Seven dishes, six kitchens, no night market
Duong Dong has a night market built for visitors and a set of back streets where the island actually eats. This walk spends four hours in the second one and about eleven minutes in the first.
At a glance
- Duration
- Four hours, 17:30 - 21:30
- Group
- Maximum 6
- Starts
- Meeting point in Duong Dong, or hotel pick-up
- Ends
- Duong Dong harbour, we drop you back
- Difficulty
- Easy, 2.5 km on flat streets
- From
- USD 32 per person
What you actually eat
Seven dishes across six kitchens, each of which makes one thing and has made it for between nine and thirty years. That is the selection rule: a kitchen with a menu is a restaurant, and a restaurant is not what this walk is for.
| Dish | What it is | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Bun quay | The island noodle soup, with a dip you mix yourself at the table | A back lane off Tran Hung Dao |
| Banh khot | Small turmeric rice pancakes with prawn, eaten in herbs | Old quarter, a doorway kitchen |
| Nem nuong | Grilled pork sausage rolled at the table with rice paper | Same street, one door along |
| Goi ca trich | Raw herring salad with coconut, onion and roasted rice | Market edge, after dark |
| Muc nuong | Squid grilled over charcoal with a green chilli sauce | Harbour street |
| Oc len xao dua | Sea snails in coconut milk, eaten with a toothpick | Harbour street, same row |
| Che | Sweet soup with beans, jelly and coconut cream, hot or iced | Dessert lane |
Portions are deliberately small at the first four stops and larger at the harbour. People routinely tell us afterwards that they were not sure it would be enough food and then could not finish the squid. Come hungry but not starving.
The evening, hour by hour
| Time | What happens | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 17:30 | Meet, first noodle stop while the light is still up | Tran Hung Dao |
| 18:30 | Two pancake and grill stops, back to back | Old quarter |
| 19:15 | Herring salad, and the sauce conversation | Market edge |
| 19:45 | Eleven minutes in the night market, to explain why we do not eat there | Bach Dang |
| 20:15 | Squid and sea snails on the harbour front | Harbour street |
| 21:00 | Dessert, and the boats leaving for the night | Dessert lane |
| 21:30 | Walk back or hotel drop | Duong Dong |
The eleven minutes in the night market is not a joke. It is a genuinely interesting place to look at and a bad place to eat, for reasons your guide will explain while standing in it, and we would rather show you that than tell you to avoid somewhere you were going to visit anyway.
Day by day
Duong Dong after dark - six kitchens on foot
We meet at 17:30 in Duong Dong, or collect you from a Long Beach or Ong Lang hotel from 17:00. The walk is a loop of about 2.5 kilometres with long sitting stops, so the actual walking is fifteen minutes at a time.
The first stop is bun quay, which is the one dish genuinely particular to this island: a clear-broth noodle soup with fish and squid paste, where the seasoning is not in the bowl but in a dip you mix yourself from salt, sugar, chilli, lime and MSG at the table. Every Vietnamese person mixes it differently and has an opinion about it. It is the best possible introduction to how food works here.
From about 20:15 we are on the harbour front, where the squid boats tie up and the grills are set up beside them. This is the part of the evening people remember: charcoal, plastic stools, boats leaving with their deck lamps already burning, and sea snails that take longer to eat than they do to cook.
Prices
| Group size | Shared, per person | Private, whole group |
|---|---|---|
| 1 traveller | USD 58 | USD 58 |
| 2 travellers | USD 44 | USD 96 |
| 3 - 4 | USD 36 | USD 152 |
| 5 - 6 | USD 32 | USD 198 |
The vegetarian route costs the same and swaps the herring salad, squid and snails for banh xeo, a mushroom and tofu grill and a second dessert. Tell us when you book, not on the night - two of these kitchens cook nothing vegetarian and we substitute a seventh kitchen instead. See the prices page for how this compares with our other days.
What the price includes
- A guide for the whole evening, in English
- Seven dishes at six kitchens, all portions included
- One local beer, iced tea or soft drink
- Drinking water and wet wipes, which you will want
- Transfers within Duong Dong, Long Beach and Ong Lang
- The visit fee we pay each kitchen so that no stop depends on you buying more
What it does not include
- Additional alcohol
- Anything you order beyond the seven dishes
- Travel insurance
- Tips
- Pick-up beyond the standard zone, USD 8 per person
Gallery
Who this evening is not for
- Anyone who will not eat from a street kitchen. That is a completely reasonable position and it makes this walk pointless.
- People with a serious shellfish allergy. Four of the seven dishes involve prawn, squid or snail, and the kitchens share woks. We can adapt but we cannot promise no cross-contact, and we will say so rather than take your money.
- Groups larger than six. We have tried eight and the kitchens are physically too small - people end up standing on the road.
- Anyone who wants a comfortable seat. Everything is plastic stools at low tables, except one stop with proper chairs.
- Travellers who need dinner at a fixed hour. We arrive when the kitchens are at their best, which is not always exactly on the schedule above.
Questions travellers ask most
Will there be enough food for dinner, or should we eat afterwards?
This is dinner. Seven dishes with the harbour portions at the end defeats most people, and we have stopped adding an eighth because the plates were coming back full.
If you are a big eater, say so on the night and the guide will order extra at the squid stop, which you pay for directly and it is inexpensive.
Is the raw herring salad safe?
It is cured in lime and vinegar rather than served truly raw, which is the same principle as ceviche, and the fish were landed that morning. It is the dish Phu Quoc is known for on the mainland.
If you are pregnant or would rather not, tell the guide and you get a grilled version instead. Nobody will make anything of it.
Can children come?
From about seven years old, yes, and it works well - there is grilled pork, rice paper rolls and dessert, and children like mixing the bun quay dip.
Under seven the 21:30 finish is the problem rather than the food. Ask us about a private early version that starts at 17:00 and finishes by 20:00.
Why do you not eat in the night market?
Because it is priced for visitors and cooks for volume, and because the seafood tanks at the front are the most common source of the bill disputes we hear about.
We walk through it, we explain how it works, and then we go and eat somewhere the island eats. If you want to go back later on your own you will be better armed for it.
Read next
Tell us what you want out of the island
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.