Located in South-Central Coast, Ninh Thuan shares border with Khanh Hoa Province on the north, Lam Dong Province on the west, Binh Thuan Province on the south and East Sea on the east.
Ninh Thuan province is lying in the middle of Central Viet Nam, has a small plain created by the Dinh River originating from Lam Vien Plateau. The province is famous for white-sand beaches, vast gardens of table grapes, onions and hot peppers. The province is also inhabited by a great number of the Cham ethnic minority people.
CLIMATE
The climate is a combination of the tropical monsoon and dry and windy weather. It is hot, dry, windy all of year. There is two seasons: the rain season lasts from May to November, the dry season lasts from December to April. Annual average temperature is 27ºC..
TRANSPORTATION
Phan Rang – Thap Cham City is 105km from Nha Trang, 110km from Da Lat, 350km from Ho Chi Minh City and 1.382km from Hanoi. Phan Rang Town is on North – South Express Train, National Highway No.1A and National Highway No.27.
RESTAURANT/DINING
Coming to Ninh Thuan, to the land of wind and sun, not only you will admire the unspoiled beauty of famous beaches like Ninh Chu, Vinh Hy bay, Ca Na or the ancient and mystical tower Champa or the romantic sand hill of Nam Cuong, but also the notorious delicious list of cuisines: dried squid, shrimp cake, chicken rice, iguanas, goat, lamb and many more.
Chicken rice
Everywhere in Vietnam, you can easily find a dish of chicken rice. From deep fried to grilled, chicken rice anywhere else is not even close to the steamed chicken and rice in Binh Dinh. The chicken is chopped into bite-size but not shredded and place on top of the rice.
Hat snail salad
The people in Ninh Thuan and other places also call this snail “the woman breast” snail because of its shape, like a breast of a woman. There are many ways to cook the snail, simplest are to boil or grill. A more complicated dish of the snail would be the salad. After washing the snails, you will also need to boil them. Using a pair of chopsticks to turn the snails so the snails can be completely cooked, you will also need to remove the waste of the snail, which has a green color. You will also want to mince the snail so that you can eat it easier. Ingredients to mix with the snail consist of bacon, sliced cucumber, cilantro, smashed peanut, fried onions. The snail also needs lemon juice mix with sugar and bit of fish sauce so the sauce can be sour and sweet. Pouring the sauce on top of the snail, bacon, cucumber and cilantro, mixing everything together and putting some peanut and fried onions on top and you will have a complete snail salad.
Vietnamese traditional pancake (Bánh xèo)
Ninh Thuan, along with so many cuisines, is also a great destination for Vietnamese pancakes lovers.
Different from many other places, the Ninh Thuan pancake is cooked in clay mold, and placed in a bigger oven, which can hold four to five molds. The cake doesn’t need a lot of oil to coat the mold, and just enough amount of flour to make the cake crunchy, not soft. When eating the cake, you should feel free to add in peanut, bean sprouts, and dip the cake in the amazing sauce.
Shrimp cake
It is a huge loss for you if you came to Ninh Thuan and didn’t try the amazing shrimp cake. The sour, spicy and softness of the cake will make you remember it forever.
The cake is made of rice flour mixed with some sticky rice flour, and baked on a very small, custom designed mold. The experience chef will know how to remove the cake from the mold intact, and the cake has to be soft and the crust is yellow, not burnt. Using the clay mold to bake, the cake doesn’t use a lot of oil.
Fish rolls soup cake
Fish rolls soup cake is a combination of fish, shrimp, and the broth of the soup made of fish. The special feature is the soup cake made from the rice flour, which is only a little bit bigger than the normal noodle. The broth is sweet thanks to the fish bones, which is also the key characteristic of the meal. The soup cake is cooked with fish rolls. The fillet of the fish is used to make the rolls, and the rolls are either fried or boiled. The fire is small so the broth can be clear, less fat, just enough to heat up the soup cake and the fish rolls. The sweet of the yellow fish rolls, the fat of the white soup cake, the green of cilantro, the bold flavor of pepper are all combined to create a perfect cuisine.
