Cat Ba Night Market

The market sits on 1/4 Street (Một Tháng Tư, "the First of April") in the middle of Cát Bà Island, across from Cát Bà Square. The square is near the boat pier, the bus to Gia Luận picks up passengers there, and the market is a few minutes' walk from the pier. It is not the daytime seafood market on Tùng Dinh Street, and it is not the staged night market by the beach. This one near the square is a local kind of market: unpretentious and busy, with food stalls mixed in among souvenir and local-specialty stalls. After dark you smell and hear it before you see it, from the seafood grilling over charcoal.

Cát Bà Night Market: pick your catch, wait for the coals

What this market keeps is the habit of eating what you have seen alive. Seafood is laid out live at the stalls: squid, crab, cockles, oysters, sea snails, fish. You pick the one you want and the stall cooks it on the spot the way you ask. Each stall sets small tables and seats right in front of it, so you sit there and eat while it is hot. There is no shared seating area. Dishes people often mention are tu hài (a large sea clam) grilled with scallion oil, bề bề (mantis shrimp, also called tôm tít) roasted with salt, sam biển (horseshoe crab) stir-fried sweet and sour, chả mực (squid cake), chewy and crisp and said to be pounded from fresh squid, and bánh đa cua (crab noodle soup). Not every stall has every dish. Late at night there is cháo bề bề, a mantis-shrimp porridge cooked from a mix of sticky and plain rice. If you don't want a full meal, there is bánh mì cay with meatballs, pâté and herbs, then thạch dừa (coconut jelly) and chè (a sweet dessert soup).

So what does an evening here cost? Snacks are cheap, and a filling meal is mid-range. Seafood is a different matter: it is sold by weight, and the price depends on the creature, its size and the season. A seafood dinner for a group can easily go past mid-range. The same seafood usually costs a little more at the night market than at the morning market. The extra pays for convenience and atmosphere. The night market suits eating on the spot, and the day market suits buying to take away. Before you agree, ask the price first, ask whether it is by weight or by plate, and have it weighed before it is cooked. With souvenirs you can bargain a little. Bring some cash.

The lights come on at dusk, and the market winds down late at night. If you arrive just as the lights come on, it is easy to pick a seat. It is busiest after dinner, more so at weekends, and that is also when the grills are liveliest. In summer it is busier and stays open later. In the quiet season it closes earlier, and in heavy rain or strong wind the vendors pack up early. The people here are not only tourists: students, motorbike-taxi drivers and other islanders come too. Now that the island also has a staged night market, what does a market where islanders still sit down to eat mean today?

Enough to decide whether to go

What it is

The night market by the square: live seafood picked and cooked on the spot, mixed with souvenir and local-specialty stalls

Where

On 1/4 Street in the middle of Cát Bà Island, across from Cát Bà Square, a few minutes' walk from the pier

When to go

Lights come on at dusk and it winds down late at night. Easiest to find a seat just as it opens, busiest after dinner

What you'll spend

Snacks are cheap and a filling meal is mid-range. Seafood is sold by weight, and the price depends on what you choose

Entry

No gate, no ticket. You pay only for what you eat