Back on the streets, we do, in fact, get a glimpse of the wedding party – at least the bride, who is resplendent in her red dress and upswept flowered hair (lousy picture, but we were being jostled at the corner there!).
We easily cover the 2 blocks to our tour meeting point. There we are checked in, and split into two groups since there are so many people signed up for this evening. We get a lovely tour guide – Annie (right – that’s her real name) and a trainee – Lilly (again, definitely not her real name since everytime I call her name to get her attention she does not answer. 
) who escort us through the old town and lake surrounds all night, plying all sorts of food and making us generally stuff our faces.
As we troop out to the first stop, through the old town alleys and streets, we strike up a conversation with Lesley – who – of all things – is staying at the Hotel Elite! We’ve not seen here there, so this is a great coincidence. She is traveling around SE Asia, has been staying at the Hotel Elite for the last 4 years or so when she visits Hanoi – and – even more coincidental – is going to Chiang Mai for 3 weeks – the day before we get there for our month-long stay. What a small, small world! We also have a Chinese (we think) family who doesn’t speak much English (2 sisters and mom and dad), an Australian couple and a British comedy show producer. Great talkative fun group.
Our first stop is Bun Cha Ta (the only restaurant big enough to have a business card, FYI) for a taste of the traditional Northern Bun Cha, which is a rice noodle soup with char broiled pork. We end up waiting here for a while to get our food. Probably because they are waiting for another tour group to arrive, but nonetheless, it gives us a great opportunity to chat and get to know each other more.
The food finally arrives, and it is totally worth the wait! They bring us bowls of soup with the pork already submersed – both slice pork and pork patties. Then a plate of rice noodles, and a little plate of chilis and garlic. We are to dip the rice noodles in the soup, which softens them up and cooks them in an instant, changing their onsistency to a lovely soft chew, and also add chilis and garlic if we want to spice it up. Additionally, there are some greens we can use, but we choose to avoid them because we aren’t really trusting the raw vegetables at this point in the trip. A little too gastro-hazard for us. One bite, and we are absolutely hooked. This is one of the best thing we’ve had to eat in a while! The smoke on the pork is fantastic, and the noodles soften up perfectly, the garlic giving just the right kick. Wow! This is marvelous – so simple, so good!
Finished with our Bun Cha, we head off into the night, keeping close to Annie who helps us cross the streets – although in the old quarrter, it isn’t too terribly tough. The next stop is a traditional little street stop where they put out small stools and trays atop stools to eat (the reason why all street food vendors do this is so they can quickly grab the stools and trays and run away when the police come and tell them they aren’t allowed on the sidewalk or street!) Here we will be trying the Vietnamese style of Papaya Salad (one of my Thai favorites). We all crowd around onto our little stools – some of us having a harder time than others (LOL) – and chit chat and people watch as our salads are being made. Annie explains that this place is very popular during the day (uh, like it’s not now?) because people can come here for lunch or a snack, and not get filled up so they can still have dinner with their family. And she’s right about a light snack. This version of Papaya salad is equally as good a the Thai, only not as spicy. It is light, refreshing and quite good as a little snack or appetizer. We all dig in – and are so polite and not fighting each other over the shared dishes….what a group!
After we finish, we sit around for a bit and almost cause an International incident as the locals are crowding around and wanting our tables-nee-stools! We’re the only non-locals here, and are getting looks, so Annie corrals us and we head off toward the Lake district for our next stop: Rice Pancakes. This time we definitely stick close to Annie – with Lilly bringing up the rear – because we have to cross at the malfunction junction of the lake circular road, the bus stop and the old quarter entrance. We’ve been here before and it is a bear to get across. But of course, Annie navigates it beautifully – and reinforces the lesson (ED!!!!) that you just walk slowly and don’t change your pace – if you run or speed up, the motos and cars won’t know what to expect and you’ll get hit. We’re getting the hang of it, but it is still easier said than done (even if I have the hand motion down pat!).
The rice pancake place is again, a little traditional street stop you’d pass a hundred times but not have the guts to try or buy one. They cook them right out on the street, in a little alcove outside the restaurant area (well, it’s really probably their house, they probably live upstairs). The cooking area is sort of like a little advertisement for what they have – traditional for most of the street food places we visit – the food it cooked out front to show what you are getting.
We get a lesson in pancake making and then everyone gets to try making one. It’s fun and we all do well and then get to eat our creation! These pancakes are traditional breakfast foods, filled with minced pork and then laced with some sort of sweet syrup and topped with fried onions. Annie tells us that this restaurant was once only open for breakfast, but to make ends meet, they are now open all the time. Economy – the food is cheap as dirt – the rent sky high. We are escorted into the back room (again, you’d never go in there on your own!) and we all get a serving of our own (excuse the rotten picture). They are really quite good – sweet, salty, savory. I can see them for breakfast, but I’d like them for lunch as well.
Halfway to full, we march out of the pancake place, past the “Real Kangaroo cafe” where we will be coming tomorrow or the next night for Ed’s best burger in the world redux, and on to the square in front of St. Joseph’s cathedral. Here we will try Bo Bia, a popular street food sweet treat. Annie orders 10 from the vendor across the street and as we wait for them she gives us a little history of the church (which I’ve totally forgotten now!) and explains that only 10% of Vietnam is Catholic. The food finally arrives – and OMG – this is bad, really bad. I could eat these things by the dozen. They are little crepes filled with candied coconut and sugar – so rich and sweet and melt in your mouth taste bud blowing. Annie says she ate these every day of her childhood – why is she not the size of a house???
I’m in heaven – let’s just stop here – and get more Bo Bia!!! But now, Annie has other things in store for us – being the next stop for the best spring rolls in the city. Again, hole in the wall, grandma cooking on a little grill outside, inside? Wouldn’t dare cross the threshold, yet, upstairs there are a couple of nice seating areas (one off the family bathroom and kitchen, the other off their sleeping areas). Here we get an array of declisou, but over the top spring rolls. We have (from right to left in the 2nd picture) sour pork roll (really great!), a little empanada thing called a pillow cake (with some sort of seafood, but I’m not sure I heard Annie right on that one), a regular pork spring roll and finally this sweet sticky rice fried roll that was excellent.
And I thought I was done with the banana pancake! Wow, I’m totally stuffed now. We’re done right? Oh no, not yet, we’ve still got an hour or more left of our tour! Really? Holy cow – that’s a lotta food!
Down the stairs we go, out past grandma cooking, and off toward the lake and the old quarter. We successfully navigate mal-function junction again – this time from another angle – and end up at a little cafe we have to access through a tunnel-like alleyway. Fun!
This is Che 95 (for the address – easy to remember) and they serve sweets – yogurt with fruit and things in it. Everything looks very appealing – and you can see from the menu – very cheap (15,000 = 75 cents).
We each get a dish to try and share with our “mate” – one fruit andcaramel mixture (left) , one yogurt with black rice (right) -which doesn’t look appealing but is absolutely delicious.
These are sweet and creamy, and oh so very filling. I could eat both- if it was the middle of the day and I wasn’t already so full I thought I might burst. But I am totally stuffed, so I pick the fruit and the carmel sticks out of one and take a few bites of the other. Ed is keeping pace – even though he normally wouldn’t eat sweets this late, he’s not going to give us trying any of these delicacies!
Dessert should be the end, right? But no, we have one final stop: Cafe Phi Trung where we will get to sample the traditional Egg Coffee, which we’ve had before. This is Vietnamese coffee with a raw egg stirred into it to give it a really rich and creamy consistency and taste. Here, they actually serve it in a steaming cup of water to keep it hot (which was what we were missing when we tried it originally – and why I wasn’t all too fond of it – I wanted it hotter).
We traded our coffee in for Bia Hoi – at this stage in our evening, coffee is not in the cards – but then are surprised, because in addition to the coffee – we also get Banh Mi! Oh Mi!
No way – as much as I want it – I can absolutely not eat another bite! Lesley is with me, but the Aussie couple does justice to their sandwich, as does Ed and the British producer. The Chinese aren’t so enamored and leave their sandwich untouched on their plates! We ask to get ours wrapped up to go, and Lesley gives me her half of the sandwich since she is leaving tomorrow and won’t be able to eat it. Lunch!
Wow – that was a fantatic tour! The information, the amount of food, the tour guides. All so worth it, even if I do think I’m going to throw up I’ve eaten so much! And then to top it all off – Annie has written down everywhere we went, what we ate, and given us suggestions on where else to find great local food. Well done!
Fortunately, we’re only 2 blocks from the hotel, so we bid adieu to our new foodie friends and walk back to Hotel Elite with Lesley. We are all thoroughly stuffed and done for the night. We trade emails and promise to stay in touch – especially in Chiang Mai – then head to our respective rooms – Lesley to finish packing – us to collapse on the bed in total food ecstasy. I’m not moving all night. I’ll walk it off tomorrow. Or just go for a repeat performance. LOL.
No comments:
Post a Comment