Ha Long squid cake Chả mực Hạ Long
Chả mực Hạ Long is hand-pounded mực mai, fried golden, crisp at the edge and chewy inside. Eat it hot, with rice sheets, plain sticky rice, or rice, on the boats and at the Tết table.
Food tours Ha Long squid cake Search a food tour or a cooking class for this dish.
Search on KlookWhy it matters
It is one of 50 specialties recognized by Trung tâm Sách kỷ lục Việt Nam. It is served on the cruise boats and at provincial banquets.
It is a dish of Quảng Ninh cooking and a gift. In 2024, over the 30 April–1 May holiday at Công viên Đại Dương in phường Bãi Cháy, visitors were served chả mực and beer free and looked at a record squid cake. That free service was the 2024 festival.
Nobody remembers when the cake began. People in Hạ Long were already buying squid, pounding it by hand, and frying it in the early years of the 20th century. The gift cake is cooled and vacuum-packed.
Texture
The fried cake is golden and fragrant, crisp at the edge and chewy inside. The squid is ground or hand-pounded so that chew stays.
How to enjoy it
Eat it hot, with bánh cuốn, xôi trắng, or cơm.
People in Hạ Long eat bánh cuốn with this cake rather than with chả quế or chả thịt. The roll is its own plate.
On the boat, or at Tết on the family table.
Where to try it
On the cruise boats, and at the Hạ Long table. Xôi chả mực is the rice and the cake together.
Chợ Hạ Long 1 on đường Bạch Đằng and chợ Hạ Long 2 on đường Lê Lợi sell fresh chả mực, pounded at the shops, to take home.