Last summer, as I was preparing to embark on this adventure, a friend offered some blogging advice: don’t fill your blog with photos of food! I’ve done my best to limit myself from sharing all the delicious food I’ve sampled over the last 8 months because, let’s be honest, who really cares what I eat? However, here is where I make an exception. Vietnam, like most Asian countries is widely known for its street food culture. It’s definitely one of the best, and potentially worst, experiences to be had in Vietnam. Best, because the food is delicious! Flavourful, varied and cheap… exactly how I like it! And I say ‘potentially worse’ because for some travellers, eating such exotic food, some of which has likely been sitting out, unrefrigerated, in the hot sun for hours, well, let’s just say it doesn’t agree with their foreign tummies (aka Bali belly, Montezuma’s Revenge, Rangoon runs, I could go on…). I thank my lucky stars that I was not one of those unfortunate souls and my food experience in Southeast Asia was nothing but goodness!
There is a plethora of vendors on the streets, selling everything from sandwiches to snacks to fruits and desserts!
Seafood as far as the eye can see!
Banh cuon : steamed rice pancake – made fresh to order!
Banh mi: Vietnamese sandwich. By far my favourite go-to meal.
And seriously, how can you resist when it only costs $1.17 CAD!
Nom bo kho: dry beef salad
Nem ran: fried spring roll
Bun cha : vermicelli with grilled pork (aka the Obama dish – The former President sampled this dish on this history-making visit to the country a few years ago and the name ‘Obama dish’ stuck)
Nem lui: grilled pork with lemon grass. You assembled all the ingredients in rice paper and eat it like a wrap
Ca phe trung: egg coffee.
Seriously, don’t let the name fool you, this is delicious! And there’s no better place to have it then where it all started, Cafe Giang.
Giang Café is humbly hidden on a small lane on Nguyen Huu Huan Street in the city’s old quarter. It may be difficult to find for visitors, but it is well worth the effort. It continues to be hugely popular among Hanoi’s coffee addicts with its special ca phe trung, or egg coffee. Giang Café was founded by My Father ,Mr. Nguyen Giang in 1946, when he was working as a bartender for the famous five-star Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel. Although the café has been relocated twice, its egg coffee recipe is almost the same as in its early days, with its chief ingredients being chicken egg yolk, Vietnamese coffee powder, sweetened condensed milk, butter and cheese. The coffee is brewed in a small cup with a filter before the addition of a well-whisked mixture of the yolk and other ingredients. The cup is placed in a bowl of hot water to keep its temperature. My father developed the recipe in days when milk was scarce in Vietnam. He used egg yolks to replace milk. – Giang Cafe Owner – Mr Nguyen Tri Hoa
Veggies and steamed rice, served on a boat. So, not technically ‘street food’ but I say it counts.
bun thit nuong: rice noodles with tofu, spring roll, salad, pickled radish and carrots, mixed herbs, peanuts and fish sauce. This was one of my favourites, I had it twice!
Fried spring rolls. My love for these goes way back, I will refrain from admitting how many I had.
Cà phê đá (the French influence is strong here!)
I had heard stories about the ‘potency’ of Vietnamese coffee, and they were not exaggerated! This was the strongest, most bitter coffee I’ve ever tasted. However, the Vietnamese are clever and have discovered, by sheer ingenuity, how to best enjoy this drink: sweetened with condensed milk and poured over ice!
Banh xeo: literally “sizzling cake”, savoury fried pancake made of rice flour, water, turmeric powder. It is stuffed with pork, shrimp, diced green onion, mung bean, and bean sprouts.
Whole fish (can’t remember the type), deep-fried with a spicy mango salad
Note to self: when the menu describes the dish as a ‘whole fish’, then they really mean a whole fish!
Who you lookin’ at?
Rose water dumplings: I honestly don’t know what was inside but it was delicious!
Crispy salt & pepper tofu: deep friend salty & peppery tofu goodness.
This is the quintessential scene on Vietnamese streets. Locals, sitting on low stools (no ‘asian squat’ in this country), enjoying their meal.