Most travelers don’t set an alarm to visit a market before sunrise.

But sometimes, the best part of a journey happens before breakfast.

During my stay in Tuy Hoa, Vietnam, I began waking up early and walking near the sea.Fresh seafood.

One morning, I discovered something that became one of my favorite memories of the city.

Vegetables that looked as if they had just arrived from the fields.

Local people shopping for the day’s meals. And a market already full of life while much of the city was still waking up.

I realized that this wasn’t simply a place to buy food.

It was a window into how people here eat and live.

Tuy Hoa morning market with fresh seafood and local vegetables in Vietnam

Before Breakfast, the Market Is Already Alive

The morning begins early in Tuy Hoa. Fishermen return from the sea.

Vendors prepare their stalls. Customers arrive looking for fresh ingredients for the day’s meals.

What caught my attention was how little distance there seemed to be between the source of the food and the person buying it.

This felt very different from walking through a supermarket and picking up something that had traveled through a long supply chain.

Here, food felt immediate.

Fresh fish and squid for sale at a morning market in Tuy Hoa Vietnam

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Fresh Tuna Is Part of Phu Yen’s Story

Tuna isn’t just another fish in this part of Vietnam.

Phu Yen has a significant ocean-tuna fishing industry, and official provincial planning has long identified ocean tuna as an important part of the region’s fisheries. 

Seeing fresh fish in the morning market gave those statistics a human face.

Behind every fish are fishermen, boats, vendors, cooks and families.

That’s something a traveler can easily miss if we only visit famous tourist attractions.

Squid, Tuna, Vegetables-Simple Ingredients

Beside the seafood, I also saw fresh vegetables.That combination interested me.

Fish. Squid. Vegetables. Herbs.

Nothing particularly complicated. And that’s exactly what made me think.

We often hear about expensive supplements, superfoods and complicated diets. But what if healthy eating begins somewhere much simpler?

Fresh ingredients.Variety.Reasonable portions.And thoughtful cooking.

Fresh seafood at a local Tuy Hoa market

Fresh Doesn’t Automatically Mean Healthy

Fish can be fresh and still become an unnecessarily heavy meal if we cover it with too much oil, sugar or salt.

Vegetables can be beautiful at the market and then be cooked far longer than necessary.

After decades of working with cookware, this is something I continue to think about wherever I travel.

Good ingredients deserve thoughtful cooking.

What the Market Reminded Me About Cooking

My approach has always been fairly simple.When appropriate for the ingredient and recipe, I prefer to use the natural moisture already present in food rather than automatically adding large amounts of water.

I also believe we don’t need to make every ingredient complicated.

Fresh fish doesn’t always need heavy sauces. Fresh vegetables don’t always need excessive cooking.

Simple Vietnamese seafood meal made with fresh ingredients

A Market Can Teach You More Than a Tourist Attraction

One reason I enjoy traveling slowly is that I have time to notice places like this. A famous landmark tells you something about a city’s history.

But a morning market tells you something about how people live today. What they eat. What they buy. When their day begins.

And what ingredients end up on the family table.

That’s why this simple morning in Tuy Hoa stayed with me.

From the Sea to the Table

The shorter the journey from good ingredients to a thoughtfully prepared meal, the simpler healthy eating can sometimes feel.

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From Fresh Ingredients to Healthy Cooking

Traveling through Vietnam keeps bringing me back to a question I’ve considered throughout my career:

If we start with excellent ingredients, how should we cook them?

My interest in that question eventually led me to work with low-moisture cooking methods designed to make use of the moisture naturally present in food when appropriate.

For anyone interested in seeing the cooking concept I’ve worked with over the years, I have an older AirCore demonstration video showing it in action.

Watch my AirCore cooking demonstration on YouTube⁠:

I’m especially interested in your experience.

How would you cook seafood this fresh?

Steam it? Grill it? Make soup? Or keep the preparation as simple as possible? Tell me in the comments.

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