There are two dishes I always keep eating every time I go back there!
Raw fish salad with dip sauce made from roasted peanut and grilled squid!
Raw fish salad (or gỏi cá suốt)
I remember when I tried it for the first time at Dũng Sử, probably back in late 1990s!
Talking about Dũng Sử (the name of the owner & restaurant!) I could be a "historic witness".
I met the owner, when his place was very small, opposite the beach. He said that he was forced to move around, finally he had to set down his quite poor-looking eatery in the foothills.
We loved so much his raw fish salad, we even ordered to take it back to Sài gòn. Later Dũng Sử probably got the permission from the local authorities to open a bigger restaurant right on the beach.
I loved that place, esp. when I've been there 6,7 years ago. We were sitting like right on the sea, a fantastic view to the blue ocean shining in the sun!
His restaurant was expanded, very crowded, I met him again, a satisfied, happy man! The restaurant next to Dũng Sử - Cây Bàng was not able to compete in any aspect!
Until one day, the local authorities decided to widen the road, to clean up the beach...Dũng Sử has gone! Cây Bàng still there as the only monopoly in that area! But unfortunately Cây Bàng is one of the worst restaurants in Mũi Né. My friends and myself have very bad experience with this place: from the poor service to the very bad foods that they serve.
Anyway back to the raw fish salad, in Vietnamese I heard different versions: gỏi cá suốt, or gỏi cá mai or cá đục! I have no idea what kind of fish here, but it's raw!
It's spicy because it's topped with chili and roasted peanut. I love the sauce. The dip sauce made from ground roasted peanut mixed with something else,very tasty! I even drink it!
Wrap the fish with rice paper, some herbs and veggies, cucumber, start fruit, shredded green mango...
and dip to the sauce. I really have no idea how to prepare this sauce. I'm sure the roasted ground peanut is one of key ingredients, chili, sugar ...but I wonder is it fish sauce base? Anyway very tasty, as I said, I even drink it - the leftover!
I don't know how to describe the taste! It's very good! I already told you I tried this dish long ago, but every time I come back to Mui Ne, I try it again and again.
Grilled dired-for-one-sunny-day squid!
My second favorite is grilled squid! Here we call "mực một nắng" (literally means dried-for-one-sunny-day squid!). It's simple as we just grill, and dip it in chili sauce!
The good thing here the squid is very fresh, sweet, chewy, nice texture! It's like a kind of snack that you never get bored, keep eating, eating...with friends! Now in Sài gòn you can order the same thing but it seems that here in the seaside - it's sweeter, tastier!
Besides the fish salad and squid we still ordered seafood hotpot and fried rice, but these two are not specialties so I don't want to share with you!
Ok another good food in Mui Ne, so the next one will be two popular street foods that I was recommended to try in Phan Thiết!
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