The other night I had to leave a party that I was at because it was someone's birthday and they started passing shots around. I am not normally a fan of shots because I get plenty drunk with just regular drinks. Once the shots start rolling, they are going to continue coming because someone is always going to feel compelled to get a round to compensate the others for buying them one. Rather than get caught up in this I invented a reason why I needed to leave and then just went on a wander.
I wasn't being anti-social, I had already been there for 2 hours and didn't want to get completely trashed and ruin the following day.
I stumbled upon this place that I have never noticed before when I went on a little walk before going home.
I was hungry as it turns out, plus it has been a while since I have been really adventurous with my dining. I get stuck in a rut where I am eating mostly western food and this isn't just more expensive, but it is also less healthy. So i figured what the hell, I'll give whatever this "momo" stuff is a try.
It was expected that the giant light up sign was going to be a bit deceptive and while the steamed vegetable momo actually is 30k, that is not what I wanted at all. Since nothing on the menu was expensive I just told the one person working there, who is also the cook, that give me whatever he thinks I would like the most. He ran a few suggestions by me and eventually we landed on the pork and cheesy fried pork momo. Not the healthiest of choices I am sure but since I didn't really know what any of this stuff even is, I would rather leave it up to the professionals.
There he is, the one and only staff member, going around the corner to momo-it-up. It took about 8 minutes to prepare and I could see that he wasn't just pouring something from a freezer bag into a deep fryer. That made me happy because that is always so boring to me when someone just fries up something that we could buy from the freezer section of the Vietnam equivalent of Wal-Mart. He was folding the momo's himself and was putting a lot of care into it.
I regret that I didn't take a picture of the end product but since I always cringe a little bit when I see people taking photos of their dinner combined with the fact that I was a bit drunk, it didn't occur to me to document the procedure.
Overall I thought it was a wonderful way of spending less than $3 to get some "drunk food." It ticked all the drunk boxes... fast, fried, and filled with cheese. You do need to be a bit careful because since they were prepared just behind that little stall he has there, the momos were served at the temperature of the surface of the sun. I learned my lesson after the first bite.
If you ever end up staying in Da Nang you will almost certainly be in this area anyway but this particular stand at least for now (this was written in July of 2024) the little shop is located at this location. You'll notice that the entry is actually a nail salon but that is just because this MOMO place doesn't have a listing on anything online.