We’re more than half-way through a Hanoi street-food tasting tour in the Old Quarter. At every stop so far, I think someone has said, “This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted.” But our stomachs are starting to get seriously full. We need to walk around to get our appetites back up. Regarding walking around, there’s good news and there’s bad news…
The bad news is that we’re four just-off-the-plane, wide-eyed Westerners in a totally unfamiliar urban environment. When it comes to crossing a street on foot, we’re used to waiting for everyone to stop, and for the little green man to appear before we step into the well-marked crosswalk. But this is Hanoi. Things are different here.
Walking Around in the Old Quarter
The good news is that our fearless leader, Lemon, is looking out for us. Crossing streets in the Old Quarter hasn’t been difficult so far. In fact, just walking around in the Old Quarter has been great. Buildings of every size and shape imaginable line the streets. Some of the streets are lined with huge trees. The place is alive with people going about their business.
In this part of town, there’s a mix of mostly small businesses. Many appear to be family-run operations. Most of them are only about twenty feet wide. The front of the business isn’t walled off from the sidewalk – it’s ON the sidewalk.
The family’s living quarters are usually in the back part of the building. In the morning, they push the security gates aside and everyone moves out front. At closing time, they close the gates and everyone moves back into the living area.
The result is that the streets are alive with activity whether there’s a lot of pedestrian traffic or not. And to us, of course, everything was new. As far as I was concerned, you couldn’t invent a more interesting place to just walk around. But let’s get back to the tour…
We’re no longer hungry. That feeling is long gone. But whether we’re hungry or not, we’re on our way to sample yet another classic Hanoi dish. It’s called “Chả Cá .” Grilled fish. (Chả = grilled. Cá = fish).
It’s surprising that we haven’t had a fish dish yet, eh? I mean, Vietnam has 2,000 miles (3,260 km) of coastline – more than twice California’s 840 miles (1,350 km). If you lay an outline of Vietnam on a map of the western United States, it will stretch all the way from Seattle to San Diego. That’s a lot of coastline.
Chả Cá – Grilled Fish, Hanoi Style
Be that as it may, we’re getting our first taste of fish now. Chả Cá is another one of those “only-in-Hanoi” dishes. “But it’s just grilled fish,” you say. “What’s the big deal?” The big deal is, of course, that Chả Cá isn’t just grilled fish.
The key flavorings in Chả Cá are, of all things, turmeric and dill. Turmeric? When I think of turmeric, I think of curry and Indian food. Okay. But then, the combination of turmeric and dill? That just doesn’t seem right.
To make Chả Cá, they marinate pieces of fish in a mixture of turmeric, garlic, shallots, sugar and fish sauce. They grill it ahead of time. Traditionally, the final preparation — frying — takes place in a sizzling cast iron skillet right on your table. In our case, when the food showed up, it was ready to eat.
Either way, they fry the fish just before serving, so it gets nice and crispy. That’s when they toss in a bunch of dill, along with other veggies and herbs. The whole thing will be sizzling hot when it shows up. It’s served with vermicelli noodles, special sauce, and chopped peanuts. In our case, Lemon made us each a little combo-bowl to make it easier to eat.
If you’ve been reading recent posts, you already know how we’re going to eat Chả Cá… In your deftly-held chopsticks, grab as many different things as you can at one time. (Not too much of any one thing, though, eh?) Then, in it goes!
Of course, it was another incredible eating/tasting experience. What an amazing combinations of flavors. (That’s our Chả Cá in the photo at the top of the post).
Kem Xôi: (Sticky Rice Ice Cream)
Finally, the bulk of the eating on this foodie tour had been completed. At the next stop we only had to consume a bit of wonderfully refreshing “kem xôi”: sticky rice ice cream.
A serving of kem xôi comes in a little bowl with a special kind of soft sticky rice in the bottom, topped with a scoop of ice cream. The traditional flavor is coconut. I think there’s some kind of subtle coconut flavoring in the sticky rice, too. To finish it off, they sprinkle it with pieces of shaved toasted coconut. Nice, eh? I bet they sell a ton of these in summer.
Egg Coffee? Yes — Egg Coffee!
The very last stop was for coffee. Not just any coffee, though. (Of course not!) Egg coffee. Hold it right there. It’s better if you don’t try to picture it until you’ve heard what it is.
They make it by whipping eggs together with condensed milk so that it’s almost like pudding. Then they add freshly-brewed, high-quality coffee. The resulting concoction is like really good coffee-infused pudding. I guess you could drink it, but most people prefer to eat it with a spoon. It was so good. So next time you’re in Hanoi, and you see a sign that says,”Cà Phê Trúng,” go inside and order up!
To be continued…
