Eating out for the win...

The Vietnamese love to eat.  And their food reflects it – simple, fresh and absolutely delicious – almost always enjoyed in big groups while sitting on plastic stools on whatever part of the sidewalk is not already taken up by motorscooters. 

We did a lot of eating on our trip and were lucky to have found so much vegetarian food, with restaurants embracing enthusiastically vegetarian/vegan adaptations of their traditional foods.  Oddly though, the higher end the restaurant the less enjoyable it was.  Without doubt, our best meals were those at the dodgiest looking places with kitchens that restaurants elsewhere would never have allowed in public view. 

Perhaps our favourite restaurant was Vegan Banh Mi – whose location was “partway down alley 66b”.  

Having walked back and forth a few times without any restaurant in sight, we almost pulled up some stools to eat from the local lady carrying her mobile restaurant around on her shoulders. 

In the nick of time, however, a man approached us slyly, asking if we were looking for Vegetarian Bahn Mi.  We nodded discreetly and, like we were up to a dodgy secret deal, we scuttled down the alleyway with him to find a tucked away little room with three tiny tables set up.  The cooking happened in the nearby alley.

The restaurant had only 4 menu options –two vegetarian bahn mi – the local sandwich that used a French Roll (a silver lining of the French occupation) and a variety of fillings and sauces – a spring roll and some Vietnamese samosas.  Unable to choose, we decided to try all of them.  A seitan bahn mi and some vegetarian samosa “pillows”, were the stand out but each of the items were delicious nonetheless.  Having done the “full tasting menu”, complete with two big beers, our tab came to all of $8 US.

Portable Restaurants

And snacks at every turn...

Another highlight was our Vespa Food Tour. 

This “lady-biker” Vespa tour specialized in vegetarian fare and whipped us around the city to eat at some spots where only the locals go.  

We did manage to get lost a few times, which conveniently allowed us to see some prime tourist spots.

Sitting at the tiny stools set up for patrons – strategically smaller to cram as many people as possible in at one time -   our two guides loudly jostled with the restaurant owners to bring over some local specialties, ensuring they were made vegetarian.  Surprisingly, they earnestly claimed that being vegetarian was more expensive than eating meat because the cost of creating vegetarian alternatives such as “pork paste”.

Eggs for Egg Coffee

Egg Coffee!

Reluctantly putting aside Beth’s concern around improperly washed food, we devoured a range of papaya salad, corn pancake rolls (the steps of rolling which were very important apparently), vegan hotpot and egg coffee (aka. Liquid tiramisu – made from coffee and whipped egg whites, honey and sugar) – which were all incredible - while grilling our two college student guides about life in Hanoi.  Although slight differences, their lives seemed quite similar to college students anywhere, with the same goals and aspirations.  But what reminded us of just how lucky we are was how one guide’s goal was to be able to read Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming, and was doing her best to save to be able to afford to buy it in a couple of months.  How Beth wished she had a hard copy of hers she could have passed along…

Other notable food spots:

·       V’s Home – This was our first experience of entering a restaurant down a sketchy back alley – we almost kept walking past. We somehow squeezed onto the tiny 2-person patio, right next to enough power wires to light a small city, and enjoyed food that was creative, pure and remarkably tasty.

·       Angelina and the Pool Bar -  Metropole Hotel – A nod to French Colonialism, these bars and their drinks were exponentially more expensive than most of the restaurants we visited during the trip, but the bars provided a perfect respite from the crazy and buzzy world outside the hotel’s perfectly manicured courtyard. 

·       Minh Chay Vegan Restaurant – In the heart of the Hanoi market, the glass noodles were a surprise hit, compensating easily for the vegetarian pho that lacked taste. 

·       Polite & Co – a nice cocktail bar with many funky looking alcohols, bitters, etc and flowers that they grew in the bar to add to each drink

·       JM Marvel – famed for its rooftop, we reserved a table there for a nice “fancy” dinner out. After visiting another nearby hotel to see its rooftop, we were told that JM’s was much better. Excited, we dressed up in our fanciest clothes. When we arrived we were escorted to their rooftop bar, which was not part of the restaurant. It was a rooftop and so had a view, though we wouldn’t quite call it nice. They brought food up from the restaurant on the floor below, and luckily it was actually quite nice.

·       Pateta Bahn Mi – So known for its craft beers, they only had one still available by the time we arrived.  Luckily, the delicious soya banh mi tasted good with any type of beer.

The local after dinner ritual...