New Air Route to Da Lat by Vietjet Air

On the occasion of the Da Lat Flower Festival and the 2013 Da Lat Cultural Tourism Week, VietJetAir opens the new route Vinh – Dalat, its second route out of the resort city. Vietjet already serves the air route Hanoi – Dalat. The airline will offer 1,080 seats per week offering three return frequencies per week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The flight is scheduled to take off at 08:05am from Vinh and arrive in Da Lat at 09:35am. On the way back, the flight is scheduled to depart at 10:10am from Da Lat and land at Vinh at 11:40am.

With a duration of 90 minutes, this route does not only connect two cities that are rich in history and culture, but also contribute to their commercial and tourism growth and meet travel demand.

Dalat celebrates its 120 anniversary of its founding. A large festival is due to be held from December 27 to 31 with France participating as one of the highlights of the Vietnam – France Year. Since April 2013 and until the first half of 2014, France and Vietnam jointly celebrate 40 years of dimplomatic relations. Dalat is part of the celebration as the city was totally created by French as a cool mountainous resort.

Major events include a festival, the fifth Da Lat Flower Festival and a ceremony to launch the 2014 Central Highlands - Da Lat National Tourism Year. Among the renovations conducted in Dalat are new lighting and new pavement as well as two new shopping malls. Local authorities are now building more parks, including Tran Quoc Toan park, the city’s first ever cherry blossom park, while renovating a range of ancient colonial style villas to host the tourists to the festival.

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Da Lat Rail Routes To Be Improved

Local transport will get a face lift according to Da Lat’s provincial people committee to improve travel across the province.

According to the committee, the project will be undertaken from 2020 to 2030 and will include six city monorail routes mainly to serve tourists in Da Lat. Most of the area’s visitors are Vietnamese from the country’s main cities, although the area has always been popular with international visitors interested in nature.

The monorail routes will serve Suoi Vang, Tuyen Lam Lake, Love Valley, Tung Lam Junction, Lien Khuong Airport and Langbian highland.

The authorities will also rebuild a disused railroad to Cham Temple an 84 km distance through mountain passes. The main tourist destination is just 7 km into the route, while the remainder will serve domestic commercial travel.

Da Lat is the capital of Lam Dong province located at 1,500 metres above sea level on the Langbian Plateau in the southern parts of the Central Highlands region.

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Banh trang nuong, a new street bite in Saigon

Banh trang nuong - Photo by thunguyen_209

From Threeland Travel's Blog - July 2012

In the late afternoons, when it is too early for the dinner, I often stop by the banh trang nuong (grilled dry pancake) stall near the Notre Dame Cathedral for a light downtown snack.

Besides the Notre Dame location on Han Tuyen Street, banh trang nuong can also be found on Nguyen Hue Street in District 1 and several other locations in the city. Banh trang nuong is one of the newest street snacks in town. It was originally created in Dalat.

“Over the last year, this kind of snack has become more popular in Ho Chi Minh City, but I have been cooking it for around two years,” said the multi-tasking cook who I interviewed while she prepared a batch of banh trang nuong in front of the city's trademark church.

She spread a dry pancake over hot charcoals in a pot and quickly spreads on the other ingredients. At the same time, she spoke with me, and looked around to see if the police were coming or not. Pavement food stalls are banned in the Notre Dame Cathedral area.

Banh trang nuong reveals how open Dalat cooking is to foreign food culture. Dalat was founded by the French during colonial times. As a result, French flavors such as butter, baguette bread, and jam have been used in local cuisine for decades.

The price for one banh trang nuong is only VND 7,000, the same as a mere motorbike parking fee at fancy establishments in District 1. In this city, it is a super cheap snack but the taste is also super interesting, and it’s fun to eat.

Banh trang nuong includes tiny dry shrimp, a quail egg, ground pork, and chili paste all linked by a key French culinary staple: butter. All of these ingredients are very thinly spread over a round dry pancake, which is then folded in half when the cake is almost completely grilled.

It takes only a minute to grill a single banh trang nuong, perfect for food stall owners needing to escape the police.

Normally a tiny food stall with a pot of hot charcoal and boxes of ingredients is looked after by a family, typically a wife and husband or a mother and her children. One will be in charge of cooking and the others keep look-out.

They have to spot the police from far enough away to be able to evade them. When the police approach, each member of the group will pack up a small part of the food stall and run in a different direction.

Although banh trang nuong is a new dish, it reflects traditional Vietnamese cooking concepts that promote contrast in texture and color. There are different tastes and textures such as crunchy (dry pancake), spicy (chili sauce), fatty (butter), something salty and dry (tiny dried shrimp), and the freshness of shallots and quail eggs.

Banh trang nuong also includes a variety of colors: green (shallot), yellow (butter and quail egg), red (chili paste) and sand color (pancake).

When my cake was almost done, the cook turned it to grill the other side evenly. The cake was very hot, and the cook reminded me to be careful. Her husband gave me a piece of paper so I could hold the hot cake with my fingers.

Banh trang nuong has a nice fragrance of baked butter mixed with other fresh and dry ingredients. This taste is perfect for the late afternoon, when the temperature cools -- it's especially good after the rain. I like sitting under a tamarind tree and enjoying the cake while watching the sunset over Notre Dame Cathedral and April 30th Park.

Around me, most other diners are groups of young people, sitting on newspapers splayed out on the sidewalk. It is a special place to enjoy a relaxing moment in such a lively city.

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