ホイアン３日目。カフェから戻って夕食時間までお部屋でのんびりし、ベトナムで有名なチョコレート屋さんに寄ってから夕食のレストランに行くことにしたので、少し早めの６時ごろにホテルを出ました。ホテルからチョコレート屋さんまで、１５分くらいだったでしょうか。

The 3rd day in Hoi An.  We had a little rest in our room after coming back from the cafe, and left for dinner around 6.00pm, which was much earlier than we would have left because we wanted to go to a well-known chocolate shop before dinner.   It was probably about 15 minutes to the chocolate shop.

夕食は、ホイアン名物のカオラウという麺をまだ食べていなかったのでカオラウが美味しいというお店に行くつもりでした。２つ候補があり近くだったので、どちらかがいっぱいだったらどちらかに、というつもりでいたのですが、チョコレートを買って外に出て、さてそこに行く道をグーグルマップで探そうとして、第一候補のレストランの名前がわたしも妹も思い出せず。仕方ないので覚えていた方に行くことに。

There is a noodle dish that is supposed to be a speciality of Hoi An that we hadn’t tried yet, so we looked up which restaurants were good for that.  We picked 2 places that seemed good but were going to go to one that seemed better than the other first and if it’s full we would go to the second one because they were close to each other.  After buying some chocolates I was going to find where exactly this place was then realised I could not remember the name (it was a Vietnamese name), and neither could my sister!  So we had to go to the other one that we did remember the name of – Ly.

で、歩き始めたのですが、なんだか道が暗い。さっきここ通ったけど、こんなに暗かったっけ？こんなに暗いと怖いので別の道にしようかなどと言いつつ周りを見渡しましたが、どこも暗い。停電のようでした。たくさん走っているバイクのヘッドライトとたまに自家発電があるらしいお店にライトがついていましたが、ほとんどどこも暗かったです。ベトナムは歩道ががたがたで気をつけて歩かないと危ないですし、歩道にたくさんバイクが停めてあったりお店がはみ出していたり露天の食堂のようなのがあったりで歩道だけを歩けず、車道に出たり歩道に戻ったりしながら歩かなくてはいけません。でも、車道は車もですがバイクがたくさん走るので怖いのです。ほとんど真っ暗に近い街を恐々地図を見ながら１５分から２０分くらい歩いたでしょうか。夜は涼しいとは言っても２６度あるので歩くと汗だくです。そして、あるはずの場所に着いたのですが、あるべきところにありません。その辺りを行ったり来たり、人に聞いたりしてやっと見つけました。グーグルマップが間違っていて、違う通りにありました（涙）。でも、見つかってやれやれ、でした。

So we started walking towards it looking at the Google Map on my phone but I noticed the streets were very dark. I was trying to remember if it was so dark before we went in the chocolate shop as we were actually going back to where we came from, then realised the whole town was basically in the dark other than the headlights of motorbikes, cars and some shops, which I guess had their own electricity generators.  The power was cut off in the whole town.  In Vietnam, the pedestrian pavements are very rough and dangerous to walk in as they have lots of bikes, motor bikes parked or street vendors or street eateries, you just cannot walk only on the pavement.  Naturally, the roads are also dangerous with cars and motor bikes so it’s not easy to walk.  It was quite scary to walk in the dark streets looking at the phone.  I guess we walked about 15 or 20 minutes and came to the spot where this restaurant was supposed to be but it wasn’t there!  We kept walking up and down the street, and the side street but couldn’t find it for about 10 minutes.  After asking a couple of people we finally found it in a different street from the one Google Map was showing. We were very hot, sweaty and exhausted by the time we found it.  Still, I’m glad we did.

「Ly」というお店に行ったのですが２件あって、オリジナルのお店はいっぱいのようだったのでお隣の「 Ly II 」に入りました。停電でレストランは食事を出せるのかなと心配していましたが、丁度到着した頃に停電が終わって電気がついたので助かりました。

We were going to go to “Ly” but the original one looked very full so we went to their 2nd restaurant next door “Ly II”.  As we were walking to the restaurant we were worried if they would be serving food while the power was cut off.  Fortunately, around the time when we arrived near the area, the power came back so there was no problem with food being served.

フードツアーで２つだけ食べた、ホワイトローズというワンタンっぽいもの。中にエビが入っていて、皮にはタピオカが入っているそうでむっちりした食感。フードツアーで食べたものの中で、わたしはチキンライスが一番好きでしたが、妹はこのホワイトローズが一番好きだと言っていました。甘すっぱいタレがかかっています。上にのっているのは、揚げたエシャロット。

We ordered 2 dishes.  This one is what they call “White Rose” – we’d had a couple of pieces each during the food tour.  They are dumplings filled with shrimp topped with crispy deep-fried shallots and some sweet & sour sauce.  I liked Chicken Rice best of what we’d had during the food tour but my sister liked these best.  The skin is quite chewy, different from wanton.

こちらが、カオラウという麺。上にのっているのは、ポークとレタス。ポークは甘酸っぱい味のタレにマリネして焼いてあると思います、臭みなく美味しかったです。麺はむちっとした麺で、よく日本の伊勢うどんに似ていると書かれていますが、わたしは伊勢うどんを食べたことがないので比べられません（笑）。イタリアのお料理教室で習ったピチに似ているかな？とても美味しかったです。ベトナムの麺類は基本小さなボールに出てくるのでわたしはもっと食べたかったのですが、妹が汗だくになって疲れてしまい食欲がなかったようでもう良いというので、これで終わりにしました。デザートでもと思ったのですが、ほしいものもなく。。。

The other dish we ordered is Cao Lau – a noodle dish.  Noodles are topped with some pork and lettuce.  I think the pork slices were marinated in some sweet, sour & salty marinade, they were not gamy at all, they were tender and very tasty.  The noodles were quite firm and chewy type, I think similar to Pici in Italy, and the sauce was sweet and salty; we enjoyed it very much.  In Vietnam, noodles often come in a small bowl, not really enough on its own for one person and we shared one bowl.  I would have liked some more but my sister lost her appetite because she was so hot and exhausted from walking up and down the streets.  I thought we could have at least some dessert but we didn’t find anything we fancied so this was all we had.

 

 

帰りもぶらぶらとホテルまで歩いて帰りました。

Then we walked back to the hotel.