading point on the Maritime Silk Road, with merchant ships from China, Japan, India, Thailand, Portugal, Britain and France flocking here.
A Vietnamese woman dressed in Audrey
By the end of the 19th century, under the influence of many unfavorable factors such as war, Hoi An lost its status as an ideal trading port, and the nearby Da Nang became a new trading center. Because of this, Hoi An avoided the impact of the process of urban modernization and maintained its distinctive architectural style.
In addition to ancient buildings, restaurants, souvenir shops, Hoi An also has many tailor shops. Tailor-made Ao Dai as a tourist souvenir is the choice of many tourists. Originally influenced by China, Ody began in the Nguyen Dynasty in Hue, and has since been developed from generation to generation, it has been improved into a lightweight, everyday dress.
Ao Dai is somewhat similar to our country's qipao, but it is more comfortable to wear than the qipao. To put it simply, Ao Dai forks from the waist, the qipao is generally forked from near the thigh, wearing Ao Dai at the same time to wear trousers, wearing a cheongsam is not used; Ao Dai is tighter at the waist, below the waist is very loose, and the qipao in order to show the hips and legs of the line will be more close-fitting; Ao Dai generally makes long sleeves, the hem part will cover the ankles, the cheongsam is usually short sleeves and different lengths; Ao Dai has no buttons, and the neck of the qipao generally has Chinese knot buttons.
Ao Dai is featured in many Vietnam-related film and television works. In the movie "Good Morning Vietnam", Robin Williams plays a radio DJ who has just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and is shocked to see a Vietnamese girl dressed in white Ao Dai on the street. Corresponding to women of different ages, Ao Dai's color also has some exquisiteness: young girls wear pure white, symbolizing purity; older but unmarried girls wear a soft tone of Audrey; married women usually wear white or black pants, with a more colorful Ao Dai.
It usually takes a day to make an audacity. I first selected the fabric in the tailor's shop, negotiated the price, and then the tailor measured my height and size. After I paid, they gave me a copy of my handwritten invoice that I could pick up the next day.
Walking out of the tailor's shop, it was almost dark, and we walked to the coconut stall next to Hoi An Market and sat down. Lanterns can be seen everywhere at night, which makes the whole ancient city full of peaceful atmosphere.
Water coconut groves on Canaan Island
The Canaan Island Water Coconut Grove is about 5 kilometers from the ancient city of Hoi An, and the Choi Bon River flowing through Hoi An surrounds Canaan Island and flows into the South China Sea.
The seeds of the water coconut were originally brought by immigrants, and the soil and water quality are very suitable for it to grow. After more than 200 years of cultivation, the water coconut groves here have now reached more than 100 hectares.
After getting off the bus we came to a village and waited for the boat to pick us up. This kind of boat is called "basket boat", and some people call it "dustpan boat" because it resembles a dustpan. Interestingly, Vietnam is not the first country in the world to have a basket boat, which is found in the United Kingdom, Turkey, India and other countries, and the depth, shape and material of the boats vary according to the characteristics of the local rivers.
Basket boats
The origins of vietnamese basket boats are unknown, but many believe that they were left over from the French colonial era. When the French began to tax ships, fishermen designed this basket boat because they could not afford to pay the tax, and its tax-exempt status and practicality made this boat quickly popular among fishermen. Basket boats are small and cannot withstand large winds and waves, and if you want to go farther into the sea, you need to add engines to basket boats. Having a basket boat allows fishermen to fish more flexibly.
Making basket boats requires special craftsmanship. It takes a dozen days for a professional craftsman to build such a ship. The raw material for basket boats is bamboo, which has good buoyancy and flexibility. When making, the bamboo pole needs to be split into bamboo strips and dried, the bamboo strips are cut to a suitable size and woven together; after the rough frame is completed, in order to prevent water leakage, cow dung is also coated to fill the gaps between the bamboo after weaving; after drying, the cow dung is repeatedly applied, and then the surface of the boat is covered with resin or tar to achieve waterproof purposes; and finally coated with a layer of sap of local trees and dried in the sun. The service life of this ship is 3 to 5 years, and the price is about 9 million Vietnamese dong (about 2500 yuan).
We took a basket boat through the river with water coconut trees on both sides. The gondolier approached a water coconut and let us take a closer look. The water coconut, also known as the "Yada Seed", is almost the size of a head, and the fruit hanging on the branches resembles a meteor hammer. People pry open its hard shell and can eat the transparent pulp inside. Locals make snacks from the fruit of water coconuts, which are said to taste like jelly.
Water coconut
The leaves of the water coconut tree are very similar to those of the coconut tree, but it does not have an upright trunk like the coconut tree, and its leaves grow directly from the base rhizome. Near the roots, there were many small shellfish, and the boatman pulled one out and showed it to us, telling us that these shellfish were edible.
In addition to protecting the wind and waves and protecting nearby villages, this water coconut grove is also home to countless aquatic creatures. Our itinerary includes crab fishing, in which the bait is hooked with a hook connected to the line and placed on a wooden board with crab activity on the riverbank; when they catch the bait with the claw, they gently lift the line, and the small crabs that refuse to let go will be caught. They were all small crabs with purple pliers that we put back into the water as we left.
Sample delicious Vietnamese cuisine, admire colorful lanterns, experience the fun of wearing Odyssey, and take a boat trip through the coconut groves, all of which can be done in Hoi An Ancient Town.
Author | Luna
See the world magazine produced by new media