One-Well Noodle · Hội An Exclusive
Cao Lầu
Photo: Dragfyre / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Local legend holds the noodles genuinely cannot be replicated anywhere else — the recipe is said to call for water from one specific centuries-old well and ash from a tree that only grows on an island off the coast.
Thick, chewy rice noodles — alkalized until they take on a faint smokiness — are topped with sliced pork, fresh greens, bean sprouts, and crunchy pork cracklings, dressed with just a few spoonfuls of dark broth rather than swimming in soup. Hội An's Old Town stalls have served it this way for generations.
Why it's made this way: Tradition holds that the noodles must be alkalized with water from the ancient Bá Lễ well and ash leached from plants on the nearby Cham Islands; the legend itself says this is why cao lầu is rarely found outside the vicinity of Hội An, a town shaped for centuries by Cham and international trade.
More from Vietnam
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.