Nha Trang is a place of favorable terrain, mild climate, and beautiful landscapes. This is the reason why Nha Trang City becomes a wonderful land, which attracts people from everywhere to travel and to inhabit also. Nha Trang cuisine expresses clearly the mixture of culture of Vietnamese around the country. However, in that diverse blend, Nha Trang cuisine still remains its own features. In a trip to Nha Trang, my friend took me to enjoy two among those features: jellyfish noodle soup and fish soup.
The restaurant we chose was named Min restaurant at 170 Bach Dang Street. My friend told me that the restaurant had decades of history and is one of the most famous one for jellyfish noodle soup. It was clean and simply arranged, but totally was not an ideal place for romantic confidences. It was, however, a perfect place for enjoying the jellyfish noodle soup. The vermicelli was spotless white; jelly was transparent like crystal, combined with some slices of mackerel and yellow fried fishes. The fragrance of green onions along with herring sauce made the soup very “Nha Trang”.
My friend warned me that Nha Trang food might be fishy because its ingredients were mainly seafood. Therefore, local people there are used to peppers, even children. Therefore, I had a chance to try the spicy sauce of Nha Trang. It was perfect for the soup. Only with VND 30 thousand, I enjoyed one of the most well known dishes there, low in cholesterol, good for waistline and even the environment, according to my friend’s words.
In the second morning of Nha Trang trip, my friend continued to take me to another restaurant famous for the fish soup. The restaurant located at 14 Phan Chu Trinh was simply designed like any street food stall in Hanoi. There were two popular dishes there. One was the fish soup and the other was fried fish. I tried the former. The most special ingredient of the dish was broth. Adding some peppers, chilies and lemon, I had a steaming bowl of the fish cake soup which was the perfect combination of sweetness, spiciness and sourness. The soup was so delicious that I even eat two bowls. But the price was reasonable, only VND 36 thousands for two bowls.
In addition to two aforementioned specialties, I also had the opportunity to try seafood of Nha Trang. Seafood restaurant along the coast of Nha Trang were so substantial. It can be said, seafood was an indispensible part of Nha Trang cuisine. I tried roasted squids, roasted fishes, boiled shrimps and steamed crabs. All were fresh and carried full of flavor of Nha Trang Beach.