Escape the chilly evening by stepping into the luxurious market of Cố Đạo. Don't forget to taste these 5 dishes to truly understand the cuisine of Hải Phòng.

With just these dishes, you can soothe a chilly evening and create a memorable experience.

Escape the chilly evening by stepping into the luxurious market of Cố Đạo. Don't forget to taste these 5 dishes to truly understand the cuisine of Hải Phòng.

In recent years, with the rise of social media, Hải Phòng cuisine has become more accessible to food enthusiasts. Online stores and parenting groups offer a wide variety of dishes directly from the port city, such as breadsticks, pate, coconut pudding, and coconut coffee.

If you ever find yourself in Hải Phòng, indulge in the culinary delights of the evening market at Cố Đạo – one of the city's central markets.

Experience the exotic flavors of Hải Phòng with these 5 must-try dishes.

The fruit that immediately caught my attention upon entering the market, amidst a plethora of familiar fruits, is the Bang La apple. Originating from Bang La ward, Do Son district, this apple variety has been crossbred and developed by local farmers since the 1980s. Despite its resemblance to the oval-shaped sour apples currently in season, the Bang La apple is larger in size and has a glossy yellow skin, bursting with juiciness.

According to the sellers, this is a specialty apple of Hai Phong, with limited production, only enough to sell to locals. Upon dipping it in a bit of chili salt and tasting it, I was pleasantly surprised by the crisp, fragrant, and refreshing sweetness of the fruit, without the slight tanginess usually associated with our common apples. The price for a kilogram of the largest-sized apples, sorted separately, ranges from 45,000 to 50,000 VND. Although not cheap, the price is suitable for a high-quality specialty fruit.

2. Hai Phong Pancake

As someone who appreciates beauty as well as good food, I'm easily drawn to the appearance of visually appealing dishes. So, when I saw the large, golden pancake-like disc being fried to a crisp in hot oil, I immediately had to try it. The lady with the characteristic lively voice of Hai Phong locals advertised this as the Hai Phong pancake.

The Hai Phong pancake has nothing to do with any version of pancake we've known before; it's simply a mixture of flour and eggs, with a hint of Western pancake influence but fried in deep oil until golden brown.

The flavor of the Hai Phong pancake is quite pleasant with a subtle sweetness. Eating it while it's still hot, we can appreciate the light crispiness on the outside and the fragrant chewiness on the inside. The pancake is unfilled, suitable for casual snacking in the evening, with a very affordable price of 8,000 VND per piece, available at most pastry stalls in the market.

3. Crab Noodle Cake

Hải Phòng's crab noodle cake is as famous as Hanoi's bun cha. Following the recommendation of the pancake seller, I visited a small crab noodle cake stall at the corner of the market, located at 09 Nguyen Khuyen Street. In addition to the brown-colored flat noodles, twice the size of Northern pho noodles that everyone is familiar with, Hai Phong also offers white, thin noodles. The broth is cooked from crab and bone broth, seasoned in the distinctive style of the port city, offering a rich flavor instead of the subtle taste like in Hanoi.

A bowl filled with pieces of crab shell, a bit of freshwater crab meat, grilled pork wrapped in betel leaves, peeled shrimp, and dried onions fried with lard – not dried potatoes or fake dried onions. Amidst the chilly winter, a bowl of Hai Phong crab noodle cake with its original flavor and fresh ingredients, priced at only 30,000 VND, is a moment worth sharing with colleagues and friends. According to observation, the stall is crowded with locals, and by 6 pm, the owner has nothing left to sell.

4. Snails with Ginger Fish Sauce

A chilly winter evening without hot snails is surely a fault of the weather. Instead of the various types of seafood stalls with diverse cooking methods typical of Hai Phong, I chose a small snail stall under the only banyan tree near the entrance to the market, located on Cho Co Dao Street – from Cau Dat Street. The small stall offers only 2 types of snails cooked in 2 simple ways: stir-fried and boiled. The highlight of Northern snail dishes is the ginger fish sauce dip.

At this small stall, customers can customize their condiments such as ginger, lemongrass, chili, or lime leaves into a bowl of concentrated fish sauce, quite interesting for those with different tastes. If we overlook the relatively high prices compared to a sidewalk stall, the snails here are rich and well-prepared.

In my personal opinion, the boiled jackfruit snail dish is a standout. Dip the snail lightly in fragrant lemongrass-infused fish sauce, and simply put, it's perfection. To conclude the Northern-style snail dish, finish with a bowl of hot snail broth mixed with a bit of ginger fish sauce, refreshing, and definitely a delightful experience.

5. Hot Sweet Soup

Still feeling a bit chilly on this winter afternoon, right across from the delicious yet slightly pricey snail stall is a bustling sweet soup shop. There's the thick bean pudding, cassava sweet soup, black sesame, and the effervescent jelly. Despite knowing it's a bit of a cheat on the diet, it's hard to resist. The clientele here is diverse, from market vendors, locals living around the central area, to young friends gathering for an afternoon treat.

As the weather gets colder, everyone's craving something warm, sweet, and comforting. When we arrived at the shop, almost all the sweet soup pots were almost empty. From observation, black sesame sweet soup and effervescent jelly are the most popular here. A cousin of floating rice cake, effervescent jelly has a thin shell made from glutinous rice flour combined with fragrant black sesame or smooth mung bean and shredded coconut. The soup part of the dish is cooked from sugar cane juice and aged ginger.

Although similar in ingredients, instead of just two large balls like floating rice cake, the effervescent jelly bowl has more balls, each smaller in size, about one-third the size of a floating rice cake ball. A commendable point of the shop is that they don't use too much sugar in their cooking. The shop opens from early afternoon until sold out, and each bowl is priced at 10 – 15k VND.

With just these dishes, it's probably enough to soothe a chilly afternoon and create a memorable experience. The eateries mentioned above may not be the most famous spots, nor are they enough to encompass all the specialties associated with Hải Phòng cuisine, but they somewhat paint a picture of the culinary map of the port city – a different and interesting flavor palette.

As per Afamily

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References: Mytour Travel Guide