Vietnam – The Food Issue

So anyways, I’m interrupting my UK travel journals to bring you a foodie post from our two weeks in Vietnam. Aside from our body weight in various spring rolls, this is some of what we ate. I hope you’re hungry…

Hanoi

The street food is fantastic in Hanoi, but we also had a couple of special nights out too… These were the highlights.

Phở 10 Lý Quốc Sư

The best pho in town, but be aware of imitations.

We ate the brisket with flank beef for 70,000 VND a bowl, so about $4 AUD.

Something a tad posher…

These restaurants were listed on the Michelin site and well worth the extra $$.

Lau Cau Go

The food is great, the view is better. Bookings are essential.

We ate fresh mustard green rolls with shrimp, grilled beef wrapped in betel leaves with rice vermicelli, deep-fried tofu with lemongrass, Hue-style sauteed baby clams with rice crackers, deep-fried pork belly with lemongrass and chilli. With a couple of beers each the bill came to 1,548,540 VND or $92 AUD ($30 each).

You can find it here.

Luk Lak

Located in the French Quarter just a few minutes walk from our hotel, we chose this one to celebrate 10 years since I published Baby, It’s You.

We ate shrimp spring rolls, deep-fried shrimp, bun cha, pan-seared duck, and Vietnamese grilled chicken. We drank beer. The bill came to 1,918,000 VND ($113 AUD) for the three of us and was worth every dong.

You can find it here.

Also…

From previous visits, other places worth checking out are:

• Bánh Cuốn Bà Hoành or Bánh Cuốn Bà Xuân – for Bánh Cuốn
• Bun Cha Ta or Bun Cha Huong Lien for Bun Cha
• Chả Cá Thăng Long for Chả Cá

Coffee

Hanoi likes its coffee. Everywhere you go you’ll find coffee shops and places selling an assortment of coffee made from coffee beans, and also from beans that have been predigested and ‘harvested’ from animals. I wouldn’t be putting my hand up for that job. Plus I have some ethical issues around the treatment of the animals.

I’m not a massive coffee drinker (I’m more of a black tea girl), but if you’re into coffee, you’ve come to the right place.

Egg Coffee

Vietnam is big on coffee and in Hanoi you have to try the egg coffee.

The story goes that Mr Nguyen Giang was working as a barman at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel. As an aside, that hotel is on my places to stay or at least have a cocktail at bucket list.

One night in 1946 Mr Giang ran out of milk to serve with the coffee. Milk was in scarce supply in those days. Instead he whisked together some egg, sugar and condensed milk and served that on the coffee. The crowd went wild, and Mr Giang, being a forward thinking gent, opened his own café and the rest, as they say, is history.

There are others who have attempted to imitate the original, but of course the best place to get it – Cà Phê Trứng – is at Café Giang or Cafe Dinh in the Old Quarter. Old Mr Giang’s son and daughter are in charge today, but the recipe itself (which apparently also includes a little butter and cheese…yes, really…) is a closely guarded secret. On this trip we drank it at Cafe Dinh.

Anyways, you want to know how it tastes? I absolutely don’t have a sweet tooth – and rarely eat cakes or desserts – so for me it was too sweet. Others have compared it to a liquid tiramisu and the chocolate version to a Cadbury crème egg. As for me? I ate the top with a spoon and didn’t find it unpleasant. I didn’t taste the egg at all. For me it was more like a vanilla coffee custard. It certainly took away any bitterness that might have previously been in in the coffee. Sarah and P loved it.

How do you make it? Well, at least an approximation of it? I’m glad you asked.

First you need to brew a small cup of coffee – real coffee, not instant. Of course, if you’re a purist, you’d just happen to have Vietnamese coffee beans and a Vietnamese coffee pot handy.

Now, take an egg yolk and some sweetened condensed milk and whisk it until you have a fluffy mix – and fairly decent biceps.

Add a tablespoon or so of the brewed coffee and whisk it in too.

Pour your coffee into a cup – reserving a tablespoon to drizzle over the top – and add the fluffy crème egg mix.

There you have it.

Salted Coffee

We also tried Salted Coffee (I didn’t hate it) at The Note Coffee – which you have to go to just for all the little hand-written sticky notes written by customers and plastered onto every available surface.

Hoi An

In Hoi An, you have to try White Rose Dumplings and Hoi An Wontons.

The White Rose dumplings are made by just one family who supplies to everywhere in town, but the price does differ from place to place, from as cheap as 60,000 VND to 125,000 VND, depending on how close to the river you’re eating.

Hoi An Wontons are deep-fried wonton wrappers topped with a salsa-like topping of vegetables and sweet and sour shrimp. They’re perfect with a beer.

Our highlights were:

Bun Cha Ta

the best bun cha in Hoi An…

The Noodle House

The Noodle House’s aim is to introduce diners to the regional noodle specialties.

We ate Bun bo Hue (spicy) and Bun bo Nam bo and both were delicious.

The Deck House, An Bang Beach

We loved this beachside spot and had lunch here a couple of times and dinner once. The Bahn Xeo (in particular) was fantastic – and, at 120,000 VND ($7 AUD) fantastic value.

Bahn Mi Phuong

Fabulous bahn mi, tiny prices – 165,000 VND is the total bill for lunch for all three of us – including beer.

Ms Vy’s Stable of restaurants

We were staying at Maison Vy so this meant we got 10% off the bill at any of Ms Vy’s restaurants in town – and there are plenty to choose from in the Taste Vietnam group.

We ate at Morning Glory Signature, The Spice Route, and Morning Glory Mother’s Kitchen. On previous visits we’ve also eaten at the Yum Cha House, Morning Glory original and the Cargo Bar.

All are reliably good, but while each restaurant has a slightly different theme and feel, there is a core of dishes that are on the menu at most.

And the best part? By eating at Ms Vy’s restaurants, I scored a cookbook from the hotel as well. Winning.