Continuing the Vietnam Love Affair in Hanoi

It’s official, I have a love affair with Vietnam.  We first met here in Ho Chi Minh , but I fell passionately in love in Hanoi and Sapa over Christmas and New Year.

Dust of your sneakers or flip flops and get walking.  The best of Hanoi can be experienced on foot – soak up the street activity, stop for a coffee or a restorative bite to eat, duck into random alleyways… You never know what you’ll find!  We stayed for five days and Hanoi got better and better.  

Headstone engraving by hand

Cyclos ready and waiting

Soliders taking time out

One of the most interesting streets we stumbled upon was dedicated entirely to motor spare parts.  Each store seemed to specialize in one particular part – seatbelts, mirrors, suspension…

Do

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Palace and Museum Complex

To get into the Mausoleum line up two-by-two: no hands in pockets, no arms crossed, no talking, no hats, no smiling and no stopping.  Ho is heavily guarded by four armed guards and a thick layer of bullet proof glass.  Honestly, he looks like a tiny wax doll, probably due to the embalming and maintenance process.  Walk through the grounds of the palace (you can’t go inside) and head to the museum.  The lower level of the museum is dedicated to the history of Ho, and the upper level is an odd combination of cubist art (think cars half sticking out of walls at eye level) and historical conceptual installations from Vietnamese students and artists.  You’ll shuffle passed the One-Pillar Pagoda - don’t expect much.

Museum of Ethnology

Dedicated to the minority tribes of Vietnam, the museum is a reasonable hike out of Hanoi center (~45 mins by car), but is well worth the effort.  Employ a guide for inside the museum (we had so many questions) and don’t let them rush you through.  Then spend some time wandering through the grounds, which are fabulous.  The museum invited each of the minority tribes to build their traditional buildings in the grounds and you can wander through/up/down/in and out as a brilliant complement to the displays inside the museum.  The most impressive for me was the rong communial house – built 20 meters high so it is easily found in the forest. 

Many of these minority tribes are in danger of dying out completely and as Vietnam becomes more urban the language, customs, traditional dress and much more are slowing fading.

Communal 'rong' building

Ho Chi Minh Trail Museum

The museum looked so deserted that we thought it had permanently shut down (they were having an extended lunch).  The signposting here is terrible, so make sure your driver/taxi knows exactly where he’s going.  Don’t look at a single exhibit until you’ve seen the amazing display presentation upstairs.  It takes you through the history of the war and highlights trails/regions on a room-length installation dotted with LEDs right in front of you.  Armed with this fresh perspective, you can better appreciate the museum.

Old Quarter

Spend hours wandering around the streets of the Old Quarter.  The people-watching is incredible and I challenge you to try to count the various things you’ll see being transported by bicycle or motorbike.  Here’s my (by no means exhaustive) list:  five dining chairs, a full length mirror, crates of Hanoi beer, four 44-gallon drums, gas cylinders, kitchen cabinets, 2m tall purple tree, a family of five.  Hiring a motorbike is not really that scary though, just use a scarf to cover your mouth and nose.

If you have a bit more time up your sleeve head towards the river (you’ll need to cross the main road) into a decidedly non-touristy area.  Twist and turn amongst the alleyways, keep your eyes and ears peeled for motorbikes and peak through open doors to glimpse briefly into Vietnamese family life.

Street barber

Temple of Literature

Built in 1076, the Temple of Literature is a Confucian sanctuary of calm in the middle of buzzing Hanoi.  As it houses Vietnam’s first university, it’s considered one of Hanoi’s most significant cultural sites and is incredibly peaceful.  Definitely worth a visit.

Eat

Vietnamese food would have a good nudge at poll position in the race for my favourite food.  I love the freshness, the vegetables, the sauces – there’s a lot to love and Vietnamese food loves your hips as well (by and large).


For a full account of my Vietnamese culinary adventure, read my post on Vietnamese Street Food (here).  I created it separately because I honestly didn’t think I could do justice to my favourite topic in a short space as part of this post, but couldn’t bring myself to cut certain things out – it would be like trying to choose your favourite child.

But, I will say it again, do your stomach a favour and skip the hotel breakfasts.  Lower your butt street-side onto those rickety-looking plastic stools and get slurping, chomping and sipping.

Stay

Anywhere you stay in Hanoi you will need earplugs – seriously, don’t forget them.  Hanoi wakes up early!

HongNgoc 1 – Dong and his team are brilliant, rooms are large and clean, hot showers have good pressure.  Be prepared to walk up the stairs though, there aren’t any elevators.

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!

Pho-bsession

Breakfast over Christmas and New Year took on a different form this year.  Between the five of us we must have consumed litres of delicious, delectable phở (pronounced 'fur').  Our breakfast obsession led us on a breakfast-time venue hop around the Old Quarter of Hanoi where we were the often the only Western faces around (apart from a few gazing curiously at us from the street).  Our search was over when we found Phở 10.

Our phở venues were always packed, but it never mattered too much because one huge difference between Vietnamese street-side restaurants and food markets and their counterparts in Singapore is that patrons in Vietnam are happy to move (or be moved) to make way for new customers.  The number of times two small groups of people shuffled around so our bigger (in physical size and numbers) group could sit down were countless.  God forbid you try that in Singapore – you’d get the death stare at best, and I shudder to imagine what at worst.

Over the nine days we played around with different accompaniment combinations – chili sauce, fresh chili, lime, coriander, fish sauce, bread… my favourite combination was three or four small drops of chili sauce, a couple of slices of fresh chili – but no seeds, two quarters of lime, a squirt of fish sauce and a bread stick to sop up extra juices.  Just spicy enough to jump start your morning, not so spicy that the sweat starts to prickle my scalp.

Prior to this Vietnam trip I was definitely a phở ga (chicken) devotee, courtesy of my friend Paul’s mum, who makes the best phở in New Zealand – hands down.  Now I must admit I prefer phở bo (beef), especially when the beef is raw fillet (it's sliced to finely it cooks almost instantly when the broth is poured over).  

Now, back in Singapore my obsession has shifted from eating someone else's to recreating my own phở.  I found this authentic-looking recipe (at least to my untrained eyes) on Epicurious and gave it a whirl on Sunday.  Not bad for a first attempt, but definitely a few things to learn for next time.  Beef is veeeerrrry expensive in Singapore, so I skimped by omitting the chuck and picking a knuckle with less meat on it – big mistake.  The finely sliced fillet was delicious but the broth lacked the deep meaty flavor.  Next time I will make sure my knuckle has enough meat, and definitely add the chuck.  I’ll add a bit more salt as well.

It’s actually a really easy recipe, but the simmer takes a long time.  As the recipe suggests, it might be easier to start in advance.  Apparently phở broth will keep in the fridge for around three days – I’m wondering how well it freezes…

Here’s the link to the recipe – if you can’t make it to Phở 10 in Hanoi, it’s a great alternative.  Let me know how you get on!

Where:  Phở 10, corner of Chân Cầm and Lý Quốc Sư, Hanoi

Authentic Hanoi version

My version

Coriander, mint, chilli, sprouts, lime, fish sauce... glass of red wine!

The kitchen of  Pho 10 - that could be my bowl in the foreground

I know it's well over due, but I promise I'm getting there with a few posts on my Northern Vietnam Christmas/New Year holiday (or food extravaganza) AND volcano-climbing in Java.  Stay tuned.

How Many Motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City?

I want to share a few snaps with you from our visit to Ho Chi Minh City over the Easter long weekend.

Yes, I had to have the hat

I was seriously excited about my first Vietnamese adventure, primarily because I love Vietnamese food so much!  A bowl of phô and some fresh prawn spring rolls is pretty much my idea of food heaven – fresh, healthy, fragrant, tasty... (I could go on and on...)... 

So first things first, the food:

First up we wandered around the Ben Tanh markets – a chaotic mix of fresh food (vege and meat), souvenirs, clothing, luggage... whatever you want, it’s there.  I love fresh food markets (some of the best ones are in India, but that’s another post entirely), and I’m one of those weird people who likes to take photos of food.  I thought it was brilliant that the stereotypical Vietnamese hat is not actually so far off the mark – everyone wears one – and the women there all seemed to be wearing matching pyjamas as day wear (oh god, how un-PC am I?!).



The hat, the hat!



Obligatory phô, first sampled from Phô 2000 (named after Bill Clinton phô-ed there in 2000) lived up to expectations.

On the Saturday we took a day tour on the Mekong Delta.  Our tour guide was excellent – good humour, not too cheesy and in-your-face with lots of interesting information.  If anyone is heading there, the tour company is called Tuan Travel and our guide’s name is Diem – she’s a keeper.

Our Mekong tour had us off and on the boat, motoring through where they hold the famous floating markets (we missed them – not dedicated enough to get out of bed at 5am) and jumping ashore to see how locals make the various Vietnamese delights – banana/rice wafers, puffed rice coated in caramel, coconut caramel, candied coconut and rice paper.  I’d always wondered why dry rice paper rolls had a criss-cross pattern on them – you can’t see it in the finished roll, so why bother?  Well, now I know...

We feasted like kings for lunch on our tour – fresh spring rolls, fresh fish and veges washed down with a cold beer.  Delicious!  Some of our fellow tour-mates were a bit taken aback by our fish dish, but I didn’t think we were being particularly intrepid when we chowed down on our fish.  Why would you not try it right?

Look at those lips!

I think it is durian season – the durian trees were laden with big spiky green fruit, and the unique durian smell (pungent vomit/poo) lingered in the air.  I haven’t tried it yet (I can’t get passed the smell), but it’s considered a huge delicacy and is really expensive (and also banned on public transport due to aforementioned smell).

Pay by the gram for seriously stinky fruit

We also had some delicious meals out in HCM over the three nights we were there - Ngon Restaurant and Temple Club.  I just can’t get passed the (sadly standard) level of service I seem to come across in Asia.  So attentive that I’ve barely taken my last bite when my plate is whisked away, even if no one else on the table has finished, or constantly refilling my wine glass so it’s ¾ full the entire time, or finishing off the bottle on one person’s glass and presuming we want another bottle instead of spreading it evenly around the table.

Ngon Restaurant

Another highlight was the Cu Chi tunnels – very touristy, but very impressive.  I tried to make it through the tunnel, but claustrophobia kicked in about a meter into the tunnel and I backed out in a huge hurry.  Luckily no one else was behind me because they would have been flattened.  And these tunnels have been enlarged for tourists – the original ones were smaller!!

Too much for me!

I think the activity which was the most fun for me was driving around on motorbikes.  HCM is Motorbike City.  A quick Google estimates a 2.5 million motorbike population!  Our motorbike rides had us ducking and diving through traffic, pedestrians, down narrow back-alleys and along motorways – excellent!  I was thankful I had a driver though – he had nerves of steel.

Where's Wally?

Ho Chi Minh definitely surprised me with how green it was – lots of trees, balcony plants and heaps of flowers being sold on every corner.   We had a few hiccups – scammed by a taxi driver and one of our friends was pick-pocketed by a lady-boy prostitute, but that’s all part of the experience right?

This weekend I’m heading home to New Zealand for my first visit in over a year.  I’m so excited!  Expect to see a few surprising blog posts if all goes according to plan.... stay tuned!