Buon Ma Thuot food guide
Buon Ma Thuot eats a red noodle bowl in the afternoon, rolls its own rice sheets one plate at a time, and keeps a highland table of bamboo rice, grilled yard chicken, bitter eggplant, and jar wine.
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Start with coffee, black or with milk. At lunch, roll stacked rice sheets on Trần Nhật Duật or Lê Thánh Tông, one hot sheet to a plate. From about 15:00 or 16:00, the bún đỏ stalls set up on Le Hong Phong.
The other meal is Êđê and M’nông: sticky rice roasted in bamboo, yard chicken rubbed with lá ech, and a pull from the jar. Bitter eggplant runs through it, in soup, in salad, and pounded raw with chili, and at Tết the table runs from grilled meat to jar wine.
Da Lat’s charcoal pancakes belong to a different highland, and Nha Trang is the coast. Stay when the red bowl and the jar are the meal.
Buon Ma Thuot specialties
These are the plates people come to Buon Ma Thuot for, from the afternoon noodle stall to the longhouse jar.
- Bun do
- Stacked rice sheets
- Bamboo sticky rice
- Grilled yard chicken
- Jar wine
- Coffee
- Serepok catfish
- Grilled pork paste
- Fried sticky-rice cakes
- Grilled honeycomb cake
- Beef in tamarind
- Pounded bamboo soup
- Bitter-eggplant soup
- Bitter-eggplant salad
- Pounded bitter eggplant
- Grilled rattan shoot
- Cassava-leaf stir-fry
- Papaya with ant salt
- Djam tang soup
- Sour djam tang
- Snakehead with ant eggs
- Stir-fried forest greens
- Mnong flour soup
- Pork-hock noodle soup
- Hu tieu
- Bronze-featherback cake
- Ea Kar chicken rice
- Ea Sup mango
- Forest bamboo shoots
- Chicken mi quang
- Frog mi quang
Bun do Bún đỏ
Thick red noodles in a broth of pork bone and crab, topped with a crab-and-pork cake, quail egg, fried shallot, and pork crackling. The orange-red comes from hạt điều, and the blanched greens and shrimp paste come on the side.
Stacked rice sheets Bánh ướt chồng đĩa
One ultra-thin hot rice sheet comes on each plate, brushed with scallion fat and dusted with chives and dried-shrimp powder. You roll it around grilled pork, sausage, pickles, mango, and Thai basil, and stack the empty plates as you go.
Bamboo sticky rice Cơm lam
Sticky rice roasted on the coals in a fresh tube of young lồ ô bamboo, then split open. It comes out soft and chewy, and smells more of rice and fresh bamboo than sticky rice from a steamer.
Grilled yard chicken Gà nướng
Yard chicken rubbed with pounded lá ech and grilled over the coals until the skin turns golden without drying out.
Jar wine Rượu cần
Êđê wine of sticky rice and a yeast of galangal pounded with forest leaves, rested in the jar for months. It pours cloudy white, sweet, and fragrant.
Coffee Cà phê
The drink the town is known for, served black or with milk. Cafes run from plain rooms to formal ones.
Serepok catfish Cá lăng sông Sêrêpốk
Catfish from the Serepok River, one of the foods that start in Buon Ma Thuot.
Grilled pork paste Nem nướng
Minced pork grilled until the edges char, sometimes around a lemongrass stalk. You roll it in rice paper with herbs, tart green banana, cucumber, and sour mango.
Fried sticky-rice cakes Bánh nếp chiên
Sticky-rice cakes fried crisp and cut small. The rectangle is plain, and the round one holds minced pork, wood-ear, and glass noodles.
Grilled honeycomb cake Bánh bò nướng
A sweet honeycomb cake grilled until the sugar scorches a little, so each bite is slightly burnt and bitter as well as sweet.
Beef in tamarind Bò nhúng me
Thin beef dipped at the table into a sweet-sour tamarind sauce simmering on a hot pan.
Pounded bamboo soup Canh thụt
A soup of lá bép, rattan shoots, bitter eggplant, and stream fish or meat, cooked inside a bamboo tube and pounded with a chopstick as it steams. It finishes thick and sticky, bitter, hot, nutty, and fatty.
Bitter-eggplant soup Canh cà đắng
Êđê bitter-eggplant soup, made either with pounded dried fish and rice-washing water or with beef offal and beef bung. Both are bitter from the eggplant and hot from chili, and the offal pot is also sweet and fragrant.
Bitter-eggplant salad Gỏi cà đắng cá khô
Thin-sliced bitter eggplant, soaked and drained, tossed with fried dried anchovy, culantro, and a garlic-chili fish sauce. It is bitter from the eggplant, fragrant from the fish, and salty, sweet, and hot from the dressing.
Pounded bitter eggplant Cà đắng giã
Raw bitter eggplant pounded with salt, chili, lá é, and scallion. It is very hot and made to go with a lot of rice.
A rattan shoot from deep forest, grilled until it is bitter and fragrant. You dip it in salt pounded with plenty of xiêm chili, hot and bitter in its own right.
Young cassava leaves and male papaya flowers stir-fried with steamed scad in pork fat over a very low flame. The plate is bitter, fatty, and hot from xiêm chili.
Papaya with ant salt Đu đủ giã muối kiến vàng
Pounded papaya with weaver-ant salt, an Êđê plate served beside pounded bitter eggplant. Guests at one tasting called that table hot and bitter.
A soup of djam tang, a fine-stemmed green from the banks of the Krông Ana, Krông Knô, and Serepok, cooked with stream fish. It tastes sweet from the green and nutty from the fish.
Djam tang pickled sour and served as a dip for grilled meat and fish.
Forest greens stir-fried and served in the same meal as bitter-eggplant soup and bamboo rice.
Mnong flour soup Canh bột
A M’nông soup, served beside the Êđê bitter-eggplant soup among Dak Lak’s highland dishes.
Thin rice noodles with plenty of pork in a salty broth that is sweet from the meat.
Hu tieu Hủ tiếu
A breakfast noodle soup seasoned saltier and less sweet than the southern bowl. It is common here, though not a local specialty.
Bronze-featherback cake Chả cá thát lát
Bronze-featherback fish cake from Lak Lake, seasoned with only pepper and fish sauce and fried golden. It is crisp and naturally sweet.
Ea Kar chicken rice Cơm gà Ea Kar
Rice from Coffee Farm 721 cooked in the water a yard chicken was boiled in, tinted with turmeric, and fried in chicken fat. It comes out rich and crisp outside without cloying.
Ea Sup mango Xoài Ea Súp
The mango Ea Súp district is known for.
Forest bamboo shoots Măng rừng
Forest bamboo shoots, a specialty of Ea Súp district.
Chicken mi quang Mì Quảng gà
Mì Quảng with chicken, a bowl said to have a taste found nowhere else in Cư M’gar and Krông Pắc.
Coffee
Coffee is the drink the town is known for. Order it black or with milk, in a plain room or a garden cafe.
Coffee Cà phê
Nguyen Chi Thanh, Ako Dhong, and cafes through town
Drunk black or with milk. At the head of Bà Triệu, one counter mixes the cup with a glass of ice cream.
The red bowl and the stacked sheets
Bún đỏ is the afternoon bowl, stacked rice sheets are the lunch you roll yourself, and nem nướng is grilled pork you wrap with herbs and green fruit.
Bun do Bún đỏ
Le Hong Phong, and also Phan Boi Chau, Phan Dinh Giot, Le Duan, and the night market
Thick red noodles in a pork-bone and crab broth, with crab cake, quail egg, fried shallot, and pork crackling. Stir in shrimp paste and chili, then the blanched greens.
Stacked rice sheets Bánh ướt chồng đĩa
Trần Nhật Duật and Lê Thánh Tông
One ultra-thin hot sheet to a plate, rolled around grilled pork, sausage, pickles, and mango, and dipped in mắm nêm or a sweet-sour fish sauce. Stack the empty plates as you go.
Grilled pork paste Nem nướng
Minced pork grilled until the edges char, rolled in rice paper with herbs, green banana, and sour mango. The thick, warm dip is salty-sweet and nutty from peanuts.
Bamboo rice, chicken, and the jar
Jar wine, bamboo rice, and grilled chicken come as one Êđê and M’nông set, at Ko Tam in the city and at Buon Tri A in Buon Don. The river adds catfish from the Serepok.
Bamboo sticky rice Cơm lam
Ko Tam, Buon Ma Thuot, and Buon Tri A, Buon Don
Sticky rice roasted in a fresh bamboo tube, soft and chewy and smelling of fresh bamboo. Split it and dip it in sesame salt, or eat it with grilled chicken.
Grilled yard chicken Gà nướng
Ko Tam, Buon Ma Thuot, and Buon Tri A, Buon Don
Yard chicken rubbed with pounded lá ech and grilled until the skin turns golden without drying. The dip is salt pounded with lá ech, lá giang, culantro, scallion, and green chili.
Jar wine Rượu cần
Ako Dhong, and with the meal at Ko Tam or Buon Tri A
Êđê wine of sticky rice and a galangal-and-leaf yeast, cloudy white, sweet, and fragrant. Everyone pulls from the same jar through long straws.
Catfish from the Serepok River, one of the foods that start in Buon Ma Thuot.
Bitter eggplant and forest greens
These are Êđê and M’nông plates: bitter eggplant cooked, pounded, and tossed, forest shoots on the grill, and river greens in soup. Bitter eggplant also goes into pots with fresh fish, dried shrimp, forest meat, or frog. Expect bitter and hot flavors, and plenty of rice.
Lá bép, rattan shoots, bitter eggplant, and stream fish or meat, cooked in a bamboo tube and pounded with a chopstick. It finishes thick, bitter, hot, nutty, and fatty.
Bitter-eggplant soup Canh cà đắng
Stilt-house meals in Buon Don, Lak, or the city
Bitter eggplant simmered with pounded dried fish and rice-washing water, or with beef offal and beef bung. Both are bitter and hot, and the offal pot is also sweet and fragrant.
Thin eggplant tossed with fried dried anchovy, culantro, and a garlic-chili fish sauce. Bitter, fragrant, salty, sweet, and hot.
Raw fruit pounded with salt, chili, lá é, and scallion. Very hot, and made for a lot of rice.
A bitter, fragrant shoot from deep forest, grilled and dipped in salt pounded with xiêm chili.
Young cassava leaves and male papaya flowers stir-fried with steamed scad in pork fat over a very low flame. Bitter, fatty, and hot.
Đường sách cà phê, at a highland tasting
Pounded papaya with weaver-ant salt, served beside pounded bitter eggplant on a table guests called hot and bitter.
A fine river green from the Krông Ana, the Krông Knô, and the Serepok, cooked with stream fish. Sweet from the green and nutty from the fish.
The same river green, pickled sour, for dipping grilled meat and fish.
Stilt-house meals in Buon Don, Lak, or the city
A sour soup of snakehead fish with ant eggs, part of the forest meal with greens and bamboo rice.
Stilt-house meals in Buon Don, Lak, or the city
Forest greens stir-fried and eaten with the bitter-eggplant soup and the bamboo rice.
A M’nông soup, served beside the Êđê bitter-eggplant soup among Dak Lak’s highland dishes.
Market snacks
Two market snacks and a tabletop pan: fried sticky-rice cakes on Phùng Chí Kiên, grilled honeycomb cake at the central market, and beef dipped in tamarind on Lê Thánh Tông.
Fried sticky-rice cakes Bánh nếp chiên
Phùng Chí Kiên
Sticky-rice cakes fried crisp and cut small, plain or filled with minced pork, wood-ear, and glass noodles. Eat them with salty-sweet soy or chili sauce.
Central market
A sweet cake grilled until the sugar scorches a little, so it tastes slightly burnt and bitter as well as sweet.
Lê Thánh Tông
Thin beef dipped into sweet-sour tamarind on a hot buttered pan. Dip a few slices at a time, or the beef turns tough.
Regional dishes
These plates belong to other Dak Lak districts: fish cake at Lak Lake, chicken rice in Ea Kar, mango and bamboo shoots in Ea Súp, and mì Quảng in Cư M’gar and Krông Pắc.
Bronze-featherback cake Chả cá thát lát
Lak Lake
Fish cake seasoned with only pepper and fish sauce and fried golden, crisp and naturally sweet, with a few dill stems.
Ea Kar
Rice from Coffee Farm 721 cooked in the chicken liquor, tinted with turmeric, and fried in chicken fat until rich and crisp outside.
Ea Súp
The mango Ea Súp district is known for.
Ea Súp
Forest bamboo shoots, Ea Súp’s other specialty beside the mango.
Cư M’gar or Krông Pắc
Mì Quảng with chicken, a highland bowl said to taste like nowhere else, not the Da Nang one.
Cư M’gar or Krông Pắc
Mì Quảng with frog, the second bowl those districts are known for.
Casual dining
Three places to sit down to the city’s food.
Le Hong Phong bun do row Phố bún đỏ Lê Hồng Phong
Le Hong Phong
A row of bún đỏ stalls sets up on this street from about 15:00 or 16:00.
Central market Chợ Buôn Ma Thuột
Grilled honeycomb cake sells here in the afternoon.
Buon Ma Thuot
A community tourism area where jar wine, bamboo rice, and grilled chicken come to the table as one set.
Breakfast
Breakfast is a noodle bowl and a coffee. Hủ tiếu is common here, though not a local specialty.
Thin noodles with plenty of pork in a salty broth that is sweet from the meat, finished with herbs, lime, garlic, and chili.
Hu tieu Hủ tiếu
Seasoned saltier and less sweet than a southern bowl. Choose meat-and-bone, wonton, or Nam Vang.