Eating Well (Hoi An - Day 2)

After a solid school session at the hotel this morning, we headed out for lunch to a spot Sarah and I remembered fondly from our honeymoon. We certainly didn't think we'd return 13 years later, with two daughters...traveling around the world for a year!

Bale Well

In 2006, it was a few tables in an an alley with a lady cooking up delicious food. Here are a couple picks from the honeymoon archives.

The chef, who came over and showed us how it's done.

This was the chef's sister, who came over and photo bombed us. Read further, we found her today!

This time, we were happy to see they had expanded quite a bit with seating across the alley. It's become a big tourist draw with lots of mentions in guidebooks and online.

The food hadn't changed; it was exactly the same. You take some rice paper, stuff in all the goodies you see above and eat. We all had our fill, it was a big hit.

Sarah showed some of the workers the pictures above we had from 2006.The chef wasn't there today, but the sister who photo-bombed us was! She got a huge kick out of the pic and we got another pic with her today.

The Silk Route

Bellies full, it was time for a highly anticipated event...custom tailored clothes for everyone. Hoi An is the Saville Row of Vietnam with a long tradition of tailors, dating back to the days of the silk route. It has been an exciting topic of conversation for many months, with the girls thinking about designs, color, etc. You can see the entire process in Sarah's dedicated blog post here.

An Bang Beach

Just a five minute cab ride across the peninsula is An Bang beach. It’s a beautiful stretch of beach; full of resorts, restaurants and crowds (from what we hear). We decided to check it out at dusk and have a quick drink by the water. It turned out to be a great time to check it out, my guess is that everyone staying here was watching the evening arrive a few minutes away in Hoi An, which is also the direction of the sunset.

We cruised the beach a bit, and then walked up to Soul Kitchen for a drink. Paige & Sadie chose sauteed morning glory, basically this part of the world's spinach, to share - we were proud foodie parents. They’ve been happily eating morning glory frequently on this stretch of the trip.

The girls ran down on the beach while Sarah and I had a drink, while we discussed where we want to live when we return - still true, we have no idea. No conclusion reached! I did bring up...how do we make this our life vs just one year...hehe.

Nomads enjoying a beer on the beach, not bad.

Japan Flexes it Culinary Muscle

We headed back into Hoi An for dinner. The girls were jonesing for a change of cuisine and requested Japanese. I found Samurai Kitchen with a quick google search. The attention to detail when we entered from the menu, attentiveness of the staff, cleanliness...I knew from all my Japanese experience, this place was the real deal. No American “Chicken Teriyaki” or “California Rolls” on this menu; just food you'll actually find in Japan!

Her head may explode when we're eating Ramen in Japan.

I dare say, this was one of the best Japanese meals I’ve had outside Japan. It got us super pumped for next April when we plan to spend three weeks exploring Japan (see our itinerary here).

Paige Traveling Souvenir

On the walk home, we came across a painter on the street. The girls were enthralled and Paige spoke up that she wanted one of his drawings for her room next year, wherever that may be. Sadly we didn’t get of the pic of the one she got, but it was a “Friendship” one. It's general message was that distance does not preclude friendships; very appropriate :) That will be headed back in a shipment of momentos for our return.

Today was a great day on the Global Subway!