Cam Nam Village, just a bridge away from Hoi An’s Old Quarter, is a nice getaway from the hectic pace of central Old Town. This tranquil destination, which welcomes hundreds of guest everyday, typifies the sort of gastronomically experience available to both foreign and local visitors. Walking around the village, following a beautiful tranquil river lined with starfruit trees, people can explore the local rustic food specialties of the area in dozens of little restaurants.

Cam Nam dishes are special in another aspect: their connection to the surrounding ecosystem. All the dishes described so far express local identity due to their cultural and historical contexts. Thus, cao lau and mi quang have been localized through history, depicting a “culinary mythology” that constructs culture connections between food artifacts past and present, and the same can be said about white rose dumplings and chicken rice. Cam Nam specialities, however, are local in one more respect: the baby clams are harvested in the river, right beneath the restaurants, while the corn is cultivated literally all around. Therefore, the “locality” of these dishes is literal and stems, first and foremost, from their ecological embeddedness.

Besides being a charming ancient town, Hoi An contains many hidden attractions that travelers might never know about. Although the local people know about these, they might never evaluate how much these would appeal to the traveler. From the town, across the Cam Nam Village bridge, there are great views of the river on both sides of the bridge, the market and the old town. Moreover, it is also interesting to see the colorful and huge fishing nets being raised up and down.