Hanoi street food tour
Food, glorious food. Vietnamese cuisine is famous for its freshness and flavour and there’s no better way to find out more about it than to take a Hanoi street food tour.
There’s a tour company located in the Hanoi Westlake Intercon, Exo Tours, and we arranged our tour with them.
We met our guide Tian at 11 o’clock and took a taxi to the old town.
Cho Chau Long market
Cho Chau Long market in Hanoi, North Vietnam
Our first stop was Cho Chau Long, a ‘wet’ market with a great view over Truc Bach Lake which is a smallish body of water separated from the larger West Lake by a causeway.
Truc Bach is where (US senator) John McCain was captured by the North Vietnamese when his plane was shot down in the American War (the Vietnamese name for what westerners call the Vietnam War). He parachuted into the lake, was captured and imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton (then a pow camp called Hoa Lo, now a tourist attraction). Our guide Tien says years ago, the government erected a small stone statue on the banks of Truc Bach lake to commemorate McCain’s capture. It depicts McCain shackled to a wall, his hands above his head. He’s been back to Vietnam many times and helped to normalise relations between that country and the US.
A motorbike-riding customer shopping at Cho Chau Long drive-through market
The market is covered and sells fresh meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. But watch out for motorbikes while wandering around because it’s a drive-through establishment. People pull up in front of the stalls, buy food and then drive away.
Tien says the Vietnamese like to get fresh ingredients every day rather than keep food in the fridge.
Chau Cho Long is popular, possibly the largest wet market in Hanoi but there are many others, as well as street stalls (which are now illegal).
Upside down duck egg
Hanoi street food – a lady selling upside down eggs on the streets of Hanoi, North Vietnam
After the market we walked to the first eatery, well, more of a street stall. It may be illegal but it has regular customers and Tien is one of them. He bought a duck egg but not just any old egg. This one is called an upside down egg or balat. It has earned a place on many lists of the most disgusting ethnic delicacies. It’s popular in Vietnam and the Philippines but you won’t come across it anywhere else.
An upside down egg, or balat, ready to eat from a street stall in Hanoi, North Vietnam
Most of the chicken eggs eaten by westerners are not fertilised. Upside down eggs are not only fertilised but are incubated for a while until the duck embryo forms. They are then boiled ready to eat, usually straight from the shell. Tien emptied his into a bowl. Eugh!. We had a small (very small) sample. It tasted like the yolk of an ordinary boiled egg which is not really surprising since the embryo had been growing and the yolk is what it uses for food.
Tien says not many of his tourists were game enough to try it so I guess we earned a few brownie ponts, but I won’t be having it again any time soon.
Vietnam’s famous noodle dish Pho Bo
Preparing pho bo at a street shop in Hanoi, North Vietnam
Next stop was Tai Num Gau (I think that’s the name of the shop) for Pho Bo.
Pho is Vietnam’s famous noodle broth. Bo is the beef variety, the other common one is ga – chicken. The secret of a good pho lies in the broth. Cooks guard their secrets well. We were served a huge bowl of broth, lots of rice noodles, cooked and raw beef, although the hot broth cooks the raw stuff to rare. Very nice.
Tien and Phil eating pho bo in Hanoi, North Vietnam
Vietnamese usually have pho for breakfast because the broth replaces the liquid that you lose overnight and it has the right amount of yin (cold) and yang (hot) ingredients to give good balance and get the day moving nicely.
Balance of yin and yang is important in all Vietnamese cooking as are the five colour/ five senses/ five elements balance.
Green, red, yellow, white, black
Visual, taste, touch, smell, sound
Wood, fire, earth, metal, water.
Read more about balance in Vietnamese cooking here.
Find out how to make pho bo here
Sticky rice and deep fried prawns
Lady selling black and white sticky rice and rice wine on the street in Hanoi, North Vietnam
On our way to our next meal we paused by a lady sitting by the side of the road with a couple of baskets. Tien bought a plastic cup of black and white sticky rice mixed with rice wine. This was to become dessert later on in the tour.
We walked on to a narrow alley where a woman was deep frying prawn cakes and pillow cakes.
Preparing prawn cakes at a street stall in Hanoi, North Vietnam
The prawn cakes had whole prawns sitting on the top of flat cakes made of flour, probably rice flour. And the prawns included shell, head, feet and feelers. Definitely crunchy.
A serving of prawn cakes and pillow cakes in Hanoi, North Vietnam
Find out how to make prawn cakes here
The pillow cakes looked like mini Cornish pasties and contained a savoury mixture that included mushrooms and minced pork among other things.
Tien says they used to be a real treat when he was growing up. Times were hard under the communists he said. Well Vietnam is still a communist country but obviously now it is a very much more capitalist type of communism.
Find out how to make pillow cakes here
Tien and Phil eating prawn cakes and pillow cakes in Hanoi, North Vietnam
The plastic tables and chairs in this alleyway were very low – all the better for picking up and running away should the food police come calling which it seems they are doing more often these days in Hanoi. Pop-up stalls like this one could be an endangered species.
Bun Cha – Obama food
Bun Cha 34 – a popular street food shop in Hanoi, North Vietnam
Shops like our next stop are safe though. This was Bun Cha 34 at 34 Hang Than. Bun Cha is now known as Obama food since Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain called in at a Bun Cha shop when (then-president) Barack was in Hanoi on a state visit a while ago.
Customers tuck in to lunchtime bun cha in Hanoi, North Vietnam
It wasn’t actually this shop because nowadays the original place is always too crowded. Well, Bun Cha 34 was also pretty full with people constantly coming and going.
The shop sells only one thing: pork pieces in a broth, a plate of spring rolls, a plate of vermicelli noodles and assorted greenery. Phil also had a beer to keep in tune with Obama. I was definitely flagging by now even though the bun cha was delicious, but Phil made a good fist of it.
A serving of bun cha – a Vietnamese dish of grilled pork and noodles
Find out how to make bun cha here
Coffee and dessert
Outside Ca Phe Duy Tri shop in Hanoi, North Vietnam
After this we walked through part of the old town, along streets named for their original crafts (apparently tradesmen were imported from craft villages by long gone Vietnamese kings).
Traffic was heavy most of the time but we never saw more than two people on a scooter. Last time we were here we saw three, four or even (rarely) five. Tien said the police are much stricter these days.
We got a taxi to our last stop for coffee and dessert. The coffee shop, Ca Phe Duy Tri, is one of the oldest in Hanoi.
Inside Ca Phe Duy Tri shop in Hanoi, North Vietnam
The shop has two levels and the upper level has a very low ceiling. Our coffee consisted of one cup of black (strong enough to dissolve spoons) and one cup of black with condensed milk and a very pretty flower picture drawn on top barista-style, both coffees served in bowls of warm water, two glasses of weak tea and two tall glasses of frozen yoghurt.
When locals drink coffee it’s a long slow process, either for chatting with friends or relaxing and reading on one’s own
The popularity of coffee shops has increased as the population has grown richer.
I mixed some of the sticky rice/rice wine into my frozen yoghurt and the result was delicious. I polished the whole lot off. Phil was too full of bun cha and pho to manage dessert. He missed a real treat.
Drinking coffee is a leisurely pursuit in Hanoi, North Vietnam
Ca Phe Duy Tri is relatively close to the Intercon so we walked back – slowly. The exercise was welcome after all that food.
The Hanoi street food tour is a great way to see part of the old town of Hanoi and to sample Vietnamese food at its best – as eaten by locals.
But here’s a word of warning. Do not, repeat NOT, have a large breakfast first!