Cao Lau — the Dish That Cannot Be Made Anywhere Else

Cao lầu exists only in Hoi An. Not in the sense of “it is best here” — in the sense that taken elsewhere, it cannot be made.

Why it cannot be made anywhere else

Cao lầu noodles need two ingredients that only Hoi An has to hand:

Ash water from the Cham Islands. The rice has to soak in water made from ash of trees on Cu Lao Cham. The alkali in that ash gives the noodles their chew and their yellow-brown colour, and no other ash substitutes for it.

Water from the Bá Lễ well. The water used to grind the batter has to come from the Bá Lễ well in the old town — an ancient Cham well, cool and free of alum. Change the water and the texture changes.

On top of that, Hoi An’s cool humid climate affects how the batter ferments and how the noodles dry. Between the three, the recipe travels but the dish does not.

How cao lau differs from mi Quang

This is the most common confusion, since both come from the same region and both are “almost dry”.

The quick tell: cao lầu has brown crisp squares on top, mì Quảng comes with sesame cracker.

What goes in the bowl

• Cao lầu noodles, briefly blanched and drained
• Thịt xíu — pork marinated in five spice, braised down hard, sliced
• A few spoons of the braising juices, thick and salty, not a broth
• Trà Quế herbs — mustard greens, mint, blanched bean sprouts
• Crisp fried cao lầu squares, cut from the same dough and fried
• Pork crackling, peanuts, green chilli, lime

To eat it, mix from the bottom up so the juices coat every noodle, then start. Do not ask for extra broth — cao lầu is a dry dish.

Where to eat it

Inside Hoi An market or at the long-established places in the old town is the safest bet. Market prices are usually considerably lower than the street-front restaurants without any drop in quality.

A few honest notes:

• Many places in the tourist area use factory-made noodles rather than the old method. Those are softer and less chewy. The places still making noodles by hand tend to be the older ones with little decoration.
• Cao lầu is a lunch dish; many places close once they sell out.
• One bowl is not filling for a big appetite — plan on ordering something else too.

Taking cao lau home

Shops in the old town sell dried cao lầu noodles packed as a gift. They keep well, and at home you only need to soak and blanch them.

To be straight about it: cooking it at home gets you about seventy or eighty per cent of eating it there, because the braising juices and the Trà Quế herbs are the hard parts to replace. Still worth buying — it is a light gift that will not break in a suitcase.

How good the braising juices are comes down largely to the fish sauce used. A concentrated first-press sauce colours and flavours the pork quite differently from an industrial one.

Read more

• Hoi An Ancient Town — where the dish comes from
• Mì Quảng — the dish it is most often confused with