A few times now I’ve been asked which Vietnamese city I prefer.
Saigon or Hanoi. Without a doubt it has to be Hanoi. It seems much
quieter, lacking the big city feel that Saigon thrusts upon its
visitors. It’s greener, it’s more colonial, it even seems friendlier.
It’s not that I didn’t like
Saigon, it just wasn’t as engaging as its northern neighbour.
So this is it. Our final few nights in the
country’s capital. Home for the last remaining days was The Sofitel
Metropole, occupying a gorgeous old building renovated inside and out,
located in the Hoan Kiem District. Being centrally located meant that
almost everything we needed was within walking distance. More
importantly we were within minutes of a good local meal; but that
applies to just about any urban centre across the country, methinks.
On the west and north-west side of Hoan Kiem
Lake is the Old Quarter with its tangle of congested streets, buzzing
with motorised traffic as well as the human kind. A variety of shops,
cafe’s and restaurants brimming with locals and visitors snapping up
homewares and handicrafts and getting their fill on
ca phe and
pho.
Pho 10 is one place that
saw us for breakfast. It has a corner possie and seems to be very
popular with the locals slurping on one of ten different pho available.
All the cooking action takes place behind steamed glass in the cramped
kitchen; an absolute flurry of activity to get the soups quickly
constructed and delivered to the hungry person that ordered it.
Pho chin (well done beef) for him,
pho bat dac biet
(special soup) for me. What was so special about mine? Aside from an
incredible stock from one of the bubbling pots and some shavings of beef
flank, it was the goldmine of giblets that made this pho the hero for
me on that particular morning. Chewy, soft, gristly, a variety of
textures. Breakfast of champions.
Pho 10
10 Ly Quoc Su
04 3828 4455
Several blocks away near what I dubbed shoe street,
thanks to the plethora of cheap foot ware shops, is a restaurant I’d
wanted to try for sometime before we even hit Vietnamese terra firma.
Green Tangerine.
Cool name, cool space. Stepping into the peaceful cobbled courtyard
from the crazy-manic street outside is a sudden and very welcoming
transition. The restaurant is housed in an early 1920′s French colonial
villa, lovingly restored across its multi-levels that provide some very
comfortable places to kick back, relax and go with the chilled flow.
At this eating house it’s all about French
food with a bit of a nod to the Vietnamese palate. Classic techniques,
some local flavours and the occasional unusual approach by husband and
wife team Stephane and Huong Yvin.
It was with duck that we kicked off our lunch.
Tiramisu
with a difference. No coffee or savoiardi but instead layers of duck
liver mousse in Cognac and Grand Marnier, parmesan mousse and a crumbled
topping of crusty bread mixed with amaretto, onions, galangal and
raisins. First of all this thing was huge. Secondly, I just didn’t want
it to end. The word
heavenly popped into my mind repeatedly. Forget white clouds and silly halo’s;
this is what heaven is all about.
The other starter may not have given me the same tingles but it wasn’t a slouch either.
Duck breast carpaccio.
Seared breast, thinly sliced and squirted with a sweet berry sauce, the
occasional “leaf” of sesame biscuit and a central bouquet of enoki
mushrooms flavoured with balsamic. Beneath those mushrooms was a small
pile of candied “gizzard”. Not sure where the candied came into it but
the heart-slash-stomach (whatever it was) was meant to be candied in
ginger, but it was far from that. Still, a great little starter.
Onto another kind of bird. Marinated
pigeon,
perfectly pink, served with mashed fried eggplant and candied peppers.
Once again the candied effect didn’t really come across as it seemed
just roasted. But ignoring that it was the teaming of soft pink flesh
with coffee and cocoa sauce that made the dish shine.
The
caramelised pork came
with a lotus seed mille feuille of apples stewed in Calvados, decorated
with piped mashed carrot as well as taro with ngo gai. Some good, rich
flavours lightened by the delicate sheets of crispy pastry.
Prior to this lunch I’d never seen a free-standing
crème brûlée,
as it was at Green Tangerine as a slightly flat pyramid. Great
lemongrass-infused custard with frozen raspberry yoghurt on the side.
The
banana “tatin” tart was a bit of a sloppy affair
topped with a little too much of the fruit. The winning element was the
chocolate ice cream that had been rolled in pistachio’s. All in all a
pretty good place to stop and get a fill on some progressive French-Viet
food.
Green Tangerine
48 Hang Be Street
Hoan Kiem
04 3825 1286
Open 7 days 11am-11pm
website
Some ten minutes walk from the centre of the
Old Quarter, a little away from all of the travellers, is Tong Duy Tân
Street. Otherwise dubbed as
Food Street, this very
short stretch of mainly pedestrian thoroughfare is home to a
concentration of street-style eateries that specialise in local dishes
of chicken, duck and sticky rice with seafood. It’s the locals that seem
to take up the squat plastic stools on the dusty concrete laneway but
anyone is welcome, of course. Just don’t go pointing your camera near
the open-air kitchens as you just may hear the words “no photo”.
Fresh food vendors on the peripheries of the
Dong Xuan Market.
Each place we visited in Vietnam had a
highlight when it came to a dish or particular restaurant. Aside from
the wonderful pho that we found on the Hanoi streets it was the food at
Madame Hiên that stood above all our other meals.
It didn’t take long to realise in Vietnam
that the higher calibre city restaurants didn’t quite match the quality
and authenticity of their “street” counterparts. This wasn’t the case
with
Madame Hiên. The food’s traditional, it’s generous
and it’s (as expected) a little more costly. The setting is in a
gorgeous villa that was once the Spanish Embassy, found in the Hoan Kiem
District; a place that’s comfortable and is a nice break from those
plastic micro stools that just aren’t built for the
larger-than-Vietnamese physique.
Lunch began with
nem ran ha noi, some local-style rolls loaded with pork, vermicelli and mushrooms. It continued with
ga nuong lá chanh, chunks of chicken wrapped in lemon leaf that had been char-grilled to juicy tenderness.
The
bun cha, bbq pork, came
served on a cast iron griddle and had that wonderful charred and
caramelised texture and flavour that make this dish so special.
Alongside were a few small ground pork cakes for an added protein hit.
Stepping away from chicken and pork I made sure we ordered the
muc nhoi ngao, a steaming bowl of stuffed squid and clams fragrant with lemongrass, ginger and many other tid bits.
Madame Hiên
15 Chan Cam
84 439 381 588
Open 7 days
Snacks : 11am-10pm
A la carte : 11am-2pm; 6 pm-10pm
website
Walking around a city can be hard work at times, especially in the heat and humidity, so when I spotted a place called
Fanny
I veered us towards it for a brief pit stop. This ice cream parlour has
many of the usual flavours as well as many unusual varieties. The other
half went for
com, a young rice ice cream that tasted, you guessed it, like sweet rice. I went all out and ordered the
bamboo berry,
a bowl featuring a variety of flavours like strawberry, mixed berry and
raspberry sorbets. It also had chunks of fresh fruit, white chocolate
and whipped cream. Well worth stopping by.
Fanny Ice Cream
48 Le Thai To
04 3828 5656
Open 7 days 10am-9pm
website
I’m not even entirely sure that the name of this place is even
Pho Ga but I can only go by the signage at its entrance. It’s located opposite
Pho 10,
the joint we ate at the day before, so rather than have breakfast at
the same place we thought we’d give this one a go. The decor is
delightfully Vietnamese – formica tables, uncomfortable chairs and
stools – and the pho is pretty damn special.
It was
pho ga all ’round,
of course, a big bowl packed with delicious stock, noodles, shiitake
mushrooms and greenery. As the slurping and tooth-picking happened
around us on the street corner outside we pulled up and squeezed into
child-sized folding chair and joined in on the pho fun. Is there any
better way to start the day than with pho? I think not. I made sure I
savoured every last drop and every last strand of noodle as that was the
last thing we ate in Vietnam.
Until next time, of course!
Pho Ga
Corner Pho Chan Cam & Ly Quoc Su
PS... John.. you're a legend.. your photography takes me INSTANTLY back to Hanoi.. brilliant
For further amazing blog posts on Vietnam.. please visit John's site..
My all time favorite post.. Hoi An
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