What do people in Da Nang eat on long rainy days?

It's raining in Da Nang this morning. It's not the usual afternoon shower that stops quickly, but rain that's been pouring since early morning, the temperature has only reached 26 degrees, and according to the forecast, it will continue through the weekend.

The official bulletin says it's more severe: Hue – Da Nang will see rain of 200 to 400 mm, with some areas over 600; natural disaster risk level 2; flooding in low-lying areas, flash floods, landslides. Wherever there is flooding, don't try to cross it. If there's nothing urgent, stay home. How the rainy season works in Central Vietnam has its own article here.

Staying home for a few days, the only thing left to figure out is what to eat. The Central Vietnamese meal tray this season has its own logic. Sorted out, there are really just three kinds.

One bowl is done

Snakehead fish thick noodle soup. Thick noodles, firm and chewy, more filling than pho noodles. Broth made from fish bones, sweet yet refreshing. And snakehead fish is a freshwater fish — even when the sea is rough for several days and sea fish become scarce, snakehead fish is still available.

Bún bò isn't as filling, but it's spicy and hot. When you're shivering cold from the pouring rain, just one spoonful warms you from the inside out.

On days when you're tired, have some porridge. Duck porridge is the most familiar version here. Cook one pot, and eat all day.

Flooded food

When the floodwaters rise over the fields, crucian carp become much more plentiful. The fish are small, with lots of tiny bones, but the meat tastes strangely sweet. Cook it into a soup with Vietnamese coriander, and add a bit of turmeric to cut the fishy smell.

Almost no restaurant sells this dish. Searching VietSpots for the exact phrase "canh cá diếc" (crucian carp soup) brings up no shops at all, while "bánh canh" or "bánh xèo" bring up dozens. It's a home-cooked dish, seasonal, and deboning the fish is a lot of work. If you want to eat it, you need someone at home to cook it for you.

A dish to sit together and share

Bánh xèo must be eaten right as it comes out of the pan. The person pouring keeps pouring, the person eating keeps rolling, the meal stretches into the whole afternoon. Rain falling in the yard, while in the kitchen the oil crackles and pops — remembering bánh xèo in the rainy season means remembering exactly that scene. How Central Vietnamese bánh xèo differs from Southern-style bánh xèo, find out in a separate article.

Hotpot is the same way, it's just a pot replacing a pan. For the past few years in Da Nang, chicken hotpot with aromatic leaves has been the most popular for this kind of weather.

Still have Quang noodles

The default dish of Da Nang, but not exactly a 'rainy day' dish. Mi Quang has very little broth, just enough to barely cover the bottom of the bowl, enough to soak into the noodles but not enough to slurp. It's a breakfast dish. A rain shelter dish is something different.

The rain will keep coming through the weekend. As for the kitchen, it doesn't need a forecast — it's long known what to cook this season.

Some food photos: Phương Huy, Chainwit., Orderinchaos, Jpatokal — Wikimedia Commons.