Cham Islands food guide
Order the catch with rice and little spice: fish soup, a light braise, a salty braise, fried fish, and dried fish grilled or simmered. Mực một nắng is tube squid dried one sun, sweet when it was dried the day it was caught, and bánh ít and bánh su sê wait in the pier baskets.
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Photo: Blon · CC BY-SA 3.0
Fish, shrimp, squid, and swimming crab come first, then greens, then meat. Lunch is about 11:00–12:00 and the evening meal about 17:00–18:00. When the kitchen changes the rice, the plates are braised pork, boiled pork, pork-bone soup, salty glazed ribs, or stir-fried meat with roots and fruit, and sometimes bún or mì. Lobster, ốc vú nàng, and abalone have left the daily table. Stone crab is a visitor catch, and only from 1 March to 31 July.
Mực một nắng is squid dried one sun. Nước lá Lao is a leaf drink, called particular to the island and also known from the same leaves elsewhere in Quảng, astringent when cooked. Bánh ít and bánh su sê are the cakes in the pier baskets. Yến sào Cù Lao Chàm is the registered nest. In May 2026 the grades yến quang, yến thiên, and yến bài were quoted from nearly 100 million to nearly 180 million VND a kilogram. That figure is the product, not a bowl.
Cham Islands specialties
Squid dried one sun leads. The catch, the fish paste, the afternoon bowls, the leaf drink, and the pier cakes follow.
Muc mot nang Mực một nắng
Mực một nắng is tube squid dried one sun, outside dry and inside still raw, and the squid dried the day it was caught is the sweet plate. Grill it on the island or carry it home.
Plates from the catch
Fish soup, fish braised lightly, fish braised salty, fried fish, cá cháy, and dried fish grilled or simmered, then the fish paste, the greens, the sauce, the cakes, the nest, and the drink.
Canh cá Canh cá
Canh cá is fish soup for the rice, and the kitchen keeps the spice light.
Cá kho phớt Cá kho phớt
Cá kho phớt is fish braised lightly for the rice, a separate plate from the salty braise, and the spice stays light.
Cá kho mặn is fish braised salty for the rice, apart from the light braise, and the spice stays light.
Cá chiên Cá chiên
Cá chiên is fried fish for the rice, listed apart from cá cháy and from the grilled dried fish, and the spice stays light.
Cá cháy is its own fish plate in the daily rice, set between the fried fish and the grilled dried fish, and the spice stays light.
Cá khô nướng is dried fish grilled for the rice. The dried seafood is fragrant once it is cooked.
Cá khô kho rim is dried fish simmered until the sauce coats it, fragrant like the other dried seafood, and eaten with rice.
Chả cá Cù Lao Chàm Chả cá Cù Lao Chàm
Chả cá is the island fish paste, pounded from the small fish. It is fried, put in soup, or cooked with tomato, and it fills bánh canh and bánh xèo.
Bánh canh chả cá Cù Lao Chàm Bánh canh chả cá
Bánh canh chả cá is the afternoon noodle soup filled with the island fish paste, the change from the rice meal.
Bánh xèo chả cá Bánh xèo chả cá
Bánh xèo chả cá is the afternoon crepe filled with the island fish paste.
Bánh bèo Cù Lao Chàm Bánh bèo Cù Lao Chàm
Bánh bèo is rice steamed in small cups, with a soft topping of shrimp, pork, and wood ear. The topping tastes of salty island fish sauce and sweet shrimp, and a brown sweet cake can sit beside it.
Rau rừng is forest greens, boiled or in soup, with the seafood rice. On 3 March 2026 the greens rau dớn, rau sân, rau lủi, and mã đề are still dipped in mắm cái with chili and garlic. By 2025, mắm cái is among foods people rarely use.
Mắm is the sauce islanders like with the rice, though many kitchens no longer keep a jar through the storm season. A few households still make it for visitors.
Nước lá Lao is a drink of dried forest leaves, astringent and fragrant when it is cooked. It is called particular to the island, and the same leaves are also known elsewhere in Quảng.
Bánh ít Cù Lao Chàm Bánh ít Cù Lao Chàm
Bánh ít is sticky rice and ramie leaf, black outside and yellow with mung bean inside, lightly sweet, soft, and chewy, with a nutty bean. The salty cake adds carrot and sometimes pork.
Bánh su sê is tapioca cooked with white sugar, filled with mung bean and shredded mature coconut, then tied in a banana leaf. The tie is how you tell it from bánh ít.
Yến sào Cù Lao Chàm Yến sào Cù Lao Chàm – Hội An
Yến sào Cù Lao Chàm is the swiftlet nest, steamed when you buy it, and registered as a geographic indication on 23 November 2020. In May 2026 the grades yến quang, yến thiên, and yến bài were quoted from nearly 100 million to nearly 180 million VND a kilogram, a product price rather than a bowl.
Cua đá Cù Lao Chàm Cua đá
Cua đá is the land crab, off the daily table, and taken for visitors only from 1 March to 31 July. Boiled, the meat is sweet, fragrant, and firm, and not fishy.
Regional dishes
Mì Quảng is the afternoon bowl on the Bai Lang coast road and by the well in Bai Ong, beside bánh xèo chả cá, bánh canh, and bánh bèo.
Mi Quang Mì Quảng
Mi Quang is the turmeric noodle bowl of Quảng Nam and Da Nang: wide yellow rice noodles in a shallow broth, with pork or shrimp, herbs, peanuts, and a rice cracker you break in. You toss it rather than drink it.
Breakfast
Breakfast stalls line the Bai Lang coast road and sit by Giếng Xóm Cấm in Bai Ong.
Thôn Bãi Làng, xã Tân Hiệp
Morning stalls along the Bai Lang coast road, and by the well in Bai Ong.