Vietnamese Street Food

You know the moment, right?  You are fully committed...  you pass the point of no return as you lower your bottom towards a non-too-sturdy blue plastic stool on the pavement outside a delicious-smelling street food vendor... "will it hold this time...?"

Based on the frequency of our street-food meals in Hanoi, we were fully committed indeed!  How could you not be with the variety and quality of the Hanoi street food, coffee, beer…. we were popping up and down like meerkats for nine days and I bet we barely scratched the surface.

The red stool, or the blue stool?

If you’re heading to Vietnam, do your taste buds a favour – skip the complementary hotel breakfast, skip the restaurants recommended in your Lonely Planet (or similar) – let your nose be your guide, commit to the low-slung blue plastic stools and the flavour adventure of Vietnamese street food.

Food from the Streets of Hanoi

Worried about your ‘sensitive stomach’?  Pick a venue that’s packed full of locals or has large pots – it’s a sign that it’s a popular spot.  There’s no way street vendors would deliberately prepare way too much food.

Try each of these at least once.

Breakfast/Lunch

Bánh cuốn (pronounced bin kwann) – literally “rolled cake”

Rice pancakes so thin they are transparent scattered with fried onion and chopped mushroom, rolled and roughly chopped.  Dip each piece in a bowl of broth laden with coriander and mint.  Heaven.

The thinnest pancake you'll ever eat

Trứng ốp

Bánh cuốn (above) with an egg broken on the rice pancake before rolling.  Pick this for a heartier alternative to  bánh cuốn  – it will see you through until lunch time.

Phở (pronounced fur)
The dish that powers a nation; my current quest for perfection (attempt #1 here).  Delicate broth, filling rice noodles, a squeeze of lime, a dash (or three) of chili and you're away.

Breakfast of champions

Bun cha

A pile of rice noodles, pieces of BBQ’d pork kebab (or similar), assorted condiments (coriander/mint/spring onions), a bowl of warm fragrant broth.  Mix, match, combine, dip, get eating!

Prepare the pieces... just add broth

Bánh mì

Vietnamese bread’s crusty shell hides an incredibly light interior and is the ideal vehicle for the perfect sandwich, especially when enjoyed perched on your blue stool with a bottle of cold Bia Hanoi at your feet, watching the world scoot by.

From this...

...comes this

Snack

Bánh cam - Sesame balls

Perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up when you're low on sugar from traipsing around the streets of Hanoi (or anywhere in Vietnam, at any time, possibly even straight after breakfast), these golden balls of sesame-studded rice flour are crispy on the outside, yet chewy on the inside with a surprise sweet center of mung bean or coconut - my favourite!

Sesame balls in preparation

Sunflower seeds

Super cheap, highly addictive, discard the shells directly on to the ground.  Background sound to corner bar noises will be buffered by the soft pitter-pat of thousands of dropping shells.

Dinner

Options for lunch can definitely be used for dinner, but don't miss out on the Vietnamese street BBQ.

BBQ
Come  hungry to this Vietnamese DIY BBQ, or order a small plate.  You'll receive a plate loaded with raw meat (your choice) and veges (onions, eggplant, beans, spring onions etc), you'll perch with a burner and a hot plate in front of you and you'll leave with a full tummy and smelling strongly of cooked food.  Order some bread for mopping up juices, and some beer (because when is a Bia Hanoi never appropriate?) - it's also a useful BBQ sauce if you want to diverge from the traditional methods.

Can you spot me in the background?

A few tips:  Pour on your own oil, otherwise you could end up coming close to deep frying.  Fight those hunger pangs and put the onions on first - they take the longest to cook and otherwise you'll be left with a hot plate full of semi-cooked onions.  Left over dipping sauce also makes a good BBQ sauce.  Last but not least, sit on the street if at all possible.

Drink

Vietnamese coffee
Strong, black and with a hidden layer of condensed milk at the bottom.  Stir in completely if you are in need of a warm, sweet pick-me-up, or only a few quick stirs if you want more of a kick.  The best coffee we had was (obviously) in our favourite (and, in our completely unbiased opinion, best) street in Hanoi, but the most atmospheric was hands down huddled in our winter jackets around a charcoal brazier in Sapa, waiting impatiently for the liquid to drip through.

Waiting for the drip in Sapa

The condensed milk took me back about twenty years (yikes) to when Mum used to do a lot of baking with condensed milk.  The partially finished tin lasted approximately two hours in the fridge, and I invented so many different reasons to pass by, dipping in a teaspoon each time.

Bia hoi

Local beer, brewed with no preservatives, so it's incredibly light and refreshing - and really cheap (think less than $1 NZ for two glasses).  It was a little too light for my tastes, but a must-try none the less.

Bia on the street

This is by no means an exhaustive list so let me know if I've missed any goodies - I'll be sure to try them when I go back!