Sapa Food Guide

Tourists to Sapa Vietnam are not just enchanted by its fresh air, cool climate and the majestic beauty of natural scenery, they will for sure fall in love with the amazing culinary scene of this misty highland. "Mam da", "cuon sui", "thang co" and so on are the specialties that make tourists curious just by listening to their names. Once you have a chance to step in this land, you should not miss the chance to spice up your taste bud with these 10 famous local foods in Sapa.  

1. Mam da or nutritious vegetables - Sapa food 

This dish is not an unreal food that was once offered to the king in a famous folk story called Trang Quynh but it does exist in real life. The only different thing is it does not take much time to cook this dish as we even can just scald out the sprout with boiled water to eat. In Sapa Vietnam, tourists can only buy mam da Sapa from November to March of the lunar calendar.

The nutritious dish shares the same taste with normal chinese brocoli but with a little sweeter in smell. It is usually served with sesame and salt or pickled boiled egg with fish sauce. Besides, stone sprout fried with buffalo meat is the best dish that suits wine drinkers especially when they are served along with San Lung wine. 

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2. Cuon sui - Sapa food 

It is the unique dish of Lao Cai that is also called pho khan. It includes noodles, stir fried arrowroot, cow meat, herbs, roasted peanuts, peppercorn, chilli and special sauce made with a variety of spices. A familiar dish for breakfast in highland area yet an unique and unforgettable flavor for visitors just by mixing all the ingredients then eat with herbs. The special weather condition in Sapa Vietnam makes this hot and spicy dish suitable to be eaten all year round.

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3. Thang co (horse’s meat and internal organs soup) - Sapa food 

This is a traditional food of H’mong ethnic group with traditional recipe which is well-preserved up until now and it is usually sold at Bac Ha, Muong Khuong and Sa pa village fairs. A pan of thang co includes stewed horse’s meat and internal organs on charcoal stove. The ingredients are embalmed with black cardamom, cinnamon twig, anise and other traditional spices. Thang co is not an eye-catching dish that some tourists even hesitate to taste its flavor. However, it would be a waste for those who come to Sapa Vietnam without trying this dish. Thang co along with cat mustard greens dipped in sauce mixed with chili would be the best combination.

4. Salmon hot pot - Sapa food 

Thanks to temperate and subtropical climate in Sapa Vietnam, civilians here have successfully raised salmon that provides them food with high nutritional value without having to import those from other countries. Tourists will be overwhelmed with a great combination of delicious firm salmon fillets with beautiful color, sour sliced bamboo shoot, river-leaf creeper, pumpkin flower and banana flower when visiting this land. Besides, salmon can also be cooked in different ways such as grill, make salad or curry. 

Hoa Dao restaurant
Add: 48 Le Van Tam st, Sapa
Opening hours: 9.00 am-10.00 pm
Lotus Sapa
Add: 34 Cau May, Sapa
Opening hours: 9.00 am-10.00 pm
 

5. Pork embalmed with ginger - Sapa food 

This Nung Din’s traditional dish is made with meat from ribs, spines and pigs’ head. These ingredients are, firstly, chopped into tiny pieces then squeezed with salts, a little corn wine and a lot of crushed and squeezed gingers. Additionally, this amount of meat will be put into a jar, filled with water and covered carefully until the owner want take it out to cook. Steamed or stewed pork embalmed with ginger are very suitable to eat with cooked rice.

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6. Carried underarms pork or Mini mountainous pig - Sapa food 

Pigs that is raise freely without cages so their health resistance is always in good condition as they usually eat wild fruits and herbs their meat is naturally sweet that can be mistaken with other types of pork. A carried underarms pig only weights about 10 kg, it can be cooked into steamed, grilled, fried and roasted dishes. The sauce that serve with these dished is made with salt, green chilli, bischofia javanica’s leaves, michelia tonkinensis’ seeds and zanthoxylum rhetsa’s seeds.

Anh Dung restaurant
Add: 69 Xuan Vien st, Sapa town
Opening hours: 8.00 AM- 10.30 PM
Hoang Minh restaurant
Add: number 23-24 Sapa food court (the corner of Xuan Vien st and Fansipan st)
Opening hours: 9.00 am- 10.00 pm
 

7. Grilled dishes - Sapa food 

The cool weather at night in Sapa Vietnam makes people want to sit next to a stove and wait for skewers of pork to be cooked properly. Carried underarms pork, cow meat wrapped with cat mustard greens, grilled salmon, sticky rice cooked in bamboo and roasted egg all have wonderful smelling that attract people’s attention. With the skillful combination between spices that can only be found in high land area have turned these simple ingredients into specialties that are hard to forget, especially it is really meaningful when people can try these dishes with their kith and kin on holiday.  

Khu Do Nuong (BBQ area)
Add: Along Cau May st, Sapa
Opening hours: 4.00 pm – 10.00 pm
 

8. Cat mustard greens - Sapa food 

This type of vegetable has curled leaves, deep-green color, crisper and sweeter than normal mustard green. Fried cat mustard greens with fresh ginger is an indispensable dish in everyday meal of Sapa Vietnam civilians beside meat. In order to keep the original taste of the cat mustard green, the cooks use their hands to split the vegetables into parts instead of using knife. Cat mustard green is usually eaten with hot pot. 

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9. Black chicken - Sapa food 

Black chicken or evil chicken with black skin, crispy bone, sweet meat. In Sapa Vietnam, the most famous dish made with black chicken is grilled black chicken with honey. Before applying honey above the chicken’s skin, it is cleaned thoroughly and embalmed with spices specified with the flavor of highland. Tourists can try this cooked black chicken roasted above charcoal stove dipped in sauce mixed from salt, lemon, peppercorn and mint leaves. 

10. Smoked buffalo meat

This dish is originally created by the black Thai with the aim of keeping food for rainy season or those who go on a long-time journey into the wood. Pieces of griskin and thigh are sliced along the slade meat, embalmed with spices, wild herbs then hung onto the smoking-shelf to smoke out the meat. These pieces of meat can only be put down after about 8 months to a year. The smell of smoke can make the meat smell pungent and hard to smell but the more we chew at the meat the better the flavor will gradually get. The spicy yet sweet slices of meat leave a strong and unforgettable impression on each tourist come to visit this place. 

Fansipan Restaurant
Add: 25 Cau May, Sapa
Opening hours: 9.00 am – 10.00 pm