Hanoi Food Challenge #2 - Day Seven!

The final day of my Hanoi Food Challenge Number Two fell on a VERY rainy Sunday. Christine and I planned to ride our bikes around the lake to Daluva to try out the new menu there. The rain had died off for a while and it all looked promising as I set out, but by the time I got to our meeting point, it had started to rain again, and by the time Christine arrived a few minutes later it had increased enough that I was already considering other options. We decided to soldier on, but a few minutes down the road, it started to rain harder, and harder, and harder, until I just said nope. Not worth it. By the time we got there I would've been drenched and miserable, and I just didn't want to have lunch like that! I rode the few minutes back home, arriving here dripping wet and still hungry. 

After I dried off I attempted to order in, feeling horrendously bad about someone having to ride a motorbike through the rain to deliver to me, but the restaurant rejected my order because they didn't have one of the dishes I'd asked for. 

At this point, finally, the rain eased up again and I was still hungry with no prospect of food coming so I put my very soggy sandals back on and headed out to this Japanese Okonomiyaki place off Ngoc Ha that I've walked by several times and always wondered about. It's also on Nonna Chong's street food map of Hanoi, which you should definitely check out!

You may remember that I'm not much of a Japanese food connoisseur, so of course I had never had okonomiyaki before. In fact, I had no idea what this place would actually serve until earlier this week when a friend mentioned that she loves okonomiyaki, and explained to me what it was. Then I put two and two together and decided I had to try this!

This place is cute, with a little upstairs room that overlooks a small lake where they're building a temple.

There's more than okonomiyaki on the menu, with sushi and rice bowls also featuring! I had no idea what to order, but since I'd come for the pancake, I decided on the bánh xèo Osaka, since it seemed to be the classic one, and added on cheese from the list of toppings.

There's another side to this with all the sushi.

I'm not actually sure that I liked this. From one bite to the next I went back and forth between finding it delicious and disgusting. I think it was the chewy cheesy bits and the meat that I liked, but could've done without all the mayonnaise.

For 50,000 dong this is worth another try, or at least I'll go to the place and try something else. The menu had the word Aozora on it, and looked quite similar to the one at Sushi Aozora from my first Hanoi Food Challenge, so maybe it's part of the same company.

On my way home I had to stop for cake. Well, I didn't have to, but this Fresh Garden store just opened up the road from me. While I'm not a fan of Asian bakeries in general (there's a reason I make my own cakes!) and this is just a chain that's all over Hanoi, I've never actually been in a Fresh Garden store so I felt like it was my duty to try it.

 After I'd examined all the cakes I decided on this nice chocolatey, perhaps a bit Black Foresty looking one.

Then the girl told me that it was buy one, get one free. I really only wanted one, but I'm never one to say no to cake. So I got another, different one. Two pieces of cake for 25,000 dong. 

I ate the chocolate one, and it was ok but as I would have expected, it was a bit dry and the frosting was a bit plasticky tasting. A girl can only eat so much cake in a day, so the other one is still sitting in my fridge!

A couple of weeks ago I met a guy who lives very near me, down lane 173 off Hoang Hoa Tham. He asked me if I ever eat at Cutisun, the steak restaurant down the lane just across from that. I told him there was no restaurant down there, but he insisted. Well, he was right! I had no idea! I must have walked past this place hundreds of times, and never saw it. How is this possible?

I'd seen this sign before, up above the buildings, but for some reason had never figured out that it meant food! I think I never saw the restaurant because I most often walk past this lane going the other way, and mostly on the other side of the street, so it would've always been either at my back and/or across all the traffic.

 

Cutisun is super cute both inside and out!

Cute birdy placemat at Cutisun.

They had steaks on the menu for 65,000 dong, with either black pepper, bbq, or cheese sauce. There was also Shaking Beef, venison, and lamb! These all come with a few fries and a very small salad, and bread. The portions are not big, but for the price, what can you say?

Christine had the Shaking Beef and I couldn't resist trying the lamb. The waiter even asked us how we wanted it cooked! 

Shaking Beef (no sauce, just quite tasty, well-cooked beef!)

The salad had purple dressing on it, and we couldn't figure out what it was.

Lamb with BBQ sauce.

Lovely warm fresh bread.

Christine's was delicious. My lamb didn't taste much like lamb, but maybe that's because it was drowned in a very overpowering barbecue sauce. It was still tasty enough, after I scraped off most of the sauce. Next time I would ask for that on the side instead.

Because the portions were on the small side, we then had to have dessert!

Christine had the crème brûlée, which had the proper crunchy top, and she said was tasty but perhaps a bit more on the eggy side than the creamy side.

I had the mousse cake with chocolate syrup, which was almost more cheesecakey than moussey. Next time I'll try the passion fruit syrup instead.

Considering the price and that this is only a 5 minute walk from home, I'll definitely be back!

Hanoi Food Challenge #2 - Day Three

I had a little break from my Hanoi Food Challenge Number Two, because Monday was a fasting day. I picked it up again on Tuesday, with a start at a phở bò (beef noodle soup) place just a few doors down from work. This restaurant has been popular with my coworkers for a long time, but for some reason I'd never been!

 

They have a bunch of different kinds of  phở bò, and I actually don't know what the difference is. I think it has something to do with the quality and doneness of the meat, and what I got was phở tái, whatever that is!

I've eaten a fair bit of phở bò since I've been here, and this was pretty good! I'll be back!

For lunch I managed to gather a group of people and convince them that we should wander down Kim Mã street where there is a plethora of Japanese restaurants. I've only ever been to one of them, which is quite close to work, so as soon as we had passed it, all were fair game. We passed by one which we know to be expensive and flashy, and another that looked dark and uninviting, and then we found Sushi Dai, which had lunch sets advertised outside for 99,000 dong (about $5). Sold!

We went inside and they were pretty happy to see us, as the place was quite empty. I guess that's what you expect on a street full of Japanese restaurants. It also had a bit of a musty smell, which was a bit worrying, but they showed us upstairs to a private room with air conditioning and a big tree in the corner.

We ordered a bunch of iced tea, which we discovered when it arrived was actually strawberry tea. It was a bit odd, but it affected the smell more than the taste.

We ordered various sets, from sushi to grilled fish to beef to bacon to bean sprouts. All of the sets came with the usual salad, miso soup, bit of egg, random weird sausage, and most importantly, pickled onions. A lot of us were very happy with the pickled onions!

My sushi was pretty tasty, but as I think I've mentioned before, I'm not exactly a connoisseur. Christine said her beef had a nice flavour, but was a bit tough and gristly. 

It seems that they have hotpot in the winter (and maybe now too, but the sign was quite specific!)

Another plus side was the slices of melon they brought us at the end of the meal. We all agreed that while it maybe wasn't the best Japanese food in Hanoi, it was still pretty good value for money, as most places on that street would charge about 150,000 dong for a lunch set.

On Tuesday nights we go to lacquer painting class at 7, so time was limited. Because of this Jacqui and I decided to go somewhere nearby, so our choice was Bud Mo Ukrainian Restaurant. This place is set in a lovely garden, which would have been beautiful had it not been so rainy!

 

I loved all the little Ukrainian decorations, including this mural of people having a party in the countryside!

One thing I love too is the juxtaposition of cultures; these murals were right above the typical Vietnamese altar that every business here has.

Jacqui lived in Russia for a while so we pretty much let her do the ordering!

We started with some "Countryside style" Ukrainian sausage, which was filled with proper chunks of meat and came with a delicious sauce. At the same time we got some Deruny (potato fritters) with sour cream.

We then continued with some pirogis filled with cottage cheese and served with sour cream, and some Pelmeni (ravioli stuffed with meat) with cheese and mushroom sauce. We finished off our meal with a meat-stuffed red pepper.

This was all delicious and didn't feel so heavy, as you'd expect Ukrainian food to. Maybe I was just really hungry!

FYI, they also have beef testicles stewed in sour cream sauce, if you're interested. We passed.

We were on our way to lacquer class so didn't have any, but I'm told this place has excellent home-brewed beer. Jacqui was also drooling over the selection of Russian vodkas! I guess that just means we'll have to come back sometime when we aren't on our way to lacquer class.

That's Day Three! I'll post about Day Four tomorrow...and trust me, it's also a good one!

Hanoi Food Challenge - Days 1&2

Today is day 4 of my Hanoi Food Challenge, and it's time to report on some of what I've eaten!

The challenge started on Sunday at lunchtime (I often only eat two meals on weekend days, due to sleeping very late!) when I went to Buon Dua Le Cafe in Hanoi's Old Quarter. I chose it because it had come up on the New Hanoian website and had several good reviews, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's down a relatively quiet side street very close to Hoan Kiem lake, and the dining room is on the second floor with a small balcony overlooking the street. I sat there, watching vendors go by selling everything from plastic goods to basketry to conical hats to bananas and coconut candy, while tourists meandered down the street looking somewhat confused and overwhelmed by it all.

The view from Buon Dua Le's balcony.

I ordered the falafel and a mango smoothie. The falafel came and was small, and actually kind of disappointing. The chickpea patties themselves were ok but strange in a way I can't quite describe, and the salad underneath had actually had salad dressing put on it first, which didn't really belong in a falafel. The tzatziki sauce came on the side, but aside from being very garlicky, also just tasted quite a lot like cucumber salad dressing rather than tzatziki sauce. All in all, it was ok, but if I want a falafel wrap, I'll order the one from The Cart before I go back to Buon Dua Le for one.

Falafel at Buon Dua Le Cafe

I finished my falafel and waited at least 5 more minutes before my smoothie actually arrived at my table. They didn't seem particularly busy, so I don't know if they had to go out and buy the mangoes or what but it took a long time! At least it was tasty, but they put chocolate syrup in it, which really wasn't necessary. (I'd wanted to try the avocado, mango and chocolate smoothie, but they were out of avocadoes, which maybe is why they added the chocolate. But I don't know, maybe they always put chocolate in their mango smoothies! So overall, Buon Dua Le Cafe was ok but there are other places I'd choose to go first.

Mango and chocolate smoothie

For dinner I confess I ate at home, but I'd decided early on that the rules would have to include ordering in, but from places that I haven't eaten at before. Thus I ordered from Khazaana, an Indian restaurant I'd heard good things about.

I ordered chicken shabnam (chicken and mushrooms in a tomato and onion gravy), garlic naan, and papadom to start. It was all as tasty as anyone could ask for and I think one day I'll have to go to the actual restaurant to eat!

Chicken shabna from Khazaana

Mmmmm papadom

Garlic naan

On Monday at lunchtime I failed. Friends were going to my favourite Korean restaurant near work and I just couldn't say no! One day I'll do a post about that to keep you all satisfied.

 For dinner I was at home and didn't want to go far so I did a quick search with my New Hanoian app, which gives distances, and came up with Sushi Aozora, which turns out to be less than a 10 minute walk from home! If you read my last post where I introduced this whole idea, you'll know that I don't normally go out for sushi on my own, but the alternative was probably going to be a bowl of pho, and that just didn't appeal at the time so off I went!

I was greeted with big smiles and although there was a counter downstairs where one person could sit, instead I was ushered upstairs to the dining room.

The menu seemed pretty extensive, and I didn't know what to order so I got the "Sakura" set which said it was "For woman's portion" and cost 99,000 dong (roughly $5). For that I got a plate with about 12 pieces of sushi/sashimi, miso soup, ginger/wasabi, and a bit of dragon fruit.

Then, after I'd eaten some of that, they also brought me this steamed egg dish which was on the menu as "Steamed egg hotchpotch".

This was all really tasty and for someone who isn't the biggest fan of Japanese food, I sure cleaned my plate! I'll be back to this place for sure!

More of my Hanoi Food Challenge will be posted later this week, so come visit again soon!