Cao Lau, a typical dish of Hoi An town, is made with noodles, pork, and herbs. At the recent 3rd International Cao Lau Festival organized by Hoi An People’s Committee, 10 foreign chefs from Vietnamese resorts and restaurants modified Cao Lau into special dishes.

The dish usually contains rice noodles, slices of barbecued pork, shrimp, and greens and is topped with peanuts, rice crackers, and scallions; and sometimes served with lime or chili jam. During last month’s food festival, Cao Lau was cooked in different ways.  

American chef Peter Cuong Franklin created a fusion dish made with noodles, squid, mussel, and tomato ketchup. Italian chef Andrea Chetta combined Cao Lau with spaghetti ingredients and recipes. 

He said “Spaghetti is really traditional in Italy. I think like Asia, the people Asian people they cannot stay without rice, rice or the noodle. Same in Italy, we cannot stay without pasta. So the difference is the pasta we do, the main ingredient is flour. We can do only flour and eggs, so it’s gonna be egg pasta or flour and water so it’s gonna be less heavy.”

Korean Chef Steven Simyong experimented with something he called Cao Lau Bulgogi, which adds fried beef and pickled napa cabbage (kim chi).

Australian Matthew Donnellan cooked noodles with crispy barbecue pork and tiny shrimp. 

Miyayawa Genta created a Japanese version of Cao Lau: “Basically, I use the Ramyeon noodle instead of “Cao Lau” noodle. And about sauce, “Cao Lau” is made by the pork sauce, so I also use pork roast, and put meat sauce because I’m Japanese, and also put some chili sauce and Sake Mirrin with it and some vegetables, such as tomato, salad, and green onion. It’s also interesting. This is the first time I create the Japanese side of the “Cao Lau”. It’s still developing but if they give me the chance one more time, I would like to do better again.

Chef Cesar Combe, owner of French restaurant Chez Cesar in Hoi An, said his Cao Lau dish has some European taste:  “I made the fusion with the Vietnamese style (Hoi An style) with the classical style. Because they make the true beef with wine and carrot. I make chips, sweet potato with meat. I make bread chips. I mix oil with basil and garlic for just change taste or something like that. I want all the time my dishes crispy.”

The 10 participating chefs also jointly cooked a record large 100kg pot of Cao Lau, which was then served to the public.                                           

“It is very delicate with the spices and herbs so they mix together and blend together very well. That’s like most of Vietnamese do, it’s very delicious, very fresh.”

Chef David Lacroix of Victoria hotel in Hoi An won the first prize of Cao Lau cooking competition. `

He said: “It’s not traditional French, it is more like a kind of food but what we want to do to have food chicken take away, new idea, it’s not French, nothing to do with French, we want to try something different. I see that Cao Lau we can go with many dishes, before I don’t know, but last time I mixed Cao Lau with the cheese and it’s ok, it’s possible. I tried already and it is nice. Bacon, with salmon, Cao Lau with salmon.”

Organizers hope the festival will help promote the Vietnamese dish Cao Lau to the world and some delicacies of the world to the Vietnamese.  

VOV5