Vietnam $10 Street Food Challenge!! NON-STOP Vietnamese Food Tour in Hội An!

Welcome to Chopstick Travel, I'm Luke Martin and today I'm in Vietnam, more specifically the central city of Hoi An. This is a foodie's paradise and today we're going to find out how much does it cost to eat non-stop street food in Hoi An. We're going to be eating at least 7 or 8 different street foods and find out just how cheap street food here in Vietnam really is. Let's go! So what I have right here is called Si Ma, it's a black sesame kind of dessert that's famous here in Hoi An. We're having it for breakfast. This woman just sat on the side of the road here, she's got a big bucket full of it and she'll just sell until she's totally sold out from about 6am maybe till about 11am. And this is something that's really famous here in Hoi An, it's definitely reminiscent of like a Cantonese black sesame soup but just look at the blackness of that, it's so rich and dark and super creamy. Let me try this out. Lovely. Piping piping hot. Oh no, it just got so cold. It is a super rainy day here in Hoi An. At least this isn't warming me up because that was freezing cold water. It's super super creamy. Really thick, strong sesame flavor, not like super sweet but a little bit sweet. And she'll be cooking this from like 3am over wood fire, that's how you know it's good when they cook it over the wood fire and start in the middle of the night. Yum. It's delicious. Now I understand why it sells for generations because even it looks simple, but it's super delicious and super healthy. Love it. It's called Xi Ma, which sounds a lot like He Ma, which is dog s*** in Thai. Minx shaking her head no, I shouldn't say that on camera. Do I have any on my teeth? That was really really good. It's definitely different than the Cantonese version, it's less sweet, more suitable for breakfast and let's see how much that was. Okay, thank you. It's a 50, 70, 80, so it's 10,000 for one bowl. Super cheap. Let's keep going. It is a super rainy day here in Hoi An but we're doing our best to take you guys for a full on non-stop street food tour here in Hoi An. That was a really delicious and cheap Xi Ma. Quite unique, definitely not the typical Vietnamese street food you might think of, so next we're taking you for something a lot more famous. It's the iconic Banh Mi. So Hoi An is definitely not the birthplace of the Banh Mi, but it's very very famous here in Hoi An. They say maybe the best bread is here in Hoi An. So Banh Mi, quintessential Vietnamese sandwich with the influence from the French with the baguette. And this place is called Banh Mi Sum. I ordered up their barbeque version, so it's got like an egg sauce, almost looks like custard. They put a little bit of pate, some lettuce, papaya, cucumber, and then the barbeque pork in there. And then they actually kind of bake it in the oven with a little bit of a charcoal grill to it so it comes out toasty, toasty warm and this is the final result. Beautiful baguette. It's actually a little bit sweet. Nice barbeque pork in there and sometimes you get a Banh Mi and it's like really kind of stale old bread and it just kind of crumbles. Not this one, it's super fresh, a little crispy still, but really good. That pate is amazing. It's just a really good sandwich. Sometimes when we're in other countries, I wish that I could have a local dish that had bread, like a sandwich like this, because sometimes you get a little sick of eating rice and noodles all the time here in Southeast Asia. So it's just such a nice treat to have a sandwich, which is still very local here in Vietnam. 30,000 Vietnamese Dong for one Banh Mi, that's just over one US dollar. How can Subway even imagine they could compete in this country? There's no way with a Banh Mi this good for that price. Definitely the best Banh Mi I've ever had in my life. That was amazing. So we're going to keep venturing into the old town of Hoi An, see what else we can find. The old town here in Hoi An is definitely touristy, but super beautiful. You've got a real kind of mix of the colonial architecture and the temples, the local architecture. You've got lots of tourists, but you've also got a really authentic Vietnamese culture mixed into it, so I wouldn't say it's been spoiled by tourism whatsoever. It's still really authentic. It's the South Street. Where are you from, lady? Thailand. Thailand? Yeah. Oh my gosh. She's from Canada. You know, the first time I met the Vietnamese, so you don't understand. I think, oh. Everybody thinks you're Vietnamese. Yeah. I think because we have neighbor's country, so we look the same. Because you have girlfriend, very beautiful. Yes. Sure. Easy. Very beautiful. This is like Cao Lau, right? Right. Why you know it's Cao Lau? I know. Okay. Thank you. This. Yeah. Help please. What is the name? This one or my name? Your name. Ba Bai. Yeah. Ba Bai Ban Biao. Ban Biao. So she's serving Ban Biao. It's like a tapioca rice flour starch that's on the bottom of this little cup. And then she's put some sauce on top. There's some shallots. And this is the Cao Lau noodles, which is very famous. We'll try it later. Deep fried. And then I got to put a little bit of this spicy fish sauce on top. And this is something you must try here in Hoi An. It's very famous. Also in the city of Hue. But this one's a little bit different style. So let's try it. It's a little bit on the sweet side. And the really crunchy noodle on the top. You can see the tapioca starch on the bottom. There's rice in tapioca. It's really good. It's sweeter than I was expecting. A nice little snack. What an atmosphere just sitting right on the side of the road. Very, very friendly vendor here too. Your mother started this 35 years ago? Yeah. Wow, delicious. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's all about that sauce. It's kind of like a sweet chili sauce. And I love the crunchy Cao Lau on top too. It's almost got the texture of chicharron. But it's not. It's not pork. It's noodles. They're really good. A little bit of a spice because of that sauce that I added. But without it, it wouldn't be spicy at all. It's actually more sweet. I think it's like eating like a dumpling with this special kind of sauce. And the cracker. Just make it like a perfect combination. And you know what? This is like a good snack that you want to have between meals. Because it's not too heavy. It's light and it's good. Yum. Yeah, like Minh said, it's almost like the texture of a dumpling. But without any filling. All the filling is actually just on the top. All the flavors of that sauce. So this is the sweet? Yeah, the sweet. You know the sweet has a little sugar with the brown color. Brown sugar. Okay. So she's actually got another version that's a little bit sweet. It's got brown sugar in the bun. Like in the actual tapioca rice flour. There's a little bit of brown sugar. Let's try it. See if it's any sweeter than the last one. The last one was a little bit sweet too. Oh yeah. Oh, that's really nice too. Honestly, it'd be good if you put like a... You could put like a sweet sauce on top of it. Like you could put like a syrup or something on top of it. It'd taste really good too. But it's also very good with the regular topping. Just a little bit sweeter than the last one. Even though the last one's sweet too. Good serve. Just a little warm. The sweet, I don't get it. Thank you. It's 20,000. For the four? 20,000? Yes. And the 5,000 for one. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's delicious. Yeah, thank you. So 20,000 đồng for four of the bánh bèo. And she gave me an extra one for free. Just because she wanted me to try the sweet version. Super kind. People here in Vietnam are just extremely friendly. So this next stop is a real back alley hidden gem. Super local spot for Hội An's famous chicken rice. This book's called Khom Ga An Chi. And you can see one plate of chicken rice. 25,000 đồng. So $1 about, US dollars, for this huge plate of chicken rice. Which Hội An is famous for. So the beautiful yellow steamed rice which has been made with all those chicken juices. Served with some herbs on the side. Of course the chicken. And go for a squeeze of lemon. I see lots of onions on there as well. And then it's also served with a side of soup. Which has got the, I see blood. I see different innards of the chicken. And I'll just take a little bit of that. Put it over here on my chicken rice. And try some of this. Smells so good. It's a really simple dish. That you can find pretty much all across Asia. The chicken rice. Usually just boiled or steamed chicken. But really the flavor has been concentrated into the rice. Sometimes they mix a little bit of ginger in there. It's a very aromatic rice. And that soup gave it all kinds of flavor. Let's just try some of the soup by itself. Yeah. That's just like pure chicken soup. In such a local spot. Look at the motorbikes coming by. I haven't seen any tourists. This is the first stop that I haven't seen any tourists here. Lots of locals. Let's try it with some of this chili here. With chili on the table. A really deep red chili. Some of this all over it. It's like a chili bean paste. It's actually kind of a sweet chili flavor. But slow burn for sure. I just love the rice. The rice is full of flavor. So I think I found a blot here. I think it's chicken blot. Put it on the rice with a little bit of soup. Actually, this is a good blot. Because I can't taste any bloody thing on it. It's good and the soup is a little bit sour. Really cheap. Really filling. Really local. Keep going. Alright. Another dessert. Spotted this lady here. She's got all kinds of different... It looks like this one is probably mung beans maybe. Some type of bean. Really sticky. And then another one back here. I'm not totally sure what everything is. But it looks really cool and delicious. And then we got red bean over here. Red bean. And then this one on top too. The white one. So it's just kind of like a sticky, gooey mixture. She's got it over here. Take a look. Oh, cool. So let's try this out. I'm not sure. What do you call this? Chè. Okay. Chè. Okay, I'm just kind of mixing everything up. This is my first time I'm ever going to try chè. Vietnamese dessert from this sweet lady here with a really cool street food stall. Try it out. Non-stop food tour in Hoi An. Very good. Oh, very good. It's actually not super sweet at all. It's got such a gloopy, gooey texture. Look at that. Super sticky. I can taste some coconut in there. I feel like I can taste some pandan. Definitely red bean. And it's served warm. Very good. And very warming on a cold, rainy day in Hoi An. Thank you so much. Nong. That's awesome. Not sweet whatsoever. I thought it was going to be super sweet, but it's not. Alright, my turn. It's not too sweet. This is like the perfect sweet that I like because I can say that in Thailand, when you eat dessert, it's all super sweet and it makes the taste of dessert go away. But when it comes to not sweet like this, it's good because we can taste the real taste of each ingredient. The more I'm eating it, it's like the more flavors I'm kind of uncovering. I feel like I can taste some sort of mintiness in there, which is really unique. And what an experience, just under this little umbrella here and sitting on these stools that are like half a shin high with a very... Everyone here is so friendly. I had really no idea what this was before we sat down, but she just was like, mix and we said yes and we got everything. So, it's awesome. And teaching me free Vietnamese lessons with my chè. Nong. I don't know if I'm saying it right. I don't even know what I'm saying, but I think she's teaching me how to say delicious. Nong. How much? Twenty. Twenty? Twenty. Nong. Cảm ơn. Thank you so much. Cảm ơn. Cảm ơn. Delicious. Alright, let's keep going. Non-stop food tour. Actually, the most famous of all the dishes you must try in Hoi An is Cao Lau, which is a braised pork noodle. So, they braise the pork, slow cooking it overnight, like 12 hours and it's just a simple noodles with some bean sprouts and then that beautiful braised pork and then some of these crunchy crackers on top and it's very, very simple but you can add all kinds of fresh herbs which are accompanied on the side here. So, I'm just going to throw in all kinds of stuff here. Whatever it all is, just throw it in. Squeeze a little lime on top as well and there's some really famous places to try Cao Lau here in Hoi An. This place is called Cao Lau Lien. It's a little bit more local, a little bit more my style than some of the touristier ones. Let's try out the famous Hoi An Cao Lau. Just a simple but delicious bowl of noodles. They're really thick noodles, almost like an udon, like a Japanese udon and then it's definitely leaning on the sweeter side once again. Beautiful braised pork, very tender, just falls apart in your mouth and then you've got all those fresh herbs in there as well. You've got like a piece of fat and then a nice lean piece of meat. Some of the Cao Lau here is a lot fattier but this spot's got a real nice lean meat to it. That's so good. Okay, I've just been notified that I missed a key ingredient here, the chili sauce. Spice it up a little bit, give that a mix. I'm guessing it looks similar to the chili sauce that was served at that chicken rice place. So maybe it's like the chili bean and then there's all kinds of fresh herbs in there. I think I tasted some lemon basil and it's just so, so good. It's a little bit sour too, which I love. I love my noodles to be a little sour. I think she put some vinegar in there. It's so good. Just pack in these herbs too. Oh my god. Cao Lau Lien. You can find that information down in the description box. Okay, so the orders just tell us that these two right here, this one is a noodle and this one also are noodles. And I found it really goes well with a little bit tiny of the soup and when it absorbs the soup, it tastes... This is going to be one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes. Really solid bowl of noodles just hits the spot. Everything tastes just like homemade, home-cooked. Even the noodles, home-made. And they don't have any menu. It's only one item that they have, the Cao Lau. So let's go find out how much the Cao Lau costs. How much? 80. 80? 2 Cao Lau, 80. 40 for one? Yes. So that's 40,000 Dong for one bowl. Honestly, I think that was the most expensive thing so far today. It's still like less than $2. So super cheap. Keep going. Non-stop food tour. Let's see how much we pay today. So finally, finally the rain has sort of let off but honestly now I see everyone putting their umbrellas back up. It looks like it just started up again. But there is a really popular place to get a herbal drink, a herbal tea that's called Mot. And it's really popular with the tourists. Everyone just wants to take a picture in front of it honestly because it's a beautiful restaurant. And their drink is beautiful too. It's kind of given to you with this leaf and a little flower in there and a bamboo straw. I'm not really sure what herbs are in it but let's try it out. It's really popular. It's a little sour, a little bit sweet. I feel like I can taste cinnamon in it. Actually, yeah. It's kind of like a cinnamon-y aftertaste. Almost like a Christmas tea. Perfect because Christmas is coming up in just a couple days now. So this one is only $16,000. Ah, super refreshing. So our first drink of the day. And I'm not keeping count on how much we've spent so far but I'm guessing it is going to be a cheap day even though I think this is our 7th stop of the day. It's so cheap here. It's so good. Turns out the rain might have been a blessing in disguise because now that it's stopped raining, there are just so many tourists. All with matching blue ponchos too. I would have lost you if you wore a blue poncho today. I know. I would like perfectly blend in with one of the family members. I'd never see you again. So we are absolutely stuffed after our day of eating but we want to eat at least one more thing tonight. So we're going to take a little bit of a break and do something that you must do here in Hoi An. And it is to go out on the river in one of these boats that have the colourful lantern. So we're going to go rent a boat and go for a little cruise. This is really relaxing. Lucky that today it's not raining as yesterday and the day before. So we had a good chance to sit on this boat looking at the beautiful view. And we ate a lot of food today. But I can say one thing that everybody, every local, they are all friendly to us. Everyone is nice. So I fell in love with Hoi An. Yeah, definitely something you must do in Hoi An is take the boat out on the river at night. And even though there's tons of tourists, it actually kind of makes the atmosphere even more beautiful because there's so many boats and they all have these colourful lanterns that just light up the water. And it's sort of amazing that Hoi An realized that if they cover the whole city in these colourful lanterns that tourists will want to come and take photos. So it really kind of draws in the crowds. One thing I don't think I really agree with though is these takeaway lunch boxes that people are throwing into the water with their candles lit. I wouldn't really recommend that. I don't know if they go at the end of the day and clean them up. I hope so. But this is really a city you should visit in Vietnam. It's the perfect blend between you've got authentic, delicious street food and culture and then you've also got all kinds of awesome tourist-friendly modern amenities. Definitely visit Hoi An. Love it. That was a magical boat ride. Very beautiful. And I can't say I've built up an appetite but I am going to go for one more food today because this is a non-stop Hoi An street food tour. We're sitting down for barbeque and this lovely woman here is going to teach me how to eat thịt cuốn, barbeque. So she's got rice paper and then another steamed rice paper. Okay. Kind of stick them on like that. And then add in your veggies. Cucumber, lettuce and then one of the freshly grilled skewers. Okay. Alright, so you make a little wrap. She's done this plenty of times before, I can tell. And then dip in the sauce, yeah? Yeah, dip. Okay. Thank you. And it's like a peanut chili sauce. Oh yes, this looks amazing. Super smoky. Peanut, a little chili, sitting right on the side of the road. Wow. What an experience. Thank you. Oh my god, that's really, really delicious barbeque. Super smoky. I'm going to try to make one myself after her demonstration. So yeah, this is like an uncooked rice paper and then this is like a cooked rice paper. She kind of just kind of plastered it on there. Yeah. And it comes off like that. And then even with the veggies, cucumbers and there's, it's not just lettuce but there's herbs in there as well. Lots of stuff. Just pack it full. And then grab one of the skewers. These are pork skewers by the way. And wrap it up. I think I did pretty good. And then slide it right off. Is that what she did, I think? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Oh, I lost a little piece of meat. That's alright. And this sauce is what it's all about. Beautiful peanut chili sauce. Yeah. Ocean of flavor. Amazing. Like that? Everything? Roll it up. Okay. We can share it. Okay, so for the set here there's 10 different skewers and it's 100,000 dong. So the most expensive thing we had today but still really amazing value. So let me go through everything we had today and how much it cost. So we started this morning with the shima, the black sesame soup for 10,000 for one bowl. Second, we had the banh mi which was 30,000 dong. After that we had the banh beo, the little steamed cakes and that was 20,000 for four pieces. After that we had the chicken rice. The chicken rice was 25,000. And then we had the dessert, the che. And that was 20,000 for one bowl. Then we went and had the khao lau. That was 40,000 for a bowl. And then the herbal drink at Mott for 16,000. And then finally we have our barbecue tonight for 100,000. So let's calculate that and see how much we spent today. 16,000 plus 100,000 equals 261,000 dong. So that's eight different spots that we stopped at. Eight different foods that we tried today and the total price in U.S. dollars just under $11. $10.76 USD for eight different foods today. We went crazy nonstop and we ate as much as we could and that's literally all we spent. So there you have it guys. For around 10 U.S. dollars you can eat nonstop here in Hoi An. That's the price for one person. The food today was delicious. What was your favorite thing, Ming? I have to give it to khao lau. I love the noodles and the braised pork. It's good. I gotta give it up for that bánh mì earlier. That bánh mì was incredible. But honestly that barbecue, everything today was awesome. Good. Make sure if you haven't already, subscribe and hit the bell icon so you get notified. We have a lot more videos coming from Vietnam. We're on a whole tour here in Vietnam so stay tuned and we'll see you guys on the next episode of Chopstick Travel. Bye.