Ham Rong Street in downtown Sapa is home to something quite unique. Within a section of 100m, you can count some 30 food stalls. They all sell delicious broiled foods.

A stall consists of only a table and about four stools, along with food baskets and grilling tools.

As day turns into night, some stalls of sweet potatoes or brown tubers begin the work that makes this area appropriately called “grill street.” All at once the street becomes livelier with the joining in of the meat and corn stalls. Besides stalls of various grilled birds, chicken and tofu, there are broiled-egg stalls. Smoke rising from the stalls combined with the night mist creates a fanciful scene unique to Sapa.

It has been said that you would need at least a week to sample all of the grill dishes offered. Each dish has a specific cooking method, so you can visit each stall and be sure to have a different dining experience each time. For example, before being grilled, the tofu pieces are soaked until they have a strong sour smell. Its smell may be offensive to some, but it is delectable!

Another unique Sapa cuisine is the broiled egg. In the Mekong Delta, people usually eat fried eggs and they find the concept of broiled eggs to be quite strange. After broiling, a broiled egg will have the savory smell of yolk mixed with the strange smell of the whole egg. However, grilling eggs requires careful skill because it is easy to break the eggs while preparing them.

Be sure to try these special warm dishes the next time you’re in Sapa.