Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh

We love Vietnam.  It might be our favorite country in Asia (so far).  Our previous two trips were to the south, HCMC (also known as Saigon to those of us old enough to remember the Vietnam war, or American war as it is known to here).   With Patrick and Sarah joining us in Asia for Christmas we planned a trip to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay in the north.

 Julie made reservations for us at the MK Boutique Hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  Narrow streets filled with scooters, cars, and pedestrians provide a chaotic ambiance which is much of the charm of this area.

As you walk the streets (literally the streets because if there are sidewalks they are filled with parked scooters) you are always aware of traffic moving by within inches.  The trick is to move at a constant, predictable speed as the scooters aim for where you were, and not for where you will be in 5 seconds. 

The biggest challenge in Hanoi is crossing streets.  We found that there are two approaches that work.  The first is to wait for a break in the flow of cars when there is only a line of scooters coming, and step out into the street and walk steadily to the other side.  The scooters just flow around you on both side, much like the water in a stream going around a rock—you are essentially just a moving rock.

The other is to cross at an intersection.  Here you wait with other walkers, as well as scooters and cars.  The scooters slowly edge into the crossing stream of traffic until the crossing traffic reaches critical mass and takes control of the intersection.  It is then that you become part of the crossing mass and pass safely to the other side.

The Old Quarter also has elements that hark back to an earlier day.  You see women carrying two baskets of goods hung from a split bamboo rod across their back wearing the typical conical straw hat.  There are vendors crouched next to small charcoal grills roasting corn and potatoes to sell to both walkers and scooters passing by (kind of a Hanoi drive thru).  Women walk with baskets of fried bananas on a stick that they hawk to westerners.   

We were only here for one night before heading to Ha Long Bay for a 3-day cruise, but we were coming back for a few more days after the cruise.  We had a lot to explore, so Julie got us stared the first evening with a walking food tour through Hanoi Explore Travel.

Our guide, a young woman named Sam, met us in the lobby promptly.  After brief introductions (she also brought each of us a bottle of water) we headed out to explore Hanoi’s food scene from a local’s point of view.

Our first stop was just down the street, a banh mi place called Banh Mi P (12 Hang Buom).  We pulled up the ubiquitous stools to a small table.  Sam brought us half-sandwiches in little paper sleeves.   Before tasting them you knew they would be good because you could feel the warm, crusty bread in your hands.  These were filled with pork belly, pate, and pickled cabbage.  Adding a little squirt of a sweet chili sauce just added to what was already a flavorful file.

Next up was dessert shop called Kem Xoi (93 Hang Bac) where we had green sticky rice topped with ice cream, shredded coconut, and broad slices of fried coconut.  The sticky rice was made by cooking the rice in water that had pineapple stalks that imparted the green into the rice.  The contrasting textures in each bite was unique.  The glutinous rice, the crisp fried coconut, the chewy shredded coconut, and the creamy ice cream was unique and delicious.

The next stop was my favorite, Banh Cuon Nong (72 Hang Bo).  This “shop” is only open from 5pm to 8pm and you grab a stool (these stools are in practically every food shop) and literally sit on the sidewalk.  There you watch a woman make very thin rice flour pancakes (much thinner than a crepe) that she fills with a mixture of pork and mushrooms.  In the meantime, Sam brought us each a little bowl of cool broth in which you place some mint, basil, or cilantro, along with a squeeze of lime.

When the stuffed pancake arrives you dip it into the broth.  The flavors just explode in your mouth.  It was SOOO GOOD.  After you were done with the rolled pancake, you could still drink the remaining broth.  Wonderful!

We then went to yet a different place where we had xoi che /banh toi tau.  These were sweet soups with sticky rice.  We had four different ones.  The first was with mung beans, then one with red beans, the next was with ginger, and the last one was with mocha (filled rice balls).  While good and different, they were not comparable with the filled rice pancakes.

Then it was time for another dessert, this time we had Hoa Qua Dam, a selection of sliced fruit with condensed milk.  We had jack fruit, dragon fruit, pineapple, coconut, strawberry, watermelon, and jellied coconut.  You put some crushed ice in with the fruit and milk.  After the fruit was gone you were left with a tutti-frutti flavored milk that was the dessert of the dessert.

Our last stop of the night was for Ca Phe Tieng, egg coffee that was invented in Hanoi in 1946.  We had it at a shop owned by the daughter of the inventor: Ca Phe Dinh (13 Dinh Tien Hoang).  The story is that the father worked at the Sofitel Metropole Hotel and was asked to make a cappuccino coffee.  The [problem was there was little milk in post-WW II Vietnam, so he whisked together egg and sugar to create a frothy cream in which to pour roubusto coffee.

The café was really cool.  You walked into a narrow hallway, then up a steep concrete stairway to the upstairs café.  You sat on short, squat stools (what else) in a room that has a sense of arrested decay.  Some walls were whitewashed, others were dingy.  There were wires running that would fail any electrical inspection.  In other words, it was cooler than cool.

Egg Coffee

Since we had an early departure, we skipped the coffee and went for the chocolate version.  It arrived with the most beautiful designs on top of each cup.  Its taste was like a super-rich custard. You stirred up the powdered chocolate that was hidden on the bottom.  What a great way to end an evening.

We had a 15-minute walk back to our hotel. While we were gone the streets were blocked off and became pedestrian zones, except for the occasional scooter.  The restaurants and bars poured out into the streets with tables and stools.  There was music from a nearby temple that just added to the mood.

As we head out to Ha Long Bay we are still talking about the food we had, and can’t wait for our return to Hanoi to continue to explore the beautiful city.