Lonely Planet lists Vietnam street food tour as the best walking
tour for globetrotting foodies.
Glad we included a guided walking tour in the itinerary of our recent
Indochina backpacking trip.
We booked our tour with Vietnam Awesome Travel, which got great reviews
in TripAdvisor. Our tour guide was Trang. Her energy was infectious,
which is exactly what we needed after a full day of exploring Hanoi.
She began by saying "sidewalks are for everything - parking,
eating, cooking except walking." With that we began exploring the streets
of Hanoi for the best food finds.
First stop was this place that serves Mien Tron.
Dong Thinh
87 Hang Dieu
Mien Tron is a flavorful combination of Vietnamese mint, cucumber,
vermicelli, bean sprout and crunchy eel. It was served with soup,
which was supposed to be taken last, not combined with it. Calamansi and chili
were also available.
What can I say? Ngon! Ngon means delicious.
Trang explains that the best food in Hanoi is family food or street food.
The families or shop owners mostly live upstairs and are assisted by
relatives from the province.
After that, we walked to our next stop where we had ugly fruit, snowy
ball cake or floating cake, and sugarcane juice. Snowy balls are very much
similar to Filipinos' palitaw.
Nuoc Mia
77 Hang Dieu
Our next stop was southern style beef.
Bun Bo Nam Bo
67 Hang dieu
Bun Bo is beef noodle, which has flat noodles and fried beef
cooked for long hours with sauce, no soup. It also has lettuce, bean
sprouts, carrots, nuts and shallots. Vinegar and chili were
served on the side.
Again, ngon!
Then, we went to the Countryside Cafe and Restaurant, which serves exotic
dishes.
29 Bat Dan
We had frogs sautéed with roasted rice, betel leaf, garlic, shallots, chili
and salt. There were guys having beer and cigarettes on the street. Couldn't
resist. I ordered beer.
I was already full after those 4 stops, but the next was just irresistible
-- barbeque chicken.
I must admit. Hanoi's chicken is also so good.
For first time Hanoi tourists, the streets can seem a bit chaotic and
difficult to navigate but Trang taught us that most Hanoi streets are named
after their specialization.
My eyes must have lighted up when she said our next stop was .....
beer street
I didn't care that we passed through a dark alleyway just to get there.
beer street
I didn't care that we passed through a dark alleyway just to get there.
We begin by counting ...
Mot
Hai
Ba
Then we say Zo and lift our bottles or glasses.
Then, we count again ...
Mot
Hai
Ba
Then say Uong and drink!
That was fun. Anyway, I came armed with a huge appetite but after beer street, I thought I would not be interested anymore in food. Well, at least for that night. But, I was wrong.
Trang saved the best for last.
Orchid
25 Hang Bac
Orchid
25 Hang Bac
We made our own summer roll with snake head fish marinated with
fermented rice, shrimp paste, galangal and turmeric that was kept in
the fridge for one to two hours then grilled with dill and onion. We added cucumber, carrots, greens
(lettuce, coriander, basil), noodles and purple mint. This was dipped in
nuoc cham, which was made with fish sauce, vinegar, fresh water, sugar, chili
and garlic.
One word to describe the experience was happy and so, we end the tour
with Happy Water or Ruou dua, which is rice left to ferment inside a
coconut.
It was
truly our tastiest day in Hanoi. Thanks to Trang and Vietnam Awesome Travel!
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