The richness of the cuisine is cultivated to contribute to creating an intangible cultural heritage formed in the cultural flow, captivating many tourists and international friends when coming to Da Nang. It is not surprising that many dishes such as ‘mi Quang’ (Quang -style flat rice noodles), banh xeo (sizzling crepe with shrimp and pork filling), ‘bun mam’ (vermicelli with fish sauce, seafood) are increasingly praised and highly appreciated by international diners through prestigious global rankings.

‘Banh Xeo’ Ba Duong at K280/23 Hoang Dieu Street is a regular cuisine site for diners. Photo: K.H

Da Nang culinary impression

Speaking of Da Nang cuisine, visitors from near and far all have a few comments in common. According to them, the first priority is to eat seafood with diverse and rich dishes, meeting the criteria: “fresh-delicious-nutritious-cheap”.

Then, there are dishes that “can only be Da Nang” such as ‘mi Quang’, ‘bun cha ca’ (rice vermicelli with fish cakes) or ‘goi ca Nam O (raw fish salad). More unique are frog Quang noodles and ‘banh xeo’.

As for seafood, most people say that there is nothing better than the delicious, nutritious, and cheap dishes made from all kinds of seafood, from the most popular seafood like ‘chip chip’, to high-class seafood like lobster and sea cucumber.

Regarding the ‘international’ factor, more and more Asian-European restaurants, especially South Korean, Japanese and Chinese ones, are appearing in Da Nang to meet the needs of foreign tourists.

Besides, Da Nang cuisine also impresses with "purely Da Nang" and "purely Vietnamese" restaurants that still attract a large number of international tourists. Located in the small alley K280/23 Hoang Dieu Street, Hai Chau District, the 43-year-old Ba Duong ‘banh xeo’ restaurant is a favourite venue for tourists because the pancakes here have their own unique features as compared to other places.

Ms. Tran Thi Kim Quy, born in 1968, the Director of Ba Duong Pancake Company Limited, said that after decades of existence, Ba Duong ‘banh xeo’ have been maintained and kept stable.

The cakes are both golden and crispy and have a chewy texture, made from rice flour, but not the usual rice flour but xiec rice - a type of rice that makes up Quang cuisine, creating a crispy texture and a faint aroma of sticky rice. The dipping sauce here is also different from other places because of its salty, fatty taste but very suitable when combined with ingredients such as beans, meat and shrimp with a separate recipe.

Leaving the ‘banh xeo’ Ba Duong restaurant, go to Trung Nu Vuong Street where there is the famous Dai Loc eatery that sells  ‘banh trang cuon thit heo’ (belly pork and vegetables wrapped in soft rice paper) at No. 82.

The site brings a sense of closeness, a rich menu with the main dish being the famous delicious pork roll, a harmonious combination of the fatty taste of the meat, the chewy taste of the rice paper and the characteristic flavour of the light sweet and sour dipping sauce.

The accompanying raw vegetables include many fresh greens such as lettuce, fish mint and perilla. In particular, the dipping sauce is uniquely mixed, just right, not too salty or too sweet. The perfect combination of ingredients creates a unique flavour so that rice paper rolls with pork have now become a specialty of the Da Nang people.

It can be affirmed that when coming to Da Nang, besides letting their souls wander with the enchanting scenery, tourists are also excited to enjoy delicious dishes with the rich flavor of Quang cuisine.

In fact, cuisine is also one of the reasons that helps the city to be in the top of the most worth-visiting cities in Southeast Asia. However, to exploit this "gold mine", so that Vietnamese cuisine can "show off" all its "beauty", it is a need to complete a lot of tasks

Upgrading the cuisine

Many opinions say that, to realise the wish that Vietnamese cuisine will increasingly shine throughout the world, there needs to be a comprehensive, unified strategy.

The first change needed is to upgrade the cuisine to have more famous dishes such as ‘pho’ or ‘banh mi’, even though they are just popular dishes in life. Many other dishes, although not as popular as ‘pho’, still have the opportunity to become famous if invested in quality.

Along with that, the stability in flavour needs to be maintained, combined with the food hygiene and safety policy that needs to be tightened further when Viet Nam owns an extremely rich treasure trove of street food.

In addition, it is necessary to promote communication policies, in reality there is no clear promotion and development strategy, the audience sees a lack of film and television works that truly promote Vietnamese culinary culture.

“Da Nang also has the advantage of being one of the few localities in the country that has a Culinary Culture Association along with organisations related to cuisine such as the chef and restaurant associations. In addition, the Da Nang tourism industry is very interested in cuisine and considers this an important field that contributes to attracting more tourists to Da Nang. Recently, the Da Nang Department of Tourism has successfully organised the Da Nang International Food Festival, gathering many chefs from countries from Asia to Europe, America and Australia. This is also a way of doing tourism with cuisine as the theme and international scope, creating novelty and attraction for tourists when coming to Da Nang”, commented Mr. Diep Dan Hung, member of the Da Nang Culinary Culture Association.

Mr. Ly Dinh Quan, Chairman of the Da Nang Culinary Culture Association, said that the city is a centre connecting diverse cultures, regional characteristics of the central Vietnamese localities and countries such as South Korea, Japan and China. Da Nang dishes are widely popular and recently 36 culinary locations were listed in the Michelin list, bringing pride, honour and prestige to Da Nang.

“With an optimistic perspective and long-term vision, I consider Da Nang culinary culture to be a treasure, which can be built into a brand, along with socio-economic development strategies for reasons. Da Nang is positioned as a city of tourism, a large and modern economic centre in the central region, a centre for international trade and investment connections, a large market that can grow in scale and easily go international, as well as a starting point for developing into national culinary models.

Da Nang cuisine is not only a story of food but also a story of Da Nang culture, people and the cultural heritage road of the central region. Da Nang cuisine will enhance the value of products and residents of the central region. Residents in Da Nang and central region as a whole are sincere and they always have the desire to rise up.

Also, Da Nang has a good environment with converging policies and innovative thinking, which will be a good driving force to create professional chef talents and many creative culinary products that can meet the needs of the industry’s rapid development, bring intellectual products and talented people of Da Nang to the world. The culinary value chain from farm to table, along with untapped scientific and technological values, will be a huge space for Da Nang to rise up to become a locality with a developed culinary industry worthy of the national level.

Reporting by KHANH HOA - Translating by A.THU