Mi Quang

Mi Quang is the everyday dish of Quang Nam: wide rice noodles, coloured yellow with turmeric, in a bowl with only a small amount of intensely flavoured broth - enough to coat rather than to submerge, which is the defining difference from pho - topped with pork and prawn, or chicken, or fish, with peanuts, herbs, banana flower and a piece of banh trang me, the sesame rice cracker, broken over it. It is eaten at any hour and made at home as much as sold. Every district and family claims a version, and the argument about which is correct is a permanent local pastime.

What you actually see

• Wide turmeric-yellow noodles - the base of the dish.
• Broth that coats, not covers - the difference from pho.
• A sesame rice cracker on top - broken into the bowl.
• Endless local versions - each district claiming its own.

When to go

Year round; it is eaten at any time of day. A meal.

Honest expectations

Restaurant versions in tourist areas are often bland compared with village stalls. Portions are modest. The dish varies so much that a bad first bowl says little about the dish. Cash is easier at stalls.

Nearby

Da Nang and Hoi An are the usual bases; the villages inland make it best.