The fifty-cent food tour of Da Nang

By Ngoisao   August 10, 2016 | 08:11 pm PT
The streets of Da Nang have their own magic when it comes to food.

Street cuisine in the coastal city of Da Nang has churned out numerous delicacies that cost hardly more than fifty cents. Now let's see how the city manages to appease hunger with just half a dollar.

Suck snails at Bac My An Bazaar

The dish is a favorite in Da Nang's streets, but the best can be found at Bac My An Bazaar. There is a narrow place here that offers only two dishes with the more famous being suck snails, the ones with the pointy ends chopped off so eaters can suck the flesh out. A bowl of suck snails here comes at merely VND7,000 ($0.3), dashed with crunchy fresh green papaya and savory sauce, but it's only available from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Avocado ice cream at Aunt Van’s

A sweet treat you can find at 'Bac My An' is Aunt Van's avocado ice cream, which also costs VND7,000 ($0.3). The sweet dessert is eaten with coconut milk, dried coconut and roasted peanuts, a topping favored for its fatty aroma and crispy texture. The avocado here is crushed by hand instead of in a blender, leaving the desired chewiness for those who can’t stand the idea of blended food that can be eaten with a straw.

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Photo by @oanhwilluv/Instagram

Grilled banana dessert

An all-year-round treat by the streets, the dessert is at its best in an alley on Ong Ich Khiem Street. A bowl of it is made up of grilled banana slices dipped in coconut milk, topped with roasted peanuts and sesame seeds at a price of around VND8,000 ($0.4).

Vietnamese pizza

The king of Da Nang’s street food, ‘banh trang nuong’, the Vietnamese version of pizza, has taken up residence on the city’s sidewalks. Coming at VND5,000 - 10,000 ($0.2 - $0.5) each, the pizzas have many names just from the toppings that spice up the traditional 'banh mi'.

Sea snails

Available around the second and third months of the lunar year, sea snails slither into bazaars all over the city. The snails are sauteed with lemongrass, chili, salt, pepper, shallots, ginger and fish sauce and served in a can the way popcorn is in a paper box, just a lot cheaper at only VND7,000 - 10,000 ($0.3 - 0.5).

Yogurt and salt

Street gourmets in Da Nang can enjoy the unique salty yogurt sold in the alley beneath Tran Thi Ly Bridge. The yogurt comes with a side dish of salt that diners can add to taste. If you're already in love with salted caramel, the salty sour sweetness will effortlessly charm you. A small cup with a red lid below will set you back no more than VND2,000 ($0.1), so always order in bulk.

Quail eggs with cheese

Another acquaintance of street food worshippers in Da Nang are quail eggs baked with cheese. The strange fusion comes at VND5,000 ($0.25) 'sans fromage', and VND10,000 ($0.5) with. The cheese used here is not the kind of hard cheese that one usually adds to pizzas and burgers, but rather a yogurt-like processed cheese that is more familiar to Vietnam.

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