The Best Hotel Poolside Snack Is the Last One You'd Expect

The difference between a good hotel and a great one is all in the details. While for many travelers, the “details” include decorative wallpaper, unique pillow trim, or even a good hair dryer, these typical odds and ends, without fail, are lost on me. But finally, after one fateful trip, I found a hotel amenity I can truly get behind. 

The Intercontinental Da Nang, designed by Bill Bensley, is a property that is beaming with hidden nuggets just waiting to be found. Located in a nature preserve along Vietnam’s central coastline, the carpeting boasts monkeys playing joyfully, the verandas overlook the bay and are filled with lush, carefully manicured greenery, and even the staff’s uniforms are designed to subtly blend in with the black and white color of buildings. No detail is spared. But the best feature the hotel has to offer can be found poolside.

Every day at precisely 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. (yes, I asked for the times after I missed it one day), a man walks around the perimeter of the pool, asking guests if they’d like a little piece of corn on the cob.

There was nothing special about it. It wasn’t slathered with caviar. It wasn’t even coated in butter. It was just a two-inch piece of yellow corn, steamed, still a little warm, and served without a napkin. And every kernel was delicious.

Maybe corn on the cob isn't all that shocking. Corn on the cob is, after all, a frequent side dish at barbecues, which often take place poolside. It is a popular street snack in many countries (i.e., elote in Mexico), including, I'd learn, Vietnam. But it is certainly a departure from the standard fare of poolside snacks at hotels, which typically consists of fresh fruit and maybe, if you're lucky, French fries.

But putting out corn as a pool snack was no mistake. "People in Vietnam associate corn on the cob with relaxing," Chef Doan Thi Thu, who works at the hotel, shared. "We chose the steamed corn for the poolside snack because it's light tasting and easy to eat — perfect for after a swim."

It turns out that corn is big in Vietnam, well beyond this pool. Really big. After sufficiently relaxing by the water, I made my way through Hoi An, an ancient port city on Vietnam's central coast just an hour's drive from Da Nang. The city is more or less trapped in time. It used to be the main port, but once trade broadened, it all moved to Da Nang, which could serve more ships. Still, at night, the city comes to life, lanterns aglow along rows of distinct buildings, and hawker carts emerge and fill the banks of the river with steam and smells. 

I quickly spotted some corn being slung by hawkers on the street and learned that there were two main kinds, grilled (called bao nuong) or steamed (called bap hap) and that at these hawker stalls, you could get scallion oil drizzled on top, a concoction that was almost better than butter (and was better than butter for me, a lactose intolerant).

But here's the secret to what made the steamed corn, on the street and by the pool, so special. It's not the corn itself, which looked like anything you could find in the U.S., but instead, it's about what it's steamed in. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't regular water but coconut water, which lent it a rich, buttery, somewhat sweet flavor.

The only thing this street corn was missing was a pool to eat it by. So dutifully, I returned to my recliner the next day and the day after that and waited for the corn on the cob to arrive. I'd never associated corn on the cob with relaxing, and to be honest, I'm not sure I do — after all, I was biting my fingernails in anticipation. But what I can say for certain is this: It's the only snack I ever want to eat poolside again.