Hanoi Food Challenge #2 - Day Four

Day Four of my Hanoi Food Challenge Number Two started out sunny but relatively cool, so instead of going into work right away, I took a walk around the lake looking for breakfast. I tried going to a place called the Rock 'n' Roll Cafe, simply because I liked the name and they had bánh mỳ trứng  (egg sandwich) advertised outside, but it turned out they didn't actually have any egg to put on my sandwich so I had to move on. What's that about? What kind of cafe or restaurant in this country doesn't have any egg?

I ended up at Cafe Quang, a large orange place around the other side of the lake from work, with chairs out front so you can sit facing the lake.

When I went in to order, the girl insisted on bringing me a menu, even though I could've just told her what I wanted. I asked for a bánh mỳ trứng  and an iced lemon tea. I got lemon juice instead, but I drank it anyway.

It took a while for my sandwich to arrive, but at least I was in a fairly nice location!

A view of work from my breakfast chair.

My bánh mỳ trứng  finally came, and I was a bit disappointed. It was on a proper baguette, which was nice, and wasn't oily at all, which is also a bonus, but was literally just egg with maybe two slices of cucumber. Where was the carrot? The coriander? I had to ask for chili sauce, and by the time I realized I hadn't put enough on, she'd taken it away again. I guess they only have one bottle.

 

This place gets pluses for the good bread, non-oily egg, and the great view, but my favourite bánh mỳ trứng  lady just outside of work wins in terms of price, speed, and flavour. I'll go back to her next time. 

For lunch I was alone, so I went wandering. I had planned to walk down to a street food place down the road, but got sidetracked. Just across Nguyễn Chí Thanh street there's a Korean restaurant that I've probably walked past hundreds of times, but have never gone in.

 

It doesn't look like much from the outside because of the frosted windows, and I guess I never went in to check it out because down an alley very close to work there's a little Korean restaurant that has been a favourite of ours for a long time, so why would I go anywhere else?

The thing is, that favourite little Korean restaurant has recently changed owners, and I haven't even been in since, but from what I've been told, the dishes have shrunk while the prices have nearly doubled. As you can imagine, this was very disappointing, and all I want to do is go in, look at a menu, say it's too expensive, and walk out again. I guess that would just be rude, but how else will the new owner know that he's lost customers by raising the prices so much?

Anyway, because of all that, when I saw this place yesterday all I could think was that it's probably too expensive, but I had to go in and check anyway. Turns out, it's mostly pretty reasonable and about the same prices we were paying at our favourite restaurant before it changed owners!

Note the Korean drama playing on the big TV. Just as it should be.

The menu had all the old favourites like kimchi jiggae (kimchi stew), doenjang jiggae (fermented soybean paste stew), bibimbap (mixed rice with veggies), kimchi jeon (kimchi pancake), and mandu guk (dumpling soup), each for about $6. They also had more expensive meat bbq dishes, and our very favourite, jaeyuk bokkeum (pork in spicy sauce). Unfortunately this last one was $15, which was much more than we're used to paying, but I'm wondering if maybe it's enough for two?

Cute decoration on the menu.

I sat down and ordered mandu guk, and they brought me a full eight side dishes, including a soup, kimchi, a little pancake, and various other goodies.

My soup came and it was tasty as ever, but the dumplings were quite big and falling apart. I think, actually, they may have been homemade while it's possible the ones I've been eating all along were not! They were delicious either way, but there were some large chunks of dough that I actually didn't eat. 

They also brought me rice with it, in the same kind of little metal container that you get it in in Korea, which I had totally forgotten about! Rice was overkill though, as the soup was already quite filling!

What a spread for one person!

When I was finished they also brought me two slices of very cold watermelon, and a cup of that delicious cold cinnamon drink. 

Despite the menu being in dollars, they brought me a bill for 126,000 dong, which was exactly in line with what I'm used to paying for this. 

I just looked on the New Hanoian, and this place has three reviews, all terrible. Maybe that's why I never went. Most of the terribleness centres around a rude manager. I had no encounter with any manager, but the staff was all lovely and friendly. I might go on there and give it a positive review now!

I am THRILLED beyond belief to have found a new Korean restaurant near work, and I feel like a few of my co-workers will be too! I guess it needs more trying out, but I will definitely go back!

Dinner was something Christine and I have been talking about trying for a long time. Chả cá is barbecued fish, although it's cooked in a frying pan in a lot of oil rather than actually barbecued. There's an old chả cá restaurant in the Old Quarter that's so famous, the entire street is named after it! However, I've been told that Chả Cá Anh Vũ down on Giang Vo is the some of the best chả cá in the city.

The address is 116k1 Giang Vo, but when we got there, we found another, identical restaurant at 120k1 Giang Vo. I was a little concerned that it was a copycat, but when we went to the original restaurant they shooed us over there, so it seems that they've just expanded.

There's only one thing on the menu here, so no ordering is necessary! A guy immediately brought us all the fixings and placed them in very precise places on the table. Peanuts, sauce, slivered onions, herbs, noodles, chilies, bowls and chopsticks were all carefully positioned, then they brought a bowl full of green onions and dill. 

Finally, we got a burner and a frying pan full of chunks of fish already sizzling in oil. They added the green onions and dill, and stirred it up for us. 

The guy then showed us how to mix the noodles, fish and greens, onions, peanuts, and sauce in our bowls until we had a tasty mixture.

Maybe it was all the build-up, or maybe it was that my tummy was misbehaving a bit (I don't want to blame my breakfast, but timing says maybe....), or that I found the fish to be a bit rubbery, but this wasn't as good as I was expecting. I mean, it was tasty, and I liked it, and I would eat it again, but it wasn't WOW for me. I probably won't crave it like I do some other Vietnamese food. But hey, you can't win 'em all, and it's another thing that's been on my list for a long time, checked off! 

Today (Thursday) was a fasting day, but I'm back at it tomorrow, so come back on Saturday to hear all about Day Five! 

"Taste of Hoi An" Street Food Tour

"You live in Hanoi? Then why do you need to do this tour?", one of my fellow food-tasters asked me. Stunned, I stared at him. For a minute or so my mouth gaped open, it opening and closing with no words coming out, me wanting to say something, but really having no idea how to respond to that. I like to eat and I like to discover new things, and in a country FULL of tasty treats and regional variations, how could he even think that living in Hanoi meant I had nothing left to discover?

I've recently hit my two-and-a-half year mark of living in Vietnam, and yes, I might know more about Vietnamese food than most people who don't live here, but I wouldn't say my knowledge is all that extensive. I don't even know all about all the Hanoi specialities, never mind delicious goodies from other parts of Vietnam!

Thus, when I booked a trip to Hoi An for just after Christmas and people started suggesting the Taste of Hoi An Street Food Tour, how could I resist?

The tour started early, with a 7:30am pick-up from my hotel. Luckily, the first stop was a small cafe for sinh tố, a fruit shake. These come in all varieties, but the one we had was mixed chunks of fruit (rather than blended) with ice and coconut milk. The perfect breakfast!

Next was the market tour.

I didn't take many pictures in the market, as I've taken so many before and while pictures of vegetables are colourful, they get a bit old after a while! One thing I did think picture-worthy was this:

Now, I'm no expert and no one said anything or made a big deal out of it, but that looks a lot like a shark to me! And I feel like that's something you don't see too often in the markets here! (Ok, Hanoi's not on the coast...)

I also liked this large billboard advocating the use of re-useable shopping bags rather than zillions of plastic ones! Yes!

We stopped to chat to this gorgeous old woman selling root vegetables. She's in her 90s and a long time ago painted her teeth black, as was the custom in her village. Isn't she stunning?

We were also joined on our market tour by Jim, a veteran of the American War who just likes to come hang out with Neville and his group of tourists. Jim doesn't really speak any English but he figured out that I could speak a bit of Vietnamese, and from then on he took it upon himself to tell me the Vietnamese name of EVERYTHING we looked at. Of course I don't remember any of it!

Just outside of the market we found this woman who sells xí mà, which in my menu of things we tried is described in English as "Sweet Water-Grass & Black Sesame Seed Elixir" - it's kind of a slightly sweet pudding made of various things that are supposed to be ridiculously good for you. It reminded me a lot of black sesame chè we made in our Hanoi Cooking Centre class, but less sweet and thick. This was one time when my Hanoian-ness showed itself: while everyone else was exclaiming how strange the texture and flavour was, I was gobbling it up pretty quickly because it all seemed quite normal to me!

Despite that, Jim decided that I wasn't eating my xí mà fast enough and that he had to spoon-feed me!

Jim left us shortly after this, and it wasn't until he was about to go that I looked down and realized that half of his right leg was made of metal.

It was a time of the lunar month when the locals don't eat much meat, so there was a lot of tofu and fish for sale, with various sauces and pickled veggies to accompany it. 

The tour leader, or "Teacher", Neville, has obviously made many friends along his route!

We then stopped at a cafe for a sit-down and a chance to try a few Hoi An specialities.

First, the ubiquitous bánh mì...

...and some samples of cao lầu and mì quảng, two Hoi An noodle specialties, as well as cà tím (eggplant roasted with shallots and oil) and rau muống xào tỏi (stir-fried morning glory with garlic), the last of which is a dish I've had more times than I could possibly count!

The eggplant up close.

And then some samples of gỏi cuốn (fresh spring rolls), bánh xèo (Vietnamese pancake filled with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts), bánh bao (White rose, a small shrimp dumpling that is famous in Hoi An), and hoành thánh chiên (Fried wontons with pork, shrimp, and salsa).   

  

This is getting long and I've got lots more to show you, so I'll just leave you with that teaser! Come back in a couple of days to see more of my Taste of Hoi An Street Food Tour!



Hanoi street food - Chicken Street

Hanoi is famous for its street food, and one of my favourite dinner options in Hanoi is Chicken Street. I love chicken. I love it so much that I could probably quite happily eat it every day, and here there's a whole street dedicated to barbecued chicken! What could be better?

The whole street is full of barbecued chicken restaurants, but my favourite is the first one on the left. It has proper chairs (as opposed to teeny tiny plastic stools) and the best tasting chicken!



This guy is constantly outside, manning the grill, performing a carefully timed dance of raw chicken to delicious sauce to cooked chicken to potatoes, and sending out a steady stream of tasty treats!

You can choose from a fairly comprehensive menu of all things chicken, and don't forget the beer!

Then they take the raw chicken parts from their large pile....

...grill them up...

....and deliver them to your table cooked perfectly on skewers, complete with crispy, delicious skin.

You can also have some yummy potatoes...

...and some banh my. This is honey bread - it's a very light baguette that gets toasted until it's crispy, squashed flat, then coated in honey. Amazing.

They automatically bring you these delicious cucumbers that are marinated in a sweet vinegary sauce with a hint of chili.

Of course these are the only vegetables you get aside from the potatoes, so this place is really meant for true carnivores!

And if you like it spicy, you can dip it all in chili sauce!

See? Everybody loves chicken street!

Oh yeah, and there's this adorable cat that you could feed your scraps to...if it wasn't tied up!

Hanoi Food Challenge - Day 5

On day 5 of my Hanoi Food Challenge (Thursday) I didn't have to be at work early so instead of my usual fruit, muesli, and yogurt at home, I stopped just outside of work and got a bánh mỳ trứng (egg sandwich).

This comes from a lady at a little stand she's set up on the side of the road, complete with little plastic stools and a tra da (iced tea) lady sitting next to her.

She thought it was rather odd that I wanted to take her picture, and ducked behind the stand as I did. She then tried asking me all kinds of questions in Vietnamese, which is difficult for me at the best of times but first thing in the morning is nearly impossible for me to manage, and I think she thought I was a student at RMIT, rather than a teacher. Oh well.

She did make me a delicious egg sandwich, stuffed full of omelet-style egg, carrot, cucumber, radish, and cilantro (coriander), and topped off with chili sauce. Yummy.

At lunchtime I wandered out by myself to find something new. After not finding anything too new or inspiring I ended up at a bún chả place. Unfortunately as per the rules of the challenge I could not go to our usual bún chả restaurant (known to us as "Celebrity" bún chả , for some reason unknown to me) and this place was ok but still made me realize why we never venture away from our favourite bún chả place!

The inside looking out.

 Bún chả usually has two kinds of meat - slices of pork and minced pork patties.

Bún chả with all the fixings.

This bún chả had both kinds of meat, but it was all less flavourful than usual and the sliced pork was too fatty and gristly to be eaten easily.

By Thursday night I was feeling quite tired and didn't want to go too far for food. In fact, I really was tempted to just go home and cook myself something very simple, but I stuck it out, waited for my friend Ron to finish work, and convinced him to go out for dinner with me. He brought along Liam, and we all met up at a Spanish restaurant not too far from work.

We started off by ordering sangria, which automatically cheered us all up (as you can see from Ron's smile here!)

We followed that with a salad and I ordered stewed oxtail while the boys both had bò sốt vang (beef in red wine sauce).

 

The salad was ok but nothing special. My oxtail stew was tasty but a bit on the salty side, and had more fat and skin in it than meat (Is that how it's supposed to be? I really don't know!) and the boys seemed to enjoy their meal, but were disappointed that there was absolutely nothing in it besides meat and sauce.

  

But that was all ok, because by then the sangria started to take effect, and Ron started threatening Liam with a baguette!

After dinner we weren't ready to go home yet, so we went down the road a bit for a margarita.

These were pretty good margaritas for Hanoi, and pretty cheap too, I think!

 Of course one margarita turned into three, but despite that and the sangria I thankfully woke up feeling just fine the next day!

Reports on the last two days of my challenge are coming soon!