Hoi An dining

A few expats have told us that the best food in Vietnam comes from the central area, including around Hoi An. So we were pretty excited to go try the local delicacies, including 'cau lao' - a type of doughy noodle with salad and pork (I had the vegetarian version), fried wontons (different to the more typical, Chinese-style wonton) and 'white rose' - prawns in rice paper with some secret ingredients, only one family in the town knows how to make them. They were all really, really good. Plus Hoi An is full of restaurants and bars serving Western food, beers, wine and cocktails. We gorged ourselves at the Cargo Club which, as well as having awesome restaurant food upstairs, had a huge selection of cakes and ice-cream downstairs. While we were at Hoi An we had a few days of unseasonal constant, drizzly rain, and although it wasn't great weather for sight-seeing, it was perfect weather for sitting in a cafe, drinking hot tea and coffee and sampling a variety of dishes on the menu. Bon appetit!

 An old house converted into a restaurant, located along the riverfront.

 The same restaurant as above. Dan had a few glasses of 'fresh beer' here (we think that means beer that is brewed daily). One glass of fresh beer cost about 7,000 dong (about 30-40cents).

 A local specialty - fish grilled in banana leaf. Check out the teeth on the fish! And that crazed looking eye.

 Dan inside the Yellow Flower restaurant (also on the riverfront).

We did a cooking class at the Yellow Flower restaurant, Dan is frying some vegetables to go in fresh (as opposed to fried) vegetarian spring rolls and Marcus is cooking thin strips of pork to make Cau Lao.

Tam Tam Cafe, We spent a wet morning here eating burgers and toasted sandwiches (I had a tomato and cheese toasted sandwich with two different types of cheese! Amazing - we can't even get cheese in Soc Trang!) and drinking coffee. Then, when the rain refused to let up, we shared a pot of tea and a slice of black forest cake. Not a bad way to wait for the rain to ease.