Hanoi Food Tour

We were eager to try lots of different kinds of Vietnamese food while we were in Vietnam, so I figured the best way to do that was with a food tour. There are hundreds of places to eat in every neighborhood, so without a guide, it could easily become overwhelming. We were lucky to get a very friendly guide who started by asking us what kinds of food we liked and if there was anything we really wanted to try, and then he took us walking around the neighborhood on a culinary adventure.

One thing I hadn't really registered before we got to Hanoi is how old it is. As a city, it's over a thousand years old, and, as with all old cities, it has some building peculiarities, like build up rather than out to avoid paying taxes on the land.

There is also an intricate labyrinth of little alleys connecting the city and hiding scenes of every day life along with massage parlours and restaurants.

You can see why a motorcycle is the preferred vehicle in this city. We were very glad to have our guide to lead us around. Eventually, we popped out on the main street near our first restaurant. While the restaurants served more than one thing, it was clear that each place had a specialty dish, and that's what we were there to try. The prepped bowls were lined up, ready to receive the finishing touches. Our first sampling was bún bò nam bộ (beef salad noodle) at 65 Hang Dieu.

The finished product had beef, fried onions, and pickled vegetables on top.

The "dressing" was on the bottom, so you had to stir it up. The sauce was sweet and tangy.

We loved it. We had to remind ourselves that it was the first of many.

Our next stop was another beef and noodle dish, but this one came in a yummy and unique broth made with pineapple, bún bò Huế ( Hue beef noodle).

The standard additions to the broth and noddles were bean sprouts, lime, and some greens.

I love all the baskets of greens around the city.

The soup was delicious, and our guide got Jeff some extra spicy sauces to add in.

There was a lady walking around with a bullhorn recorded sales pitch. She seemed to be selling some kind of pancake. When we asked our guide about it, he ran out to get us one. It's sesame paste. He said it's a typical after school snack.

It was a rainy day, so we got a little wet, but Hanoi has so many colors that it was never dull.

Our next stop was banh mi, the famous meeting of French and Vietnamese culture. It's pâté on a baguette, but the rest of the fillings are things like eggs and vegetables that feel more Asian. There are lots of varieties. We stuck with the more basic one.

Elena was especially impressed with the sign for the bathroom.

It's good that we were walking from restaurant to restaurant, because next up was grilled cat fish wraps, or chả cá.

There were various additions to the fish that you could wrap up and another tangy sauce to tip it in. Sugar and vinegar seem to be the go to sauce ingredients.

We did some more neighborhood walking to try and make space for dessert.

We could not resist the smell of frying dough, so we grabbed some bánh rán, donut balls.

Next our guide took us to a popular place for xôi xéo ngô, tumeric and corn sticky rice with savory meat and veggies.

It was another great combination of sweet and savory, but we were so full by that point that we could only manage a little of the starchy deliciousness. That meant it was time for the famous Vietnamese egg coffee, cà phê trứng The story goes that French colonists decided to make up for the lack of milk for their coffee by whipping up egg to put in there. It is decadently rich, and the spot our guide took us to was lovely.

The girls got egg chocolate instead of egg coffee. It was incredibly rich, and both girls were sick the next day, so we think this might have been what pushed their tummies over the edge.

Despite our protestations, our guide insisted on one more stop for fruit frenzy, kem hoa quả. It was delicious, and he even got us a mango only one for Elena.

The next day though, both Elena and Vivian were down. We learned that we all love Vietnamese food, but we should probably not eat quite so much in one day.

Our tour guide very helpfully sent us a list of all the places we went and what we ate there which he titled the ultimate menu: 

1. Bún bò nam bộ (Beef salad noodle) - 65 hang dieu
2. Bún bò Huế ( Hue beef noodle) - 60 Bat Su
3. Banh mi - 14 Hang Buom
4. Chả cá (grilled cat fish) - 23 dao duy tu
5. Bánh rán (donut ball) - 5 luong ngoc quyen
6. Xôi xéo ngô ( tumeric and corn sticky rice) - 35b nguyen huu huan
7. Cà Phê Trứng (Egg coffee) - 37b nguyen huu huan
8. Kem hoa quả ( fruit frenzy) - 17 to tich

Exploring Hanoi

One of the best parts about making friends overseas is that we all move around, and then there are new places to visit with friends to stay with and show you around. Our friends got a big place in Hanoi's old town area, and we had so much fun exploring with them.

It's just a couple blocks from the famous "train street" where traffic stops as a train cuts through the city. Viv and I decided to join the crowds and try to get a picture.

When it's not train time, the street is relatively calm and scenic. Our friends told us that in Hanoi, life happens on the sidewalk, and the one in front of their home is no exception. You could get your hair cut, grab some food and a beer, and just hang out.

They also live near "light street" which is a series of shops selling lights all in a row. it's really pretty at night.

We even found a nightlight for the bathroom we were using, so that the girls didn't turn on all the lights at night.

Our friends took us on a walk around the neighborhood. There were lots of restaurants and massage places on "pedestrian" streets, but motorcycles go everywhere.

We also went down some of the shopping streets, which are clearly geared to tourists. One mission was finding sunglasses for me and Vivian, but Elena got in on the action as well.

She could play cool as much as she wanted to, but once we saw an ice cream place, she went full kid again.

We took a walk around the lake, which seems like a common Sunday thing to do. Many people were wearing traditional outfits. Motorcycles were not allowed in, so the motorcycle parking was dense.

Unfortunately, the air quality was pretty crummy the whole time we were in Hanoi, so we couldn't get really bright pictures, but Jeff tried his best.

Our friends took us to one of their favorite places for lunch, an "American" club near the lake. The food was good, and there were lots of places for the kids to play while we ate, so everyone was happy.

They even had special lunar new year's 7-Up.

We had our adventures to Halong Bay and our food tour. Unfortunately, something disagreed with the girls, so they were down for a day not feeling well, but when they were feeling better, they had plenty of play time with our friends' younger kids.

On the last night, we did a grown up final night on the town. We split husbands and wives for pre-dinner drinks, and then met up for dinner. My friend and I did some walking around the old town area. It's chaotic, but I really enjoyed it. 

My friend took me to a place called The Halflington. As I was discovering, it was in a very typical Hanoi location. The only indication that there was a fancy restaurant were the two gentlemen standing outside the passage.

One of them escorted us down the passage,

through the apartment courtyard, and up the stairs,

where we eventually came to a skylit room with a giant whale skeleton hanging above it.

There was no way for me to properly capture the room, so I found a picture on the internet.

It's quite a space, and it was all decked out with Christmas decorations. The theme was definitely Victorian naturalists club. Even the drinks menu had flair.

We tried some adventurous cocktails.

Then we got a Grab, picked up Vivian, and met the husbands for a steak dinner.

We got vegetables too.

It was a fun way to end our trip. Hanoi is a fascinating city. I wish we had time to explore more of Vietnam. It's definitely a place I would like to go back to.