Quang Ngai food guide
Quảng Ngãi eats from its river: lightly sweet don broth where the Trà Khúc meets the sea, peppery braised river goby, and small crisp bánh xèo. Kẹo gương, mạch nha, and the cane sugars are the sweets to carry home.
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Plan a morning or an evening around don. The shells are boiled until they open, and the meat goes back into the broth with sliced onion or hành tăm, rice paper, and xiêm chili; May and June are the peak months.
The Trà Khúc goby comes braised with green pepper or rimmed dry in a box. The sweets come from the old cane villages: kẹo gương from Thu Xà and mạch nha from Thi Phổ, the pair in the local proverb, and rock sugar and airy đường phổi from Ba La and Vạn Tượng.
Lý Sơn garlic, Sa Huỳnh crab and sea-urchin sauce, and the stream fish, cinnamon, and jar wine of Trà Bồng and Ba Tơ belong to day trips. At Lễ hội Don An Phú the stalls also sell hến, ram chả cá, bắp xào, trứng vịt lộn, bánh căn, bánh cuốn, cá viên chiên, chè, and đậu hũ.
Quang Ngai specialties
Don and the Trà Khúc fish come first, then the small bánh xèo, the corn roll, and the sugar sweets. Lý Sơn, Sa Huỳnh, and the mountain streams follow.
- Don
- Ca bong kho tieu
- Ca bong rim
- Banh xeo
- Ram bap
- Com ga
- Bun ca ngu
- Ram thit nuong
- Banh bo
- Banh no
- Mach nha
- Duong phoi
- Banh it la gai
- Banh beo
- Oc hut
- Cum num
- Goi toi
- Ca nien
- Ca ta ma
- Mam nhum
- Cua Huynh De
- Toi Ly Son
- Ruou can
Don Don
Don is a small brackish-water bivalve from where the Trà Khúc meets the sea, boiled into a pale broth with sliced onion or hành tăm and eaten with rice paper and chili. The broth is lightly sweet, which cooks put down to mật don, the part of the shellfish that carries the sweetness.
Small gobies from the lower Trà Khúc braised slowly with green pepper, fish sauce, and caramel until the sauce thickens into the firm meat. It eats salty-sweet and peppery, with a little smoke, over hot rice.
Trà Khúc gobies braised with fish sauce, sugar, pepper, chili, and garlic until dry, brown, and fragrant, then boxed to carry home. The fish turns lightly chewy and salty-sweet, good with rice or as a snack.
Banh xeo Bánh xèo
Quảng Ngãi bánh xèo is a small rice-batter cake with a crisp edge, filled with small shrimp, pork belly, and bean sprouts. Roll it in herbs and rice paper, or eat it with unripe banana and cucumber, and dip it in mắm nêm or a spicy fish sauce.
Ram bap Ram bắp
Ram bắp is a thin rice-paper roll of young corn, fried crisp; some cooks add pork and shrimp, others only scallion and a little flour. The corn tastes sweet and nutty inside the crisp wrapper, dipped in a sweet-sour fish sauce.
Com ga Cơm gà
Cơm gà is rice cooked in the chicken stock with a little turmeric, served with chicken boiled just done, herbs, cucumber, and a sweet-sour fish sauce. The rice is fragrant and slightly sticky, and the chicken firm and naturally sweet under a thin skin.
Bun ca ngu Bún cá ngừ
Two tuna bowls share the name: bún cá ngừ um, tuna braised with turmeric and chili over noodles, rich and hot; and a clear, lightly sweet fish-bone broth with tuna, tomato, and pineapple. Either one is breakfast or a light lunch.
Marinated pork rolled in thin rice paper and grilled over charcoal until spotted and fragrant, eaten with rice noodles, herbs, unripe banana, cucumber, and mắm nêm. The pork is rich, and the dip is sour, hot, salty, and sweet at once.
Bánh bó is roasted glutinous rice milled fine, packed with candied ginger, candied winter melon, peanuts, and sesame, and sliced thin. A slice is soft, lightly sweet, and nutty.
Bánh nổ is popped glutinous rice pressed with cane sugar and ginger into a block and sliced, a spring snack. It is pale yellow, crisp, and lightly sweet, and smells of new rice.
Mach nha Mạch nha
Mạch nha is the malt syrup of Thi Phổ in Mộ Đức: sprouted grain cooked, pressed, and slowly reduced. It is lightly sweet and mild, eaten spread on rice paper.
Duong phoi Đường phổi
Đường phổi is an airy cane sugar, broad like a lung or cut into small rectangles, light and crisp rather than hard and clear. It is lightly sweet and mild, used in chè and ginger water or carried home as a gift.
Banh it la gai Bánh ít lá gai
Bánh ít lá gai is a small cake in banana leaf, with a black skin of pounded ramie leaf and sticky rice around mung bean or coconut. Families make it for Tết, weddings, and ancestor offerings.
Banh beo Bánh bèo
Quảng Ngãi bánh bèo is a small rice cake with a thicker batter than Hue’s, topped with shrimp and minced pork. Pour fish sauce over it while it is hot and eat it with a small aluminum spoon.
Oc hut Ốc hút
Ốc hút are small apple snails cooked with lemongrass, chili, garlic, and coconut water, a spicy plate you eat with a pick or by sucking the meat from the shell. People eat them in the late afternoon and after rain.
Cum num Cúm núm
Cúm núm is a round-shelled crab from Sa Huỳnh with firm, rich, sweetly fragrant meat, at its best in lunar months six to eight. Steam it with beer, fry it with salt, grill it, or cook it with rice noodles.
Goi toi Gỏi tỏi
Gỏi tỏi is Lý Sơn’s young-garlic salad, tossed with sweet-sour fish sauce and roasted peanuts and often with shrimp, pork belly, and rau răm. The garlic smells strong but not harsh, and the salad is rich, nutty, sour, and hot.
Ca nien Cá niên
Cá niên is a mountain-stream fish caught in the rainy season, usually grilled whole and dipped in hand-pounded chili salt with lime. The meat is white, firm, sweet, and not fishy, with few bones.
Cá tà ma is a small deep-water fish from Lý Sơn and Bình Châu with soft, fragrant meat. Grill it with salt and chili and eat it with rice paper, herbs, and green chili salt.
Mắm nhum is sea urchin salted and fermented in a clay jar into a thick, rich sauce that tastes strongly of the sea. Eat it with rice paper, herbs, rice, or noodles.
Cua Huynh De Cua Huỳnh Đế
Cua Huỳnh Đế is a deep-water crab with a thick red-pink shell, firm white meat, and rich roe, found off Sa Huỳnh and Lý Sơn. The meat is deeply sweet and fragrant, steamed, grilled with salt and chili, or cooked into porridge or hotpot.
Toi Ly Son Tỏi Lý Sơn
Tỏi Lý Sơn is the island’s garlic: small bulbs with even cloves and smooth white skin. It smells strong but its heat is mild, and it is also sold as single-clove garlic, black garlic, garlic wine, and garlic in honey.
Ruou can Rượu cần
Rượu cần is the Hre rice wine of Ba Tơ: upland sticky rice fermented with forest-leaf yeast in a clay jar and drunk from the jar when guests arrive. It tastes sweet and strong.
City specialties
Start with the river: don, the goby two ways, then the small cakes, rolls, and rice plates eaten across the city. Nghĩa Hành also turns cá bống sông Trà into bánh phồng and cơm rang.
End of Trường Sa
Eat it at the end of Trường Sa, where the river reaches the sea, in the morning or the evening, with grilled rice paper, herbs, and xiêm chili. May and June are the peak months.
Trà Khúc
A salty-sweet pepper braise of river goby, eaten with hot rice. Some cooks add fresh chili, and jars are packed to carry home.
Dry, lightly chewy, salty-sweet goby, sold in boxes. Eat it with rice or straight from the box.
Banh xeo Bánh xèo
Small crisp-edged cakes of shrimp, pork belly, and bean sprouts, cooked in an iron pan or a clay mold. People eat them at breakfast and again later in the day.
Crisp young-corn rolls, eaten with herbs and cucumber and dipped in a sweet-sour fish sauce.
Com ga Cơm gà
Turmeric rice cooked in chicken stock, with tender boiled chicken and a sweet-sour dip. Some kitchens also serve roast chicken or chicken offal.
Tuna over rice noodles, either braised yellow and hot with turmeric and chili or in a clear broth with tomato and pineapple. Eat it at breakfast or a light lunch.
Charcoal-grilled pork rolls for holidays and guests, with a sour, hot, salty-sweet mắm nêm dip.
Thick-battered rice cakes topped with shrimp and minced pork, eaten hot with fish sauce and a small aluminum spoon.
Oc hut Ốc hút
Spicy small snails with lemongrass, chili, garlic, and coconut water, for the late afternoon.
Sweets to carry home
Thu Xà is the candy in the proverb and Thi Phổ in Mộ Đức the malt, while the villages along the Trà Khúc make the rock sugar and the airy sugar. Gift shelves also carry bánh thuẫn and bánh in beside bánh nổ.
Thu Xà
Thin, crisp pieces of cane sugar, peanut, and ginger from Thu Xà, the candy in the local proverb.
Thi Phổ, Mộ Đức
Thick, mild malt syrup from Thi Phổ, spread on rice paper.
Ba La and Vạn Tượng
Rock sugar set for seven days in jars, white and cool or yellow and cane-scented.
Ba La and Vạn Tượng
Light, crisp cane sugar shaped like a lung, used in chè and ginger water.
A packed, sliced rice cake with candied ginger and winter melon, soft and nutty, sold as a gift.
Popped rice pressed with cane sugar and ginger, crisp and lightly sweet, eaten in spring.
Cool seaweed jelly from Lý Sơn rau câu, with palm sugar, ginger, and coconut milk.
Black ramie-leaf and sticky-rice cakes in banana leaf, filled with mung bean or coconut, made for Tết and weddings.
Regional dishes
These are the plates of Lý Sơn, Sa Huỳnh, Trà Bồng, and Ba Tơ, worth the trip out of the city. The province also lists ốc đá, rượu đót, hải sâm, cau from Sơn Hà and Sơn Tây, chè Minh Long, and dứa Ba Tơ among its specialties.
Sa Huỳnh
Round-shelled Sa Huỳnh crab with firm, rich meat, steamed with beer or fried with salt.
Lý Sơn
Young Lý Sơn garlic tossed with sweet-sour fish sauce, peanuts, shrimp, and pork belly, made when the bulbs start to form.
Lý Sơn
Small-bulbed island garlic with a strong smell and a mild heat, sold to carry home.
Lý Sơn and Bình Châu
Small, soft deep-water fish grilled with salt and chili, eaten with rice paper and green chili salt.
Sa Huỳnh
Thick fermented sea-urchin sauce from Sa Huỳnh, eaten with rice paper, herbs, or rice.
Deep-water crab with sweet white meat and rich roe, steamed or cooked into porridge or hotpot.
Sơn Hà, Trà Bồng, Tây Trà, and Ba Tơ
Rainy-season stream fish grilled whole and dipped in chili salt with lime, from Sơn Hà, Trà Bồng, Tây Trà, and Ba Tơ.
Trà Bồng
Thick, oily, warmly fragrant cinnamon bark from Trà Bồng, sold as quills, powder, and oil.
Ba Tơ
Hre jar wine of upland sticky rice and forest-leaf yeast, shared from the jar with guests in Ba Tơ.
Casual dining
Phố đêm Sông Trà is the weekend street on Tôn Đức Thắng. Don at the end of Trường Sa is a different bank from the festival ground south of cầu Cổ Lũy. Chợ Quảng Ngãi is where Vietnam Airlines says to buy specialties.
Tôn Đức Thắng, Nghĩa Lộ
About 300 m of Tôn Đức Thắng fills with stalls from 17:00 to 22:00 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and holidays, from Công viên Thạch Bích to cầu Thạch Bích on the provincial portal and east of the bridge in Báo Lao Động, which counts 40 food and soft-drink stalls among 72. The provincial portal dates the opening to the evening of 6 February 2026; VnExpress had said around 7 February.
End of Trường Sa
Báo Văn hóa sends you here for don, where the river meets the sea. May and June are the peak months.
Quang Ngai market Chợ Quảng Ngãi
159 Nguyễn Bá Loan
Vietnam Airlines points to this market for the boxed fish, sugars, and sweets to carry home.
Breakfast
Bún cá ngừ is breakfast or a light lunch in both its versions. Don is eaten in the morning or the evening, and bánh xèo turns up at breakfast as well as later in the day.