Category: Travel

Our time in Hanoi was running out, with all of the activities, and sight seeing, it seemed that our last day in Hanoi just snuck up on us. And still no Bun Rieu. It’s not like we hadn’t tried, it seemed that we were always too late, or too early,  as in the case of the food stalls at Dong Xuan Market and Bun Rieu Nam Bo. We even attempted to find the stall at 23 Bat Dan recommended by on of our guides, and the staff at Hanoi Elegance, but to no avail. After walking around aimlessly, we settled for Bun Rieu Cua from the stall down an alleyway, right off of Hang Bac, just a block and a half from our hotel.

This alleyway was usually fairly crowded, but at this time of the morning, it was nice to actually see some pavement.

And it did look rather delicious…..

This lady was really nice….we managed to order using, the point method, and either the "no" nod, or the "thumbs up". After trying to keep up with the process which was completed in a flash, with minimum wasted motion, you could tell she was a pro.

From the rinsing of the bowl, to the heating of the noodles, it was difficult to follow.

But the result was one mighty fine looking bowl of Bun Rieu.

On the positive side; this was one super hot bowl of soup. We’ve had many a bowl of lukewarm Bun Rieu. Also, the crab cake had a nice pungent-briny flavor, and nothing we’ve had approaches the flavor. We found the broth to be very mild, and lacking any real tangy-sour-salty-savory flavor, even the addition of garlic and fried shallots really didn’t help much, and the bun was way too soft.  The mix of greens provided was very fresh, and the chili paste was potent.

Being unable to hit any of the recommended Bun Rieu stalls was probably our biggest regret of our stay in Hanoi, but perhaps on one of our future trips. Still who’s going to really complain about a 15,000 VND(just under $1 US) bowl of Bun Rieu.

The Missus was intent on visiting the Museum of Ethnology, but it was still much too early. We decided to take a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake. As documented in Wandering Chopstick’s post, it seems like all of Hanoi turns the area around the lake into a giant gym in the morning. In the aprk across the street from the lake, there’s gigantic exercise class going on.

As Peaches and Herb would say: "Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, yeah, yeah
Show ’em how we do it now"

Well, maybe not, but they sure had the moves down.

There are several sections that have Badminton going on. From just friendly games (here’s the Missus getting smoked by Grandma).

To some really, very competitive games. We stayed to watch the game for a while, and boy, Mom sure had a nasty forehand!

Of course there’s Tai Chi.

And what was a sidewalk became a place to "pump you up!" I don’t think I’ve seen cement weights in a very long time……

And there were those that gave new meaning to the phrase "no pain, no gain", my neck hurt just watching this guy.

By this time, I, ummm, was getting a bit thirsty. We crossed the still only mildly busy street, and headed over to Highlands Coffee. Not much to say about the place, other than the coffee is pretty expensive by Hanoi standards, and was not nearly as good as we’ve tried in other places.

The best thing about Highlands Coffee, which is situated on the third floor of a building right across the street from Hoan Kiem Lake, is the view. Which even on a hazy morning is quite nice.

Meanwhile, the Missus was preoccupied watching people crossing the street. Her photos don’t convey the abject terror struck in our hearts watching first a dog:

Then a Blind Man crossed the street.

We were a bit late with photos and missed the part where about a dozen motorbikes were zooming around the guy. Amazing stuff.

It seems that Hoan Kiem Lake is the venue for weddings, or at least wedding photos in Hanoi.

We saw at least a half dozen wedding parties while walking around the lake. It made for a pretty surreal scene, the Bride and Groom, surrounded by dozens of tourists. So if you’re the couple in this photo we apologize, but the Missus and I think you were a beautiful couple. We send you both our best wishes for a long and happy marriage!

During the planning stages of our trip, I started making my list of dishes, and a few places that I wanted to check out. Of course, being a fan of Cha Ca Thang Long(tumeric fish with dill), I had the famous Cha Ca La Vong, made popular by Patricia Schultz’s 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and seen in every single travel show on Hanoi, on my list. But after asking around a bit, and reading a post or two, we thought that’d maybe we would try elsewhere, and on Beach’s and a NY Time’s article, the lower-keyed Cha Ca Thang Long Restaurant seemed to fit the bill.

So upon our return to Hanoi from Halong Bay, we dodged the endless procession of motorbikes and walked on over to Cha Ca Thang Long.

At first glance it seemed that the restaurant hadn’t taken down the Christmas decorations! But the interior of the restaurant was very clean, and I guess red is the color of choice.

Every table comes equipped with a brazier loaded with heating gel.

And a rather large bowl of scallions and dill.

And in an instant, all of the ingredients of Cha Ca arrive; the wonderfully spicy, but sweet orange chilies, shredded scallions, skinned peanuts(a very important detail…..a gentleman told me the peanuts have to be skinned), a bowl of wonderful fresh herbs…

A plate piled high with Bun….

Both the Missus and I each had an entire set of ingredients……it was turning out to be quite a collection of plates and bowls. Meanwhile, one of Young Ladies, started toward us with 2 little bowls, as she approached our table she spoke to us in Vietnamese. As soon as we replied in English she stopped dead in her tracks and beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen, and came back with two different bowls. These had Nuoc Mam(Fish Sauce) in them.

Laughing, I told them, "no-no, mam tom, mam tom, shrimp paste….please!" "You want shrimp sauce?" "Yes, yes, please……"

And while the fish sauce was quite nice….pungent and biting like a stiff drink of whiskey, the Mam Tom was a revelation. Rich and savory, pungent as expected, but it had been whipped until foamy, making it very light. and there was an unmistakable sweetness, with a mild sour flavor. The Missus went through 3 bowls of this stuff, and 2 little bowls of the chilies during the meal.

The brazier was lit, and our pan of fish arrived. I went to start cooking, and with a smile, the Young Lady, waved me off, and started cooking the Cha Ca for us.

Her own version of quality control I guess. She mixed in half of the dill and scallions, gently mixed everything together, and served us.

  Our observations on the meal? Strangely, the dill had almost no flavor, which threw off the overall flavor. The fish was very moist, tender, and without any hint of the dreaded "muddy flavor", but was on the bland side. I had been expecting this to be a tad oily, but that was not the case at all. The Bun was very mushy and sticky. Kind of a mixed bag for a meal. Though the fish was very moist, compared to the version a good friend’s Mom made for us, the flavor came up a bit short.

The service was probably the best we had in Vietnam, amazingly efficient, and generous. As soon as we were out of something, they would bring out replacements until we told them to stop! The price was also quite good 160,000 VND for 2. About 5 bucks each. The based on the what we heard and observed, the clientele was completely Vietnamese.

Cha Ca Thang Long
21-31 Duong Thanh
Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi

Gastronomy eats at Cha Ca Thang Long here.

We were still pretty full after our wall to wall multi-course snake meal, and pretty wiped out as well. We had been running on adrenaline since arriving in Hanoi, and it was starting to catch up, we were tired, and needed to slow things up a bit. Luckily, making a decision for dinner wasn’t very hard, on the previous evening we had seen a lady making Banh Cuon right around the corner on Hang Bac….and it looked pretty darn good. So we walked on over and had a seat on the little plastic stools, and decided to share an order of Banh Cuon. It was fun watching our sheets of rice flour being turned into, nice elastic noodles.

Speed and economy of motion were in full display…..

While the noodle was cooking, a full complement of side dishes and garnishes were set out,  including some fresh herbs, a hot soupy nuoc mam based dipping broth with Chả Quế(cinnamon pork sausage), limes, and sliced orange chilies, which, in addition to being mildly spicy, had a nice sweet flavor.

Several times during the process, the Missus made a play for the Banh Cuon.

But the Woman would shake her head and make the international sign to stop……I guess no Banh Cuon was to be eaten until it’s time!

These noodles(almost like Cheong Fun – but more delicate), though not the best we had on the trip, had a generous amount of minced pork and cloud ear filling, and the fried shallot topping was quite tasty.  It is also deceivingly filling……total cost 20,000VND(about $1.25 US – I’m pretty sure we were charged "tourist price" on this, but that’s fine).

Bia (A)Hoi……..

Sufficiently satiated, we decided that we just needed to try Bia Hoi, aka fresh beer, brewed daily without preservatives, and low in alcohol content, we thought this would make a nice little night cap. We stopped at a little stand, full of plastic kiddie seat and tables, and had a seat, knees tucked almost to our chins, on a little corner of Hang Buom.

This light, highly carbonated beverage is a microbrew in name only…..the fragrance is that of beer, but the taste is very close to that of non-alcoholic beer. It is very cold and refreshing, and best of all, a glass costs about 20 cents US! In spite of what we read, all of the Bia Hoi places we passed were full of tourists. We chose this one because, even though it was full, it didn’t look as packed as others….and there were a few locals having a brew. We sat next to a table fo 4 Asians, 3 guys and a woman, and wouldn’t you know…they start talking in Chinese! Turns out they’re from Guangzhou….. The Missus was having a nice conversation with them, when the young man to our right starts talking in Chinese as well. He’s from Taiwan……what are the odds????

As the Missus’s conversation passed from one topic to another….I managed to sneak in 3 more glasses of Bia Hoi, and finished off the remainder of Hers. 5 glasses of Bia Hoi – 15,000VND(less than a buck!). You know….maybe I can get really used to this……

What to do in Hanoi at 430 AM…….

Yes, jet lag was rearing its ugly head….it was 330am and the Missus and I were wide awake. So what to do? Well, Hanoi seemed a very safe city…we decided to take a walk at 430 in the morning…there’s no way I’d do this in most places, even at home in San Diego, but there were people out and about…many of them Women. The great thing was how few motorbikes there were on the road. But what the heck was going on at 430 in the morning? Well, after walking all the way up past Dong Xuan Market, we noticed some activity on one of the streets just East of the market….taking a left on Pho Nguyen Thien Thuat we stumbled onto a street live with activity….

So you’ve heard of all those early morning wholesale markets, that sell to the various restaurants….. Welcome to Hanoi’s much smaller version of Tsukiji Market. Except instead of fish….

It was full on, wall to wall beef…..

The street was full of hacking, haggling, and hurrying, as beef and pork was divided up, bought, and driven off on the backs of motorbikes. Bones were cracked and chopped right on the asphalt.

And purchased for what could possibly be todays or tomorrows Pho.

And since we need to give pork equal time. This little piggy went to market….

And never made it back home…..I saw one of the ladies divide this guy up in less than 5 minutes! I wouldn’t want to get on Her "bad side".

Around the corner is the produce section.

All headed for a food stall, and possibly a small plastic table near you……

It was quite a sight, the chilies were beautiful, and the veggies fresh. What else would you expect from a wholesale food market anywhere? All while the rest of Hanoi slept…..

I hope you’ll excuse the photos….we took all of them without the use of the flash……

Fish sauce or hot sauce anyone?

We felt so lucky to have stumbled onto this lively impromptu market…a few hours later, you’d never have known this place even existed.

As we walked back toward our spot for Banh Gio we noticed these ladies hard at work dividing up, and bagging charcoal.

Talk about hard, dirty work!

We were on our way……to breakfast, and later to Halong Bay…..but the memory of the women bagging charcoal somehow remained on my mind for a while.

*** This post has a minimum of food, and some drink, but I thought you'd be interested. If not, we'll have the food portion of this post tomorrow….thanks for being so patient!

On the way back to our hotel to meet our Guide and Driver, the Missus decided that She "needed" some Vietnamese Iced Coffee. Luckily, right on Hang Bac, just around the corner, was Cafe Nang:

This tiny hole in the wall is quite popular, and was always busy in the mornings and evenings. Just like the US, the clientele of these type of coffee shops is mostly male…

We managed to snag a table in the back of the restaurant, with 2 kiddie stools….better to watch the Little Old Lady "do Her stuff" in this cramped little space that serves 2 floors.

It was pretty amazing to see what can be done in this tiny space, and with only 1 burner.

Interesting thing; in Northern Vietnam, Iced Coffee with Condensed Milk is called Cafe Nau Da, not Cafe Sua Da…with a few exceptions. The Missus enjoyed this version, (8,000 VND, approx 50 cents US) though to Her taste buds, it tasted milder than versions She's had at "home".

Upon our arrival at our hotel, I had met with the travel desk and went over our itinerary. On the flight over, the Missus went through Her guides to Hanoi, and decided that She wanted to do a tour of some of the Handicraft Villages. So we managed to snag a Guide and Driver for the day.  Our guide, a friendly young man named Hung, was glad to have the work, He usually does the City Tour, and for him this was nice change of pace.

The first village we "hit" was Van Phuc, the Silk Village, located just outside Hanoi.

If you want silk, or silk products around Hanoi, I guess this is where you'd…or at least the bus loads of tourists, get the stuff. The was one really interesting thing about touring these villages…..

You can go just about anywhere…..step into a shop, and start walking around…get caught in some massive rollers…..no OSHA, no liability issues here. It was interesting watching and hearing endless rows of spools, the clacking of gears…the sounds of machinery echoed down the street.

For me, watching the Jacquard Loom, which uses punch cards to determine the sequence of patterns was almost mesmerizing. Stay here long enough and you'd need ear plugs, though! After walking about the various shops and factories for about 45 minutes, we'd just about had our fill, and it was time to move on….

Our next stop was the village of Le Mat, which I had seen on several shows on television. Le Mat is known as the "Snake Village", where snakes are raised for consumption……pick your poison(no pun intended), hungry, thirsty, or perhaps feeling a bit "under the weather"?

Because Hung had to ask for directions once we arrived, I gathered that he hadn't been here too many times. Nevertheless, we ended up at a huge restaurant, named Quoc Trieu.

There were several large glass enclosures with snakes in them, and large containers with what I assumed was snake wine.

After a short discussion, we were walking down a short road, took a left, and started walking down a dike…

And soon enough came to a large, fenced off area….we found out later named Quoc Phuong Ecological Farm.

Just as with our previous stop….you just wander up, open the fence and walk in…..

It wasn't until after we entered, that I thought, "wait a minute…..they raise snakes here, and we just kinda walked up here and are making ourselves at home?" Of course, I kept glancing around at my feet…….

In reality, the place is pretty peaceful.

We walked past huge concrete pens…..

When you walked up the stairs, you saw this:

As we walked up the trail, the Snake Wrangler/Manager, a very mellow Dude named "Huong" met us, and walked us up to an enclosure.

The entire floor of the shed is lined with cages with hinged doors. You could actually hear hissing coming from a few the cages. Mr. Huong(about this time I started calling him "mister") waved me over to one of the cages, unshouldered the flashlight, and proceed to shine it in one of the cages.

Okay, yep, that's a King Cobra alright……nice…time to go and visit our next village!

One problem, Mr Huong didn't speak any English. And so he started opening cages and bringing the snakes out……

One snake….

Two snakes……

Three snakes……

More!!!

Huong actually asked us (translation courtesy of Mr Hung – see, I'm taking no chances…I'm calling them all "mister" by this time) if we'd like to pet the baby cobras. We were told that none of His customers had been bitten, yet…. Turns out behind that quite and mellow demeanor, Huong had a sense of humor.

I did manage to take one of my favorite photos of the trip……

That was a few miles closer than I'd rather be, when it comes to cobras….

As we left the area, I noticed these enclosures:

I was told that snakes are placed here for tours, to do a kind of "show", but there weren't any tours scheduled today, so we got to see the snakes in the pens…which I kinda enjoyed a bit more than a staged "cobra and pony show".

We were shown a few other animals being raised…..

The most interesting were found in these pens:

Guess what????

Yep, porcupines….we were told that it was for eating…..

A few minutes later, we were seated in the patio area, and the fine stemware was broken out.

A barrel was uncorked….

And we had some tea, with snake wine chaser.

This snake rice wine was the best stuff we drank on the entire trip….we kept drinking, and Huong kept pouring…must've done five or six shots. This hootch was pretty smooth, a mildly sweet start, with a floral finish. I didn't think it was very strong, but Hung started getting a buzz on. Huong was nice enough to answer a bunch of questions, which I'm sure he's been asked a zillion times; like "how long does it take to raise a cobra to be ready for consumption?"(answer, about 3 years) And, "what happens if you get bit?"(answer, once you suck the poison out, there are some herbs and plants that help healing.) Soon enough the pangs of hunger set in, and Huong shuttled us back to the restaurant on his motorbike. We had decided to go ahead and have lunch at the restaurant…

How was it??

Stay tuned for part 2!

Disembarking from our flight, we noticed something a bit "different" about Noi Bai Airport…..it is a lot quieter than other airports, almost somber. The immigration officials here are no joke either…..stone faced, cold, and dead serious.

We found our driver with minimal effort….there were actually 3 of them from the Hanoi Elegance Hotel, but we didn’t see our names. So we stopped to talk to one of them, and wouldn’t you know it, one of the Guys produces a folded up sign with our names from his pocket!

As we drove into Hanoi, we noticed the latest in motorbike fashion footwear for women….it was either plastic slippers, pumps(black and red seem to be the trend), or these slippers with teensy-tiny heels, that made me wonder how the heck they could actually walk. We could discern a palpable "buzz" as we approached the city. Yes folks, Hanoi is alive…it is a beehive of activity….these bees have two wheels, and make honking noises.

I’m a bit disappointed that we weren’t able to take any photos that can convey the controlled chaos….several times I had intentions of trying to capture that shot, but my focus had to be shifted to more important issues at hand….like trying to avoid getting run over by motorbikes parking or leaving the skinny sidewalks.

The beeping of horns is constant, over time the Missus and I identified several variations…the "here I come" beep, versus the "get the hell out of my way" beep, the "it’s 5am in the morning, and no one is around, but I’m approaching an intersection" beep, and so forth. And yet within this mass of two wheeled vehicles, there is order, and a distinct ebb and flow to it all. It’s those 4 wheeled vehicles you have to watch out for.

As for crossing the street……Jeni of Oishii-eats has a wonderful post you can find here. As mentioned in the post, slow and steady is the way to go. And while we did catch a bit of a thrill the first time we crossed Le Thai To, crossing quickly became routine, and even a bit of a pain in the end. Actually, we found the streets of Phnom Penh to be much more dangerous, the streets are wider, there are more 4 wheeled vehicles, and people drive faster.

Hungry after wandering the streets for a bit, we decided on having a our first meal in Hanoi in a proper restaurant, and wandered over to Highway 4. There would be plenty of time for street food and other stuff later…or so we thought. Both Beach and the wonderful Web Site Savour Asia, recommended Highway 4 for interesting riffs on traditional Vietnamese Food. Plus, the restaurant was located on Hang Tre only 2 blocks from our hotel on Ma May Street.

Since it was only 4pm the place was empty(our internal clocks were obviously messed up), and we were led up the winding, cramped stairway, with tiny steps…..something which we found to be the norm in most places. You will want to watch your step if you’ve had a bit too much Ruou(rice wine).

The seating on the second floor is on mats…..on an elevated floor.

The young lady who served us was very nice, if a bit ummmm……spaced out, in a cute kind of way.

"We’d like 2 bottled waters please…."
"Two waters…….small or big?"
"Big ones will be fine…."
"Okay, but we don’t have any big one’s right now."(So why did she ask us in the first place?)
"Alllrighty…..2 small ones will be fine."
She gives us a shy smile, walks away and starts singing……comes back a minute later because she forgot to take our order….

The menu at Highway 4 is huge, a classic case of Vietnamese menu overload, with everything from Roasted Locust to French Fries(!!!???). Unfortunately, just like the "big" water, they seemed to be out of a few things we wanted to order, like the Deep Fried Pig Tail and Sauteed Ostrich stomach.

The first dish to arrive was the Pork Ribs with Salt and Lemongrass(55,000 VND – approx $3.50/US).

This was served, in what we found to be a classic accompaniment with meat: salt, chilies, with lime….which we enjoyed so much, that we now eat meat this way at home. The pork was extremely tough. I had expected the meat in Vietnam(and Cambodia) to be more chewy, since most animals are raised "free-range"….but this was like rubber.

It was interesting to find that the "appetizer sin" is not only alive and well in the US, as our Catfish Spring Rolls arrived after our entree (64,000 VND, $4/US).

The rice paper served for these spring rolls was different from what I’m used to, thin, crisp, almost parchment like. The battered and fried catfish, was moist, if a bit on the chewy side, and had excellent flavor; a touch of sweet, without a hint of muddiness. The dill was very mild, with just the breath of fennel-anise flavor. The most interesting thing about the dish was the use of wasabi mayonnaise, which I must say that was used in good proportion.

Since there was no Ostrich to be found; I ordered the Whole Roasted Sparrow (36,000 VND, approx $2.25/US):

4 roasted birds served with some herbs, greens, grape tomatoes, and with the ubiquitous salt-chili-lime juice, this may have been my favorite dish on the entire trip. The birds are eaten whole…head, bones, everything. The flavor is a tasty "cornish game hen approaching duck", we were tempted to return just for this.

Buffalo Grilled with Fermented Rice (52,000 VND, approx $4.25 US).

Having had buffalo before, and based on the pork ribs, I expected this to be very tough…but the meat had a pleasant chew to it. More of a 2 part stir-fry than a grilled dish, we detected a distinct sourness to the dish, I’m assuming from the fermented rice. The addition of Ngo Om (Rice Paddy Herb), added a pleasant, palate cleansing, peppery-citrus flavor to the whole dish, which the Missus enjoyed.

Unfortunately for us; we also ordered 2 of the Ruou Samplers (approx 44,000 VND each):

  Some of this stuff tasted just plain heinous to us……ginseng, gecko, seahorse, snake, you name it. None of them, save the Black Bee flavored Ruou, which had a mild floral finish, even approached the home made Ruou we tasted in Le Mat, Can Cau, and Bac Ha. Still, we enjoyed our meal at Highway 4, and I’d sure like couple more roasted sparrows.

Things seem to move at a pretty leisurely pace at Highway 4, but it could be because we were the only customers in the place. It may seem amazing to those used to dealing with the price of meals in the US, but this was probably one of our most expensive meals in Vietnam, at close to $20/US. In what was a good reality check for us, we found that none of the locals we spoke to, guides, people at the hotel, and other folks had ever eaten at Highway 4, not because the food was bad…in fact they had all heard very nice things about Highway 4. It was that they couldn’t afford to eat there……

Highway 4
5 Hang Tre
Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi

After dinner, we took a not so leisurely stroll, and ended up at what can be considered the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake. And in spite of the gazillion motorbikes, and the honking horns, there is something about Hoan Kiem Lake that is relaxing…… Though one should not confuse the idyllic photos of the lake that look like this.

That’s the Tortoise Tower (Thap Rua), dedicated to the legendary turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake. Every so often, the mythic tortoise will reappear. A more realistic modern version of that photo would be this….

We thought this simple photo is quite telling, the exotic old Hanoi, and the young, dynamic, vibrant, Hanoi. This Young Lady kept text messaging the entire time we sat, and was still at it when we passed by later; for all I know, she’s still there going at it.

And unless, you arrive early in the morning, or after Ngoc Son Temple closes, the photogenic The Huc Bridge, is more likely to look like this.

Than this…..

Still, there’s something about the place that draws you in…..

More on Hoan Kiem Lake later, and for even more, Wandering Chopsticks has a delightful post here.