Hanoi food, part 2

Instead of going to Bobby Chinn we decided to give Mediterraneo, an Italian place a try instead. Situated directed in front of the cathedral in the middle of downtown, it's a little cosy place with candles on the tables.

We had antipasto to share. Everything on that board was delicious. It sure beat spring rolls.
My husband's pizza, freshly made and baked. We saw a calzone on the next table and wished we had ordered that. The pastry on top was bubbling even!
My penne with Italian sausages. Loved the slightly tangy sauce but could use a bit more cheese. I was getting excited when I saw the garnish. How cute!
Mediterraneo

23 Nha Tho Street, Hanoi. Tel: +84 4 826 6288

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Beef pho (US$0.80) my husband had at a truck stop en route to Halong Bay. Didn't expect much to begin with but it was very good. The dollop of chili sauce was fierce.
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Our last meal in Hanoi and we picked the always-busy Little Hanoi. The decoration has a French bistro feel to it but the menu is multi-national from Vietnamese to sandwiches to pastas. I picked Vietnamese prawn cakes to share. They looked very interesting - the things sticking out were solid potato chips and the batter surrounding the prawn tasted similar to fritti. Very delicious.
I wanted beef pho but it wasn't available for some reason. Instead I went for a salad nicoise and it was OK, like a regular nicoise with canned tuna. Nothing spectacular.
My husband had a carbonara but I didn't take a picture. He said it was average and it curdled. We enjoyed the 2-for-1 wine happy hour deal the most and it's a nice oasis amongst the chaos of tooting mopeds in the Old Quarter.

Little Hanoi

21 Pho Hang Gai, Hanoi. Tel: +84 4 928 5333

Hanoi food, Pho 24

Pho is being served everywhere in Hanoi, a lot of times by mobile street vendors carrying everything (big pot of stock, all the ingredients, bowls and chopsticks) on a long bamboo stick. I did not dare. Especially not after the numerous encounters I had with roaches while walking around town.

I am glad I read about Pho 24 before the trip. A chain originated in HCM City, Pho 24 is renowned for its intricate way of beef broth preparation and more importantly its cleanliness.

It was 12 noon when I arrived and the place was packed with local white collar diners. A good sign. I started my meal with a cooling watermelon juice. Had to admire the 70s presentation.

I knew I was in the right place when the waiter gave me a plate of pho fixings separately.

The red chili sauce was nice but I'm not entirely sure what the brown one was. It was sweet and similar to plum sauce.

My pho bo. I added all the fixings plus chili sauce and it was delicious! The broth was rich with a complex beef flavour. I began drinking it like everybody else - it was very nice and satisfying indeed.

I looked around and everybody was dipping some kind of bread stick into the broth. I followed suit. The sticks were about the length of a palm. I was expecting a light yet crunchy texture but I was wrong. It was quite dense and chewy I had to pull hard to break it apart. It didn't taste of anything but it soaked up the broth nicely. Plus it helped filling me up as the portion of my pho was not the biggest.

I decided to try the beef balls also. Somehow I thought they would be like meatballs, fried or something. Too young, sometimes naiive. Of course they came in soup - silly me. Unfortunately there's nothing special about them. I've had better hand-made beef balls in Hong Kong but for US$0.60 it was worth a try.

Lunch came to US$4 in total. Bargain! If I ever get to go back again I would just get 2 noodles. And get this: I was not thirsty at all afterwards - no MSG!


Pho 24

1 Hang Khay Street (on the south shore of Hoan Kiem Lake), Hanoi. Tel: 84 4 9365259

Hanoi, food market

Warning: sensitive animal lovers please skip this post.

I decided to wander into a food market not far from our hotel. It had everything I expected: busy, wet, dried seafood, funky herbs and as a bonus mopeds and bikes zipping up and down.

Then I got more than I bargained for.

It took me a few seconds to work out what they were. I looked at the legs and ruled out pigs.

Then came the head and there was no mistake. It was so evil I ran for my life!

Hanoi food, Cha Ca La Vong

I read so much about Cha Ca La Vong I was determined to try it. As far as I know Cha Ca means grilled fish and the dish is a Hanoi speciality. We found the tiny restaurant in the Old Quarter district and got a table upstairs. It was an experience itself as I could feel the floor vibrate (sometimes very violently) whenever someone walked past.

Cha Ca is the only dish available and it made ordering pretty easy. The place was like a sauna and our beer came in handy. Brewed locally by Carlsberg, Halida is quite plain with not a lot of flavours. I am not a beer drinker usually so I am relying on my husband's comment, according to him it was "alright".

Condiments and side dishes for Cha Ca. We saw pictures of the owner with huge (taller than 6ft!) catfish downstairs and figured that the white fish should be catfish.

The stove had red hot charcoal and I thought my face was grilling almost! The fish and herbs (dill?) were sizzling in a rather huge amount of oil. We let it cooked for a bit and decided to throw the noodles in to soak up the flavours.

To be honest the dish was nothing special. It didn't have a lot of taste and it was quite oily. The fish itself was fresh and meaty, which I totally didn't expect from catfish. It had a salty taste from the fish sauce marinate but then that's about it. Our noodles, having soaked up the oil and juice from the pot, were still pretty bland.

All in all it was an interesting experience and one should try it at least once, so you can tell your friends you had catfish! US$4 per person for the Cha Ca.

Cha Ca La Vong

14 Cha Ca Street, Old Quarter, Hanoi.

Hanoi food, part 1

When we arrived Hanoi it was almost 1am. It didn't stop us from getting food because we were practically starving. No food was served on our 90-min flight from Guangzhou to Hanoi- how poor could it be?

Luckily our room service arrived very swiftly. Our spring rolls (US$7) were crispy and tasty, but I don't think they were freshly made (freshly fried but pre-made). I suspected they were very expensive for Hanoi standard.

My husband and I both picked nasi goreng (around US$15) - one of the few Asian dishes on the menu. We always try to order things that we think the chef can do best, and in Asia it's generally a better bet for Asian dishes.

The strategy worked. Our nasi goreng was delicious with chunks of chicken in the fried rice. The only thing I have to pick on would be the fried-to-death chicken wing and drumstick on the side. They were so dry it was impossible to get through the skin.

Melia Hanoi

44B Ty Thuong Kiet, Hanoi.

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The lunch included in my Hanoi day trip. I hadn't expected a lot but still I was disappointed and hungry at the end. (Along with the very unorganised itinerary it was probably my worst day trip ever.)

The spring rolls had really tough skin like paper. The only dip was soya. Poor.

Sweet and sour pork. Pretty tasty but hardly enough for all of us.

There were fried vegetable and plain rice on the side. Everything had to be shared between five of us. Five! I had to dip into my emergency jelly tots supply. Yikes.

Vietnam Opentour