Hanoi Eats

Hanoi food is very special. Especially bland. Fortunately, there are a range of food options, even Mexican food.

Nothing beats the cold (50 degrees is cold for us Saigonese) like a good cinnamon hot chocolate.

A wonderful and adventurous home cooked meal of crocodile and ostrich. The crocodile tastes like toasted chicken skin and ostrich is just like beef.

Groan, another Vietnamese hotpot. I hate it--you wait 3o minutes for them to set up the pot and bring raw meat. Then you have to cook the meat for another 30 minutes, and the end product is like instant soup with gristly meat. We stay in the restaurant for 3 hours eating little bits at a time. Eventually the staff hides for their evening nap and leave us alone barking orders. Meanwhile I'm completely bored with no one to talk English with and after an eternity leave tired and hungry. Like I said, not my favorite.

There are loads of wonderful restaurants and cafes totally hidden away. Here we walk down a bamboo lined path to a room with a full sized cherry tree replica and a fountain that simulates rain.

Here we sample specialty foods from Hue--the stuff I didn't get to eat while I was there, and thankfully not the shrimps that poisoned me. My favorite is the glutinous Banh It Ram, and my least favorite is yet another hotpot--chicken a la plastique.