Son Tra Seafood Market, Da Nang

Since this is a beach city, I was expecting there to be loads of restaurants that offer fresh seafood and in most cases live seafood. As you would think, these sorts of establishments are along the beach in droves so quite some time ago I decided to check them out. I was very disappointed to find out that the price of these places was actually more expensive than in the west. I was shocked about this because nearly everything else in this country is dramatically cheaper than in the west or even the neighboring countries. It made no sense to me that something that is literally caught in the ocean that we can see right in front of us would cost so much.

Turns out I was going to the wrong places.

I had never had a lobster in my life up until yesterday and I was excited to find out that I was able to get a whole one of these guys for 200,000 VND , which is less than $10. I had no idea what to expect but I've always imagined lobster to be the food of the rich and famous, or at least that is what it appeared to be all of my life. Of course these are very different from the lobsters that I had grown accustomed to in USA in that they do not have claws (we don't even have that species here at all) and I don't pretend to know the biological differences between the two. They both look like giant ocean insects and are meant to be delicious.

I was eager to find out.

There are lots of other ocean options available here as well including all manner of shellfish, many of which I am not all that familiar with. You can get them on combo plates that include a variety of various shells including scallops (which I am familiar with and love) as well as mystery shells that I had never tried in my life.

In the end I decided on pork belly (which I know I like) and a lobster (which is an unknown to me.)

My apologies for the less than awesome picture but it was quite dark and i refuse to use a flash in public. This was garlic and butter BBQ lobster and it was $8 or so. One thing that was surprising to me was how difficult it was to get the meat out of the shell and we were only provided with chopsticks. Therefore, being the ape-man that I am i dove in with my hands only to discover that our table was rather light on the napkins. This aspect of the entire situation could definitely be improved upon.

The pork belly, which I already am a huge fan of, was a big hit and it was around $3.50 for a massive piece of it. I shared.

My friends got a bunch of side items that were included with their package deal and while i didn't steal any of it, they assured me that it was better than they expected.

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At the end of the meal I was happy that this place was pointed out to me because the price per item was about 1/3 what is being charged at the tourist rip-off places near the beach and yes, I do understand that the prices are higher because of their location and presumably extremely high rent.

The Son Tra Market is just a closed street with makeshift tents and BBQ's all along the sides and you sit in plastic chairs, struggle for cutlery and in the future I will bring a hand towel to compensate for the lack of napkins / tissues. Other than these things that you have to experience in order to know in the first place, I am really glad that we went here and I will definitely return.

The beers were also 40 cents each, which is always a welcome addition to any deal.

I suppose you could consider this an "insider tip" because this market is not evident, is not advertised, and the expensive seafood places near the beach are certainly not going to tell you where it is. I think you would need to be told about it to know that it exists at all.

Thankfully for anyone that is reading this, I already did the legwork for ya! and you can find this market every day (closed during monsoon season) right here