A food-stall village built from bamboo and wood appeared on Da Nang's shore, and foreigners lined up plates in hand. In one corner of 'Enjoy Da Nang Festival 2026,' held by the city from July 22 to 26, travelers were captivated by local dishes tied to Quang Nam (the former Quang Nam Province), VietnamNet reported on July 23. The festival ended on the 26th, but the dishes that drew crowds there can be eaten year-round in Da Nang and Hoi An. The scene offers a concrete clue for thinking about 'what to eat' on a Da Nang trip.
The venue was Bien Dong Park, where foreigners filled stalls that recreated a village in bamboo
The venue is Bien Dong Park, on the seaside east of central Da Nang. Food stalls lined a space that recreated a Vietnamese village with bamboo and simple wooden furniture, and as evening came the seats filled one after another. Foreign guests peered in at the cooking and asked about ingredients before ordering. Groups called out to one another—“that one's good”—and a heat like a village fair arose. The administration's design, “to have visitors experience not just the natural scenery but the warmth and hospitality of local people,” turned nicely at the close-up stalls.
Standing out were banh xeo and nem lui, both the hands-on 'roll it yourself' kind
What stood out at the stall village were the specialties of the Quang Nam region. The headliners are banh xeo and nem lui. Banh xeo is an okonomiyaki-like dish—rice-flour batter fried thin and crisp around bean sprouts, shrimp and pork—eaten wrapped in raw vegetables with herbs and dipped in sauce. Nem lui is a skewer of seasoned pork wrapped around lemongrass stalks and grilled over charcoal, wrapped with vegetables in rice paper and eaten with a thick peanut sauce. Both are hands-on—"wrap it, dip it, eat it yourself"—which suited foreign customers ordering while asking about the ingredients. The organizers explained that "every plate has a story of its place and people," and the aim of delivering the food culture of former Quang Nam as an experience showed in the dish selection.
| Dish | What kind of dish it is | How to eat |
|---|---|---|
| Banh xeo | A thin rice-flour pancake. With shrimp, pork and bean sprouts | Wrap it in raw vegetables and herbs and dip it in sauce |
| Nem Lui | Charcoal-grilled skewers of seasoned pork | Wrapped in rice paper with a peanut sauce |
Beyond the food-stall village, mi Quang and Hoi An's cao lau await
Alongside banh xeo and nem lui, Quang Nam's signature is mi Quang. Fatter rice noodles dyed yellow with turmeric are coated in a small amount of soup and topped with shrimp, pork, boiled egg, crushed rice paper and peanuts. It's a bowl somewhere between a soup noodle and a tossed noodle, with each table finishing the flavor by adding herbs and lime. In the Da Nang and Hoi An area it's a home-style dish eaten from breakfast into midday, with specialist eateries all over town. Extend to Hoi An and you'll also meet cao lau, which can only take its true form in that place. Its distinctively springy noodles, said to be made with well water and lye, are paired with char siu–style pork, fried noodle chips and plenty of raw vegetables. Grasp these four and you have almost the whole framework of Quang Nam and Hoi An food.
Not too spicy, and wrapped in vegetables, so it suits Japanese palates
Da Nang is a beach city reachable by direct flight from Japan, but 'what to eat to taste Da Nang' is surprisingly little known. This street-food village showed the answer in the form of lines of foreign visitors. Neither banh xeo nor nem lui is too spicy, and since you roll them with vegetables, they suit Japanese palates. If you dislike cilantro, just ask for 'no herbs,' and at a stall, pointing gets the message across. Nail these down once on the first day of your trip and you'll have an axis for choosing meals afterward. Da Nang's food pleasures aren't only at the stalls;Hauling nets with fishermen at 5 a.m. and eating squid noodles on the beachcombined with it, you can make a day of seafood in the morning and local dishes at night. If festival food sparks your interest,Can Tho's food festival and a tour of the floating marketsis a similar angle.
Even after the event ends, you can eat the same two dishes anytime at the city's eateries
'Enjoy Da Nang Festival' ended its run on July 26. But the banh xeo and nem lui that lit up the food-stall village aren't special event fare -- they're staples served year-round at eateries around Da Nang and Hoi An. Many specialist shops serve them hot off the grill, so you can enjoy them more calmly than at the stalls. Go as far as Hoi An's old town and you get closer to Quang Nam home cooking. At the stalls, orders come together with pointing, simple English, and a number on a calculator, and you can ask to hold the herbs or adjust the spice. Having small cash notes on hand keeps payment smooth as you move between stalls. Next time you go to Da Nang, start the first night with these two dishes around Bien Dong Park or in Hoi An. At the same park during the same run as the food-stall village,The nighttime beach event "Sea of Light Party"was also held.
