Chau Doc food guide
Châu Đốc eats fish from the Hậu. Breakfast at Chợ Châu Đốc is bún cá with crunchy điên điển, chili, and lime, and the hall smells of mắm stacked in the open. Dinner is lẩu mắm, the fermented-fish pot, or a hot-and-sour seafood hotpot, with cá kho tộ and rice. Afternoons are palm sweets: bánh bò thốt nốt, bánh bò Chăm, and chè thốt nốt.
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Photo: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên · CC BY-SA 3.0
The market is the morning. Just after sunrise the hall is already moving: noodle bowls, sugarcane juice, flowers on the pavement, and stacks of fermented fish. Eat a bowl at the edge of the hall, then walk the mắm lanes before you head for the hill.
Beyond the bowls, Châu Đốc breakfasts on cơm tấm with pickled mustard greens, hủ tiếu bò viên, bún mắm, and bún suông along the Hậu landing. Bánh hỏi comes with charcoal-grilled pork, and gỏi sầu đâu is the bitter leaf salad. The Cham villages add tung lò mò, a beef sausage dried outside the houses and grilled. After dark there is chè bưởi at the head of Trưng Nữ Vương. Khô cá, khô bò, and đường thốt nốt are the gifts to carry home. Can Tho’s bánh xèo is a different delta breakfast.
Chau Doc specialties
Mắm, the claypot, and the hotpots are the Châu Đốc table. Market bowls, palm sweets, and the gifts to carry home follow.
- Chau Doc fermented fish
- Claypot fish
- Seafood hotpot
- Fermented-fish noodles
- Broken rice
- Fine noodles with grilled pork
- Grilled sticky-rice banana
- Pomelo sweet soup
- Sugarcane juice
- Dried fish
- Dried beef
- Palm sugar
Chau Doc fermented fish Mắm Châu Đốc
Mắm Châu Đốc is fish pickled with palm sugar, salt, chili, and garlic, stacked in the open at the market. It starts sweet and finishes salty, and you eat it with rice or carry a jar home.
Claypot fish Cá kho tộ
Cá kho tộ is fish cooked for hours in a clay pot until it flakes. It is a Mekong Delta main dish, eaten with hot rice and greens.
Seafood hotpot
Seafood hotpot is a shared Châu Đốc dinner: vegetables, mushrooms, noodles, and herbs blanched at the table in a boiling hot-and-sour soup. It is a separate order from lẩu mắm.
Fermented-fish noodles Bún mắm
Bún mắm is rice noodles in a fermented-fish broth that looks brown and still runs clear, with a sweet fish taste. It comes with roast pork and balut, and often shrimp, fish cake, and pork.
Broken rice Cơm tấm
Cơm tấm is broken rice under grilled pork, shredded pork skin, and chả, with sweet-sour fish sauce poured over. In Châu Đốc the pickle plate adds mustard greens next to the usual daikon.
Fine noodles with grilled pork Bánh hỏi thịt nướng
Bánh hỏi thịt nướng is sheets of fine rice noodle, soft and lightly oiled, eaten with charcoal-grilled pork. Scallion fat, crushed peanut, and sweet-sour fish sauce finish the plate.
Grilled sticky-rice banana Chuối nếp nướng
Chuối nếp nướng is a banana rolled in coconut sticky rice, wrapped in banana leaf, and grilled until the leaf chars and the rice crust turns yellow. It is crisp, hot, and fragrant, and best with coconut cream and roasted peanut.
Pomelo sweet soup Chè bưởi
Chè bưởi is a pomelo sweet soup sold after dark from a cart at the head of Trưng Nữ Vương. It is the night sweet locals point visitors to.
Sugarcane juice Nước mía
Nước mía is sweet sugarcane juice sold in Chợ Châu Đốc just after sunrise, between the flower stalls, the steaming noodle bowls, and the stacks of mắm. Drink it cold while the hall fills up.
Dried fish Khô cá
Khô cá is dried fish, one of Châu Đốc’s traditional trades and a specialty sold beside the mắm. Buy it to take home, or taste dried cá sặc and cá lóc tossed through gỏi sầu đâu.
Dried beef Khô bò
Khô bò is dried beef, the other half of the gift known as khô Châu Đốc. Travelers buy it with dried fish, mắm, palm sugar, and palm fruit.
Palm sugar Đường thốt nốt
Đường thốt nốt is the sugar of the thốt nốt palms on the plain around Châu Đốc. The same trees give palm juice and bánh bò thốt nốt, and the sugar is the gift people carry home.
More Chau Doc specialties
The morning fish bowl, the fermented-fish pot, the Cham sausage, and the palm sweets.
Chau Doc fish noodles Bún cá
Bún cá is the Châu Đốc breakfast: rice noodles and freshwater fish in a turmeric-yellow broth, topped with crunchy điên điển flowers. The broth runs deep with shrimp paste, lemongrass, chili, and garlic, and you sharpen it at the table with chili and lime.
Fermented-fish hotpot Lẩu mắm
Lẩu mắm is the Châu Đốc dinner pot: a broth built on mắm cá chốt and mắm cá sặc, loaded with stuffed fish cake, meat, seafood, and greens, and eaten with noodles. It is the meal not to leave town without.
Beef-meatball noodle soup Hủ tiếu bò viên
Hủ tiếu bò viên is a bowl of small, soft, chewy rice noodles in a naturally sweet pork-leg-bone broth, with five or six beef meatballs. The meatballs are crisp, chewy, and smell of beef.
Cham beef sausage Tung lò mò
Tung lò mò is the Cham beef sausage of Châu Đốc, dried in strings outside houses, then grilled over charcoal and eaten with rice. A bite brings grilled beef and fat, then sour, sweet, salty, and hot from soy sauce, basil, and pepper.
Shrimp-cake noodles Bún suông
Bún suông is a breakfast noodle bowl sold on the Hậu landing and at Chợ Châu Đốc, next to hủ tiếu and bún mắm. Down the delta in Trà Vinh, the same bowl is rice noodles and fresh shrimp cake in a pork-bone broth.
Neem salad Gỏi sầu đâu
Gỏi sầu đâu is a salad of wild sầu đâu shoots and leaves, bitter, then sweet and cool, tossed with dried cá sặc, dried cá lóc, or meat and shrimp. A dressing of mắm me, sugar, garlic, and chili pulls bitter, sour, salty, and sweet into one bite.
Palm-sugar cake Bánh bò thốt nốt
Bánh bò thốt nốt is a yellow steamed cake of palm sugar, palm-fruit flour, rice flour, and coconut milk, made from the palms on the plain around town. It is the sweet to reach for when you want sugar in Châu Đốc.
Bánh bò Chăm is a cake of palm sugar and coconut milk, each one cooked under a hot clay lid. It comes out soft inside with a light crisp crust, and it is best eaten warm.
Palm-nut sweet soup Chè thốt nốt
Chè thốt nốt is a cold bowl of clear palm-nut jelly mixed with coconut cream and shaved ice. Eat it as an afternoon snack or a light dessert.
Regional dishes
Bánh xèo is the large turmeric crepe of the Mekong, filled with pork, beansprouts, and shrimp. It is Can Tho’s breakfast, not the Châu Đốc bowl. Inside Trà Sư, the forest restaurant’s lunch adds it beside cá lóc nướng, lẩu cá linh bông điên điển, cá linh chiên giòn, and gỏi cổ hũ dừa.
Banh xeo Bánh xèo
Banh xeo is a crisp turmeric rice-flour crepe filled with pork and shrimp, eaten wrapped in herbs and lettuce with a dipping sauce. Central and southern versions differ in size.
Casual dining
Come in the morning. The hall clock is 05:30–18:00 every day on the 20 Oct 2023 listing, and no clock is given on the tourism listing. Breakfast on the Hậu landing nearby is hủ tiếu, bún mắm, or bún suông.
Chau Doc Market Chợ Châu Đốc
Noodle bowls and strong coffee at the edge of the hall, mắm in the aisles, and sugarcane juice just after sunrise. By 7:00 the hall is busy. The hall clock is 05:30–18:00 on the 20 Oct 2023 listing.
The blue hall Chợ Châu Đốc
The same hall seen from the street, with flowers, fruit, and vegetables on the pavement and boats unloading at the landing.
Chau Doc floating market Chợ nổi Châu Đốc
Several dozen boats laden with fruit and vegetables in the early morning, each with its produce hung on a long pole so buyers can see it from far off. Wake before dawn for the painted boats.