Right, the first order of the day when we touched down in Hanoi was breakfast. And the place my uncle who is working in Hanoi took us served Pho Ga (which means chicken noodles I think) and coffee! At first I thought, ain't Vietnam famous for their beef noodles instead of chicken? Well, I was about to find out they both go hand in hand.
See if you'd follow a normal tour group led by one of those tour guides from the company, they'd probably usher you to one of those posh places or even worse, the hotel.. and this little shop could've been overlooked completely. If you visit those coffee shops in Jonker area often, you'd pretty much feel at home. But the food is in a class of its own.
At first glance, I wasn't too excited bout what was on the table, as you can see, simple plain broth, noodles, chicken n spring onions. Add abit of lime and freshly cut chilli by the side, it seemed simple enough no? But I tell you, once I took a spoon full of it, I swear I won't eat another 'Vietnamese beef/chicken noodle' in Malaysia anymore!
And we got these mini char kuays which are so crispy n fresh. At first I thought it was suppose to dip in the coffee like typical Malaysian style. But my aunt and uncle said to dip in the soup and eat with the noodles. Sure enough, it felt perfect. And owh, Vietnamese chili is not like the normal chili we get at home. The size like normal chili but the taste, sumthing like chili padi la. Damn syok!
And to wash it all down, we had real Vietnamese coffee. I had the iced coffee which looked simple enough. But as I was to find out with all the coffees served in Vietnam, the locals here like theirs thick kao kao kao. Imagine my aunt who's about erm.. 70? (eh, Lynn, how old is dee ee ah? :x) , kaki kopi as in every family gathering sure will make those Aik Cheong or Starbucks coffee, says that its too thick for her and ask me to finish it. Luckily I'm not one of those who can't sleep after a cuppa. Or else I probably won't be able to sleep for the whole time I was in Vietnam!!
If that was the taste of things to come during the trip, I could hardly wait!! One note worth mentioning, you know if you see those travel shows on Discovery T&L esp. the Anthony Bourdain ones where he says if possible, do not eat in the hotel? Well, I bet he would retract differently once he tasted the food we had at ours.
The hotel we stayed wasn't that big or grand, it was a little boutique hotel tucked away in a small ally way which only bikes and pedestrians could access. This is 1 case of 'don't judge a book by its cover'. Service was great, the staff smiled and greeted you everytime you walked it. Heck even got complementry drinks on arrival. The breakfast menu was also superb! Ain't no run of the mill buffet, but an ala carte menu where we order what we want to eat n they cook it on the spot for us. Their beef n chicken noodles also 'mou tak teng' as the Canto ppl would say. And I had an omlette stuffed with cheese, mushrooms, bacon n ham + beef noodles almost every morning!
Anyways, only had the breakfast thing the following days. As for lunch, we went to this restaurant which provided local n a bit of western buffet. Now usually I wouldn't tempt snails or as the French would call it : escargot. But hey, when else would I have the chance. So ate I did, and yummy they taste! There were also staff bringing those huge kebab sticks with meat wrapped round it tableside and slicing of juicy pieces of beef, pork or lamb for us. Too bad no pics, was busy stuffing my pie hole with food!
And of cos, gotta try every Pho Bo (beef noodle) in sight rite? The one here was also yummy! And there were the usual Vietnamese spring rolls . To be honest, I had so many different types of spring rolls here, all claiming to be THE Vietnamese spring roll, I'm really left clueless. Will the real Vietnamese Spring Roll please stand up?? At the end of it, we left with our bellys stuffed and our faces smiling :)
Later in the day, we went to this coffee house where the speciality according to my uncle, is ice cream coffee. Wondered what was so special, just put a scoop of ice cream into the coffee la rite? Well, kinda.. the secret was they used coconut ice cream! I think its fresh cos can see the ice cream still got the coconut shavings in them. And as usual la, the coffee standard is as kao as ever :)
For dinner, again we went of the beaten track and walked ourselves from the hotel to this little French type eatery. I was told that this placed served one of the best slices of ham, salami, etc and pate (pronounced 'pah-teh' .shit i too lazy to find the letters with the slashes on top :P). Upon hearing that, could clearly see the eyes of my dad n sis light up!
This was what we were here for, a platter of nothing but meat in its finest form apart from those carrots la. And the yellow thing beside ain't no melon or butter, it was fat! And what better way to enjoy this scrumptious feast then with freshly baked french bread! No it aint the baguettes, its the shorter, fatter, softer n fluffier version!
Nah, macam ni la makan! Use the fat as butter, put a few pieces of meat, some tomatoes n cucumbers for taste and walla, Meat sandwich! And between the 10 of us, I think we ordered like 6 plates of this! And I think between me, my dad n my sis, we had like 4 of em!! There was one time they went out of bread so one of the waiters had to go out n buy some from those aunties sellin em by the road side!
We even had room for pigeon, roasted chicken and salad. Heck even their salad got pieces of ham inside!! Surely by far the best dinner I had in Hanoi! I think my dad said if this was his last meal, he'd be pretty happy!
The next night again we went to this small shop a couple of blocks away from the previous nights' dinner. Here they serve one thing and one thing only but unfortunately, I couldn't remember what its called in Vietnamese hahhaha.. Basically it was fish slices marinated in kunyit and other spices fried in a small wok with kangkung over a charcoal burner ! And we're suppose to cook it table side ourselves.
We ate this together with home made glass noodles and there was this special sauce. If you know budu, then you pretty much can imagine the taste. Its so pungent it'll make you wanna throw up at first. I think its fish paste n fish sauce.. somethings fishy here.. Like my aunt said, its an acquired taste. Unfortunately I didn't manage to acquire the taste :(. Non the less, the dish itself was delicious!!
Following day, we went to Halong Bay, don't wanna bore you with sights of the sea n rock formations. The food on board the boat we sat though was pretty much average la, but 1 thing that cought my eye was the first dish, 1 plate of prawns ! And this was for a table of 5! Haha and Vietnam has 2 brands of local beer, couldn't really choose which I like more, I just knew I liked drinking em!! But they're light la.. Something like China beer.
That night for dinner, we had more seafood, some local Vietnamese steam boat thing. Nothing much special here la.. Normal spicy tom yam like soup with prawns, clams, mussels, crabs n fish.
Heck I manage to eat 1 whole crab myself! ahha.. Huge buggers summore weh.. And that was pretty much my trip to Hanoi in a big eating nutshell la. To simply put it Hanoi has thought me that food doesn't have to be presented beautifully or located at a fancy artsy big big places for eat to be heart warming and delicious.
And owh, 1 final thing before 1 forgot, this might look like an ordinary coffee latte , but in fact, its coffee with whipped cream, kahlua and 1 shot of tequila!! no shit!! And I have to say, thats not a bad way to cap of the night, Over looking a small lake.. wathcing peoke pass by. And one more intersting thing, there are NO FAT people in Hanoi!!! With the abundance of food, I am truely amazed!!
I think some of you might have seen this already via Facebook, but for those who haven't enjoy the sight of our 'beautiful' Malaysian culture. Mind you, What you see above happened like all 5-6 times that night itself!
I'll be heading to Penang on Tuesday, so expect more of the same in my next post ! :D
