Street Shots: the week in pictures.

We came across this mobile fritter factory on the main street in Hoi An. Not sure what the balls were but the ones in the wok are banana fritters. Sarah tried one and said she couldn't taste any banana. Just out of shot were some thin donuts with lots of sugar on them. They tasted kind of chewy and stale - the type of thing you might buy in packs of twenty at a cheapo supermarket.

Not so much street foodie as sea foodie. I ate these tamarind prawns in a sun lounger out on one of the beaches by Hoi An. All along the beach there were little huts that specialised in Vietnamese seafood, This wasn't great but the day before I had tamarind crab (no photo unforunately) at a different place which was out of this world (the crab, not the place.) The crabs' shell had been lifted off and right where the roe lived, was placed a mixture of tamarind, onion and chili. Delicious

A contender for the Hoi An heavyweight title? Chao Vit is a semilina like mixture of rice, chilli sauce, green onions, oil and duck. It's savory with a surprising kick to it, with decent pieces of barbecued duck thrown in here and there. My enjoyment of the meal was hampered however, by the constant overselling of the vendor next door (whom Sarah ordered from.) When we finished she tried to charge us double, and the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

Mmm. Some sort of "sea fish" wrapped in banana leaf and grilled with lemongrass, tamarind, chili and soy sauce. Slightly underdone but still delicious. There's a bunch of outdoor eating places next to the river in Hoi An that do this kind of thing for the tourist crowd. The food is good and cheap, and we ended up eating there three nights in a row.

Finally, my first street food in Saigon turned out to be dud. I got these fried noodles with chicken and shrimp left at the Banh Than market - a supposed street food goldmine. They left me feeling queasy, and led to the first tangible case of food poisoning in the six months or so I've been writing this blog.