November 2, 2007
Cuisine: Vietnamese
1A Hai Phong Street
Da Nang, Vietnam
Phone: 0511827936
Website: none
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Mi Quang Thit (11,000 VND)
Mi Quang Tom (11,000 VND)
Mi Quang Ga (15,000 VND)
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Mi quang is to Da Nang as deep-dish pizza is to Chicago.
If the SAT’s had more analogies like the one above, I would have scored much higher than 1170. Somehow, even with the boring analogies, The Astronomer managed to score a cool 1570. Genius!
The Astronomer and I were only in Da Nang for a day the other week, but we made sure to pencil in a little mi quang action. We dined at Mi Quang 1A based on a recommendation from our friend Cathy before catching our flight back to Saigon. The restaurant was large, lit in fluorescent lights and laid-back. Pajamas? Check. Kung Fu movie? Check.
The eatery offers three different types of mi quang—shrimp, pork, and chicken. We ordered a bowl of each; I had the shrimp, while The Astronomer went for a bowl of pork and a bowl of chicken.
I’ve covered the ins and outs of this dish before and was really impressed with 1A’s execution. Even though they replaced my beloved sesame cracker with a shrimp chip, the mi quang tom was a fabulous bowl of noodles. Whereas the mi quang in Saigon and San Diego contain a plethora of meats mixed together, 1A compartmentalizes each one. However, the broth is the same regardless of the meat of choice.
This was The Astronomer’s first time sampling the classic Da Nang dish and he had a look of utter bliss on his face as he polished off his two bowls. He commented that the broth was perfectly subtle and yet flavorful, kind of like Hue’s com hen dish. He preferred the pork rendition over the chicken because bones are difficult to deal with in a noodle soup.
Since our return home to Saigon, The Astronomer has eaten a number of bowls of mi quang from a few different establishments to see how they measure up to Da Nang’s. Thus far, he has yet to encounter a product as fine as Mi Quang 1A’s.
Mi Quang is one of the strangest dishes in the Vietnamese repertoire — half noodle soup, half noodle salad. The broth functions like a dressing for the other ingredients.
Sorry that you didn’t get toasted banh trang nuong (sesame rice cracker) to round things out. The banh phong tom shrimp chip is a decent stand in.
Maybe we went on an off day, but the Mi Quang here was just okay. Funny thing is we’ve had better in the states! Da Nang wasn’t the treasure trove of good eats that we thought we would encounter, but there were some gems in the alley ways. Just a couple of blocks down the street in an alley is a place that serves up one of the better bowls of bun bo hue. Very generic sounding name though - Bun Ba Dao. It’s close to the bridge. We were told by locals that there were some good bun ca places in the alley’s too, but we didn’t get a chance to check them out unfortunately. Hopefully on your next visit you’ll get a chance to try the alleyway goods and blog about them. I would love to see the pictures to remember the experiences we had in vietnam.
great blog, keep up the fantastic work! =)
Hey folks, i have been to this place and i would say that it s the best spot for Mi Quang in Da Nang. They have been running this business for many generations. My grandma house is about 10 minutes walking to there!!!