Phu Quoc Night Market, also called Duong Dong Night Market, is located in the center of Duong Dong Town, the busiest area of Phu Quoc Pearl Island. This entertainment spot has the unique cultural characteristics of the island market.
- Address: 6 Bach Dang, Duong Dong Town, Phu Quoc City, Tien Giang, Vietnam
- Opening hours: 6 PM to 11 PM or Midnight
- The busiest time: around 8 PM to 9 PM
The highlights of Phu Quoc night market
Although the night market on Phu Quoc island is not too large, it has typical colors, enough to bring you hours of fun.
1. Try fresh seafood in the night market on Phu Quoc Island
The top highlight of this night market is the rich and diverse fresh seafood, attracting the curious eyes of most visitors. It demonstrates the unique strength of the island region.
This amount of fresh seafood mainly serves the needs of tourists to enjoy every night. However, visitors should not expect seafood at Phu Quoc night market to have better prices compared to Son Tra night market in Da Nang City.
In turn, the attraction to the freshness of products from far seas creates an undeniable value for each of these delicacies. Try some fragrant squid, crabs, and snails, and sip on a cold beer to find this night market attractive.
Of course, you ask the price before enjoying. This step is never redundant when eating at local markets or restaurants during a travel itinerary in Vietnam.
In addition, after ordering, you need to wait a while for the chef to finish preparing the dish you have just chosen. Depending on the complexity of each dish, this period can be long or short. Therefore, you can choose a few snacks so that the waiting time is not boring.
2. Enjoy macapuno coconut
Macapuno coconut originates from Cau Ke, Tra Vinh province, but when you go to the night market of Phu Quoc, you can enjoy this unique coconut dish.
Macapuno coconut is characterized by its thick texture, sweet, fatty, and softer than regular coconut. The delicious taste of this fruit has a great appeal to eaters. However, macapuno coconut is hard to grow and only adapted to Tra Vinh land. The result is that not many fruits are supplied for use, so its price is relatively high.
A macapuno coconut fruit costs from 150,000 VND to 300,000 VND. This price is not cheap at all, but it is worth a try. But, a glass of this coconut can be lower.
As soon as you enter the night market gate on Ly Tu Trong Street, you will see a cart selling macapuno coconuts named Thu Van. Try this strange coconut dish! It will have you talking about this Vietnamese coconut all the time.
You also need to note that the appeal of macapuno coconut makes it difficult for eaters to refuse. But if it’s your first time trying it, or your stomach cannot be adapted to too much vegetable fat, you should only taste a moderate amount. If you still want to enjoy more, you can buy one and take it away. Within the next 3-5 days, the quality of coconut is still guaranteed when keeping the whole fruit.
3. Buy pearl souvenirs in the Phu Quoc night market
Walking around the market, I was strongly attracted to the shops selling jewelry made from pearls. Pearl products, including bracelets, necklaces, pendants, rings, and earrings, are widely sold.
Currently, the region of Phu Quoc is the most famous pearl farming area in Vietnam, so pearl products have become the dominant commodity in both quantity and quality.
However, if you want to buy a valuable gift from pearls, we recommend you do careful research. The true quality of this item is sometimes difficult to assess and can easily cause confusion.
A valuable and standard Phu Quoc pearl can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. But the version that lacks clarity of origin and quality is almost worthless. Therefore, please research carefully and consider for yourself to make the decision to buy or not buy this typical item.
However, if it is a pair of pearl earrings priced at a few hundred thousand dongs, you don’t necessarily have to give it too much consideration. Because at this price, a pair of pearls deserves to be a beautiful gift you can bring back from Phu Quoc island to your loved ones.
4. Buy pepper Phu Quoc
One of the famous specialties in Phu Quoc that cannot be ignored is pepper. Pepper trees grown here have large and firm seeds and are much more spicy and fragrant than peppers in other localities of Vietnam.
Tourists coming to Phu Quoc can stop by to visit and take photos at the pepper garden. Also, you can stop at the night market in Duong Dong Town to see how people exchange, buy, and sell finished pepper products.
Large baskets of peppers of all types: green pepper (fresh pepper), black pepper, red pepper (or pink pepper), and white pepper are displayed for customers to choose from. Among them, red and white peppers have much higher value and quality at a high price.
Black pepper is more popular, cheaper, and widely used in Vietnamese kitchens.
Coming to Phu Quoc night market, you can choose to buy a good type of pepper to bring home as a gift for relatives or your kitchen. This spice will be a valuable and practical gift of island specialties.
A small note is that the preservation time of green pepper is short, usually only usable for a few days. That means you should only buy dry peppers like black, red, and white peppers if you want to keep them for a long time and carry them away.
In addition, you also need to pay attention to the regulations on products allowed to bring when entering your country. You ensure that peppers are not on a list of goods prohibited through customs before buying them.
5. Get dry squid
Another product a lot at the night market on this island is dry squid. This specialty is a product caught by local people in the seawater around the island and directly processed and dried. Dry squid is present at many shops in the market.
When grilled, Phu Quoc dry squid is fragrant, sweet, and chewy, appealing to the taste buds.
The disadvantage of this dry squid dish is that it will have a strong fishy smell when not grilled yet. Therefore, if you want to bring it along, remember to pack it carefully, because your suitcase can become smelly with any mistake.
For many Vietnamese, dry squid in Phu Quoc is always a valuable gift. That is why many domestic tourists (Vietnamese travelers) buy dry squid as gifts when traveling to the island of Phu Quoc.
From the core products that make the Phu Quoc night market stand out, it will surely bring you a lot of fun when visiting Vietnam’s Pearl Island.
The lifestyle of the indigenous people on the island shows beautifully in the night market. Visit it to allow you to enjoy tasty island food and own some meaningful souvenirs.
