Following the well-tread steps of the tourist trail, we headed to Hoi An, a town that seems to hold as many foreign visitors as lanterns... and it has a lot of lanterns. It's not hard to see why the crowds flock to Hoi An, though, and only part of it is its reputation for inexpensive overnight tailoring. In the evenings when the tailor shops close and the constant brum brum brums of the motorbikes die down, the old town is lit with lanterns, and the yellow walls, wood panels, and green palms glow with charm from every corner. Hoi An is also close to the beautiful and sadly damaged ruins of My Son, which we visited, and the beach, which we unfortunately did not.

Hoi An is famed for a few local dishes, including cao lầu (above), shrimp dumplings called white roses, and mì quảng noodles. Cao lầu isn't cao lầu unless it is made with water from the local well, but I wouldn't mind adapting this dish of rice noodles, veggies, meat and fried rice croutons for my kitchen, well-water or not. We sampled each of these dishes multiple times, and enjoyed them every time, but especially at Truc Vien restaurant, where we also had some awesome fried wontons. Who knew that stir-fried veggie topping was what was missing from fried wontons?! We had several dishes in Hoi An that followed the same principle of something crisp topped with something flavorful, generally with toasted rice sheets studded with sesame providing the crisp, and either a stir-fry or a dressed salad providing the flavor.

Speaking of salads, we've had some good ones in Vietnam, including several that have demystified the banana flower for me. The banana flower salad that I attempted back in May is looking a little bit like a joke compared to ones I've now eaten and made, although the recipe is still technically correct, I suppose. Check out these examples:

The key is shredding, rather than just chopping, the banana flower, and marinating, well before use, it in a vinegar-based dressing to cut the sap and enhance the crispness of the shredded flower. In the markets, the flower is often sold pre-shredded and marinated.

I also took a cooking class in Hoi An, at the well-known Red Bridge Cooking School. The deluxe course included a trip to a local farming village that is incentivized by the government to continue traditional and organic farming methods, where we saw a huge variety of herbs and vegetables growing, and a stop at a small market to pick up a few ingredients. While we've seen a lot of markets at this point, I still learn something new each time I enter one, especially if it's with a teacher. This time I picked up a couple new kinds of produce, and this dessert: sweetened lentil paste. It tastes exactly like it sounds, but somehow much better than you would expect. Maybe I have acquired a taste for bean-based desserts.

The class itself covered making rice noodles, phở, the salad above on the right, and several other dishes, all in an open-air cooking pavilion that would put most of the resorts I've seen to shame (ok, I'm not a resort-frequenter, but still!) Our teacher was charming and helpful, too. I can't help but join the throngs that already recommend this school.

From Hoi An, we moved on to Saigon. Saigon reminded me a little of LA, low-slung and unabashed, with its moments of beauty made all the more wonderful by being hard-fought from the pavement, heat and bustle. Saigon was good place to wrap up our experience with Vietnamese cuisine, and we were able to try a few things we had missed up to that point (although it would take years to truly sample all the deliciousness that the country has to offer.)

One of the things we finally got around to trying in Saigon was the Vietnamese sweet soup, chè. Chè can be made with almost infinite variations, and the one above has, if I remember correctly, mung bean, peanut, flour noodles and coconut milk. While this is one of the Vietnamese dishes that is perhaps farthest from the American palate, which doesn't usually favor dessert soups, doesn't prize exotic textures, and rarely admires the bean as a sweet, I think it is more accessible than it sounds. The rich coconut milk and smooth but firm bean bits are really very satisfying. If you like bubble tea, this is the next step. Also on the sweet side of things, Greg pointed out that the sodas in Vietnam are the best we've had anywhere. The coke seems gingerier, the Lipton is lime-flavored (don't be convinced by the word "lemon" on the can - around here that means lime) and not overly sweet, and the Mirinda Sarsi is sarsaparilla on steroids.

What about the phở? As I mentioned, I had been noticing some variations in the pho as we traveled, and while four cities is hardly enough to define a trend, I am pretty sure that I can at least say that most of the phở I've had in the US comes from southern Vietnam (not surprising, I suppose!) Until we got to Saigon, I only saw phở with "regular" cuts of beef, like tenderloin. Most pho restaurants I've seen in the US offer đặc biệt, or "special" phở, which features cuts like tendon, brisket and tripe, and this version was readily available in Saigon. Another difference was with the toppings, which seemed to grow more varied as we moved south, with some exceptions. Toppings we saw included Thai and regular basil, Vietnamese mint, sawtooth coriander, mint, raw onion, green onion, chilies, pickled shallots, garlic and chilies, and fried shallots. The final variation was the broth, which was simply different at every restaurant, with no clear regional trends. Nevertheless, the broth is the heart of the phở. The perfect phở for me includes a gigantic pile of herbs, raw onion, soft beef tendon and tripe, and a dollop of hot sauce, but all these accessories are nothing without a rich, deep beef broth for their bright flavors and chewy textures to play against. Some of the best broths were at Truc Vien and Red Bridge - both were rich and beefy, without being overly salty,with the latter incorporating a variety of spices.