Even though we went to bed incredibly early the night before, I didn't have too much trouble sleeping until 6:00 a.m. our first night in Hanoi. We had a food tour booked with the Hanoi Cooking Centre, and we were instructed not to eat breakfast. So of course, we went downstairs to enjoy our included breakfast, but tried to keep it light. ;) I was disappointed to find out that the breakfast tea was Lipton, since they grow some great tea in Vietnam. I had some tropical fruit (rambutan, rock melon, dragon fruit, and passion fruit) and a super cute and delicious chocolate donut lollipop.
Walk Through West Lake Neighborhood
We were still feeling adventurous, so we decided to walk to the Cooking Centre. Things aren't so easy without international data on our cell phones, but I had an address and a map. We had plenty of time, so we meandered a bit. I found this ominous door labeled "Happy House" but decided not to investigate further.
Just a bit later, we saw a produce vendor selling very fresh duck. Live ducks were in a cage, and she was slaughtering and butchering one right next to it. Sorry (or perhaps not sorry), no photo of that! As we reached West Lake, I stopped to take a photo of the shore, lined with houses.
Roadside chickens were a common sight in this neighborhood.
Hanoi Cooking Centre Street Food Tour
After getting turned around a bit (while addresses are sequential on each side of the street, they don't necessarily line up across the street from each other), we found our destination with about 10 minutes to spare. We checked in at the counter, paid our fee (2.65 million VND, or $118 US), and were then taken down a narrow alley/walkway to a courtyard. It was a quiet sanctuary from the noisy street, and tastefully decorated with tables, chairs, and flower arrangements. There a staff member served us lahan tea, which is made from a tree nut and has a very distinct taste—sweet with a hint of licorice.
Aaron showing off the lahan nut.
The lahan nut had lobes, which I've never seen before. I enjoyed its unique taste.
While another family joined us for tea, they were there for a cooking class, so we ended up having a private tour.
Our guide, Hung, took us across the street for phở for breakfast. We learned that traditionally phở is made from chicken, because cows were used to help with farm work, not to eat. Over time, the Vietnamese have developed a taste for beef, and now it is a standard option as well. The key to good phở is a strong, flavorful stock. Whole chickens are boiled for about 3 hours, while beef shoulder is boiled for 8-10 hours. Since phở is a breakfast food, it is someone's job to make the stock overnight so it's ready for the morning. Shallot, ginger, cinnamon, and star anise are added to the stock in the final 30 minutes. They don't skim off the fat—it stays in the stock so the phở sticks with you longer. [I can't wait to try to make phở from scratch at home!]
To serve, rice noodles, chives, and your choice of meat (chicken meatballs for very young or old people) are covered with stock. At the table, you can add lime juice, rice vinegar, and chili sauce to your liking. I had chicken and Aaron had beef. Both were phenomenal, and I loved what the lime and vinegar did for the flavor. We were also served deep-fried doughnuts which we dipped into the soup. I would have never known to do that unless instructed...who dips a sweet doughnut into a savory soup? Whoever decided to do that was a genius, because it was quite tasty. We also had the first of many green teas.
Beef phở
Chicken phở
Vietnamese doughnuts
After breakfast, we went to the Chau Long wet market. Hung taught us how to find good fish sauce, what nut and leaves to use to celebrate marriage, and how to identify meat, seafood, and produce. We saw live fish, pig brains, and live frogs being dispatched as the vendor chopped off their heads.
The good fish sauce
Pigs' feet
Pig brains
Betel nut
Rice varieties
Pig intestine
Whole chicken
Pork puree, both raw and boiled. Once boiled it's sliced for sandwiches.
Tiny, lively fish
Eels
Duck egg: fertilized and unfertilized
As we walked by a bamboo stand, the ladies stopped Hung to talk. They see him at the market almost every day, and think he's a fine young man. They were trying to set him up with their daughters!
Bamboo
After the market, we took a cab to the Old Quarter. Our first stop was a small restaurant that served banh cuon gia truyen, steamed rice pancakes filled with pork, prawn, or chicken. They were quite tasty dipped in a sauce of five parts water, 1 part rice vinegar, 1 part sugar, and 2 parts fish sauce. However, I was not skilled at picking up the flimsy rolled pancakes with chopsticks. Hung tried to teach me a better technique, but I didn't catch on very quickly.
Now that we were in the Old Quarter (a street food mecca), the next dishes came in quick succession. We had a banh mi, which was absolutely phenomenal, and some spicy dried apricots, which Hung called "jams."
Note that this street stall is on Trip Advisor!
Apricot jams
Then, he led us down a tiny, dark alley which he promised was full of foodie treasures. The space to walk between stalls was maybe 6-8 feet wide at most (two people walking side by side was about all it could handle), yet motorbikes were still coming through! One man came through hauling a large set of speakers, and behind him was another man with a microphone serenading passers by. It was like mobile karaoke!
We sat down at the snail soup stall, where a gray-haired grandmother was toiling over a steaming cauldron. We were provided with generous bowls of soup for about a dollar, which contained snails, tofu, green bananas, tomatoes, and a steaming, perfectly spiced broth. Of course, Aaron dumped chili sauce in his (he seemed to do this with every soup in Vietnam), and he may have upped the spice factor just a bit too much. His chili, combined with the smoke from the cooking appliances, sent him into a coughing fit until tears streamed down his cheeks. Our Vietnamese cook seemed to get a kick out of this. I added the normal toppings of lotus root, lettuce, and a local, slightly bitter spice called perilla to my soup. Now, we were starting to get full!
But, Hung wasn't done with us yet. A few stalls further into the alley, he introduced us to che—a sweet dessert soup thickened with tarro, containing multi-colored fruit. We noted that while it may have looked like snot, it tasted amazing. Since it was winter, they also had a seasonal specialty, banh troi—sweet dumplings filled with mung bean and coconut or black sesame in a sweet ginger sauce. So good!
So many choices!
Just mix them all together. Trust us, it's delicious.
Special winter seasonal offering
The aftermath
The view from our seats in the back of the shop
At this point, we were absolutely stuffed, but Hung had one more stop planned for us. We got into another taxi and headed back up to the West Lake area. We went to a tiny coffee shop, which we had actually passed by on our walk the day before but never noticed. We ordered our coffee and climbed a steep back staircase to the upper room, where the ceiling was about 5'4"—perfect for me, but Aaron had to stoop. He was pretty funny.
The coffee was served in dishes of hot water to keep it warm. It was very strong and bitter; Aaron had to add sugar to his black coffee. I had mine with steamed milk, which I think was sweetened, and it was perfect. After our coffee, we said goodbye to Hung and walked back to our hotel to relax. In case it's not obvious, we were very happy with our street food tour from the Hanoi Cooking Centre, and would highly recommend it if you want to try authentic street food without the stress of choosing reputable purveyors.
Coffee with milk
Coffee with milk
Black coffee
Intercontinental Hanoi West Lake Holiday Decorations
I took this opportunity to snag some pictures of the Christmas decorations at the Intercontinental. They created Christmas trees from multi-colored, traditional Vietnamese straw hats. I love this, and would totally recreate it at home for the holidays if I had a crafty bone in my body.
Visit to Imperial Citadel
Before the day was over, we caught a cab back downtown to visit the Imperial Citadel. I took a video in an attempt to capture the craziness of the streets of Hanoi, which are all the more interesting from a taxi that does whatever the hell it wants.
We were two of just a handful of visitors at the Imperial Citadel site, which consisted mainly of some decorative trees and remnants from archeological digs on the grounds (it's still an active archeological site).
This turtle is made from 2 tons of blue sapphire
One must-see part of the Citadel is the underground bunker where the Central Military Commission made decisions about the Vietnam/American War, and sheltered during bombings. It's 9 meters underground and has thick steel doors. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in the bunker.
At the back of the property we found a 3-story building (the Princess' Pagoda) that purportedly was where the emperor kept his concubines. The staircases were so steep, I literally had to climb them. I felt that in my legs for a few days!
Walking The Streets Of Hanoi
We "accidentally" walked all the way back to the hotel while trying to decide on a dinner option. I caught a few more traffic videos. The first showcases a three-way intersection, which of course has no need for a traffic signal or even a stop sign. Just go whenever you want (and that includes pedestrians).
After the sun went down, we were on a small side street in our West Lake neighborhood, where motorbikes, cars, and pedestrians all share the narrow street because the sidewalks are occupied by vendors or parked motorbikes.
Since we couldn't choose a restaurant, and we ended up at one of the bahn mi carts outside our hotel. Aaron had his filled with egg, and he really liked it. Mine had cold chicken, and I thought better of it after a couple bites—I didn't know how long it had been sitting out. So after "dinner" we went to the Sunset Bar at the hotel and I had some grilled beef with sticky rice. I couldn't even use Yelp to find a non-hotel option, because the service isn't available in Vietnam.
Then, it was pretty much straight to bed! We'd had a long day with lots of walking. Even with the cab rides, we logged 14,000 steps. And we had to meet our Uniworld guide first thing in the morning for our trip to Ha Long Bay!
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