Street food – Two Traveling Dumplings

Phuong makes the _best_ bahn mi’s we’ve ever had at Bahn Mi 25

Yes, the title is a bit click baity and maybe even slightly controversial but after visiting here twice, we feel pretty damn confident calling it one of the best- if not the best- street food cities in the world. From the second you arrive in Hanoi with its sea of activity, the buzz of thousands of scooters- its the smell of amazing food cooking everywhere that seduces your senses and beckons you closer. It’s here you’ll find flavors you never knew you loved and ingredients you’ve never heard of. This is a place that changed our perspective on Vietnamese food- and food in general- 4 years ago and we’re happy to say that magic hasn’t faded.

Tiffany: Hanoi is one of my favorite cities in Asia. From the first time I laid eyes on this magnificent place four years ago to my current visit to Hanoi, I can say without a doubt in mind that I am truly in love with this city and it will always have a special place in my heart. Let’s start with the obvious attractions of Hanoi (street food, Halong Bay, and of course and vibe of the city), but the true hidden beauty of Hanoi is its people. Some of my best friends are born and raised in Hanoi. They are the most passionate, dedicated, fun, talented and loving people I have ever known in my life. If you are lucky enough to visit this city; I highly encourage you to get to know the locals. I hope their passion for love and thirst for life will inspire you. If you are really lucky, you will build lifetime friendships.

Tim: Like many cities in Southeast Asia, Hanoi has an “old town” and “the rest of hanoi”. Most of the action happens in old town but it also…has all the action happening. We stayed in several places during our time in Hanoi. While staying in the Old Town is super convenient, staying just outside of it affords you some peace and quiet while still making it easy to get to where the action is.

Bun Cha- deconstructed so you can make the ultimate flavor dream team in your bowl (and mouth!)

While the list of “must visit” big ticket attractions is somewhat thin (the closest thing is probably Turtle Tower), what really steals the show is the food. Specifically the street food. Why is that? Because everywhere you go, there’s people selling amazing food on the street. While this might seem sketchy to western palates, this is very normal in most of the world. What makes Hanoi so special is that the people selling these amazing foods usually make just 1 thing, and since they’ve been doing it for their whole lives they’re the best person at cooking it on the planet. Seriously. Regardless if its Bun Cha – a rice noodle based dish that has healthy amounts of fresh herbs, fish sauce, pork meatballs and an imperial roll- or pha (traditional beef or chicken noodle soup) or Cha Ka – marinated grilled fish- the best you can find is somewhere on the streets in Hanoi. We’ve tried to find better versions in white napkin restaurants but they pale in comparison- and value- to their street based brethren.

Bún Riêu in action
THE place to get Bún Riêu

Magic by the bowlful at Pho Thin (best Pho Bo in the city hands down)

Some of our favorites you HAVE to try include Bun Cha (noted above) but there are some lesser known delicacies. For example, Bún Riêu- a crab and tamarind based noodle soup. It’s made from tiny crabs that scurry around rice paddies. They’re pounded out of their shells and strained. Together with tomato that makes the base of the soup. The crab meat is then used for mini crab cakes that you find in the soup along with vermicelli noodles, roasted tomatoes and fresh herbs. Its tangy, savory and utterly delicious. It’s one of my favorite soups of all time, I just wish I could get it back home! Our friend Kim helped show us the best place to go to enjoy this amazing concoction- it is in a tiny storefront at 11 Hàng Bạc.

Tiffany: If you are a seafood lover then you must try one of Hanoi’s oldest and most famous of dishes – Cha Ca. There’s an entire street dedicated to this signature dish. Cha Ca La Vong is one of the oldest restaurants in Hanoi and one of the first places you will see on Cha Ca street. Cha Ca dates back more than 130 years and it was first created by the local Doan family. People in Hanoi celebrate and enjoys food with enthusiasm and passion. Food is the glue that connects and brings family and friends together. This crispy turmeric marinated fish is fried tableside in a pan with herbs and is one of the best ways to bring your love ones together.

If you have a more adventurous palate I would recommend trying Bun Oc- aka escargot noodle soup. This is a rice noodle soup with a tomato-based broth made from slowly simmering chicken or pork bones. The soup is topped with escargot, seafood, fried tofu, and a platter of fragrant herbs. This was also one of Anthony Bourdain’s go to dishes when he visited Hanoi. I was extremely fortunate to be invited to a new friend’s house for a home-cooked escargot fest. She made one of the best Bun Ocs I have ever tasted in my life. It was like an explosion of flavors in my mouth. I was VERY suspicious at first- eating snails isn’t exactly on the “safe food” category for visitors but the experience was so unique- sharing a delicious home cooked meal with new friends and family- I had to do it. Obviously, the secret indigents were love and laughter (seriously!). If you want to try a specialty restaurant for snails I would recommend Oc Suong. They have plenty of delicious dishes to choose from at a very reasonable price.

Tim getting overly excited by his third helping of Bahn Cuon

Tim: Hanoi- never content to let just one type of street food dominate the limelight- has many, many others to choose from. The second you think Vietnamese food is just soups, BOOM! Enter the bánh cuốn! Bánh cuốn is basically a thin rice crepe with insane-o-tasty pork and mushrooms all rolled up and cut into sumptuous bite sized morsels. You can even get it with a side of pork sausage. We’ve never seen it before Hanoi so definitely go and grab some! Our favorite place was at 12 Hàng Gà street. We could go on, on and and on about more street food (like the delicious as hell “pillow cakes” which are deep fried Vietnamese empanadas) or the Egg Coffee which is….exactly what it sounds like- but we’ll leave that for another time. We had a lot more fun in Hanoi than just eating. Our friend Tra My helped show us her Hanoi by night.

Our friend and guide Tra My on our journeys into Hanoi’s nights

Hanoi’s nightlife is mostly centered around the Old Quarter where some of the narrow streets turn into bustling beer gardens complete with Smurf-sized plastic stools to sit on. A staple of Vietnam, you’ll be sitting on these things from Saigon all the way up to Sapa. There’s no graceful way to sit on it- you’ve just got to accept that it’s your lot in life and go with the flow. Through this ever shifting maze of people and tiny plastic chairs, Tra My led us through the streets to one of the amazing bars she owns- the Tet bars. Set in the heart of the Old Quarter, its an awesome place to get a strong drink and listen to epic DJ’s spin. The bar became our home base for the next few nights before launching into all sorts of fun adventures ranging from checking out San Francisco class speakeasies like The Mad Botanist and Polite and Co to after hours dance clubs like Savage. Regardless if you’re looking for cold beer Chang or a cocktail to power you onto the dance floor, Hanoi has you covered.

My birthday ended up happening here in Hanoi and Tra My got together her friends and community to surprise me and celebrate the big event. Somehow she even found a baker to make me a cake! Since we’ve been travelling, it’s been hard to be away from so many of our friends, family and community. The party really helped remind us that we’re grateful to have this time to travel, we’re also grateful to be able to keep in touch with all of you and meet new people in places as special as Hanoi.

One of Ngoc Anh’s many awesome creations

Tiffany: Speaking about keeping in touch with friends and trying to check out the local fashion scene, we visited our dear friend Ngoc Anh’s boutique (La Pham) where her line of stylish and modern Ao Dai dresses was on display. Ao Dai is a traditional Vietnamese dress. I already loved Ngoc’s work from Ha and Anh Design (they made two of my wedding dresses) but seeing the greater range of her fashions for Ao Dai was truly special. Ngoc Anh is extremely passionate about her creations and she takes a lot of pride in her work. She will pay attention to the smallest details of the garment to how it fit on her clients. You will feel truly special when you put on one of her designs because it was made with your style, comfort, and fit in mind. She’s a true creator and can take inspiration and beauty from the world around her. If you are in Hanoi, I highly recommend visiting La Pham and meeting this amazing designer in person.

While we keep up with old friends, meeting new people and getting to experience their lives is one of my favorite things to do while traveling. Since we were spending more time in Hanoi than our usual stops, it gave me the perfect opportunity to connect with my friends Tra My and Thanh at a deeper level. We talked about about the meaning of life, what does happiness mean to us, and what are our aspirations going forward- y’know, the easy questions 😉 We laughed, ate, and made future travel plans together. I’m truly grateful that I had the opportunity to connect with them at a deeper level build a stronger friendships. I really got a great sense of their perspective of living in Hanoi and why they love this city so much.

Even the damn pizza was epic! 4p’s pizza throwing down a half salsiccia , half curry chicken pizza!

Tim: After staying in hanoi for almost 2 weeks it was time to go head off to our next destination- even though it feels like we still barely scratched the surface of this amazing dynamic city. I know we’ll be back again to savor the food, laugh with the amazing people here and enjoy one more delicious meal while precariously perched on a teeny plastic stool. 🙂

Places we loved in Hanoi

To help you with your visit to Hanoi, here are a few places we highly recommend checking out all handily organized into a Google map view of our favorite places.

Favorite street food in Hanoi

Bun Rieu Hang Bac. Hands down a MUST TRY. Located at 11 Hàng Bạc

Giang Cafe. Another must go to for their egg coffee. located at 39 Nguyễn Hữu Huân

Cha Ca Thang Long. Is it cliche to add another “must go to”? Well do so for cha ca. located at 19 – 21 – 31, Dương Thành

Banh Cuon Gia Truyen Thanh Van located at 4 Hàng Gà

Banh Mi 25 located at 25 Hàng Cá

Banh Goi located at 52 Lý Quốc Sư

Pho Thin. Best Pho Bo ever. located at 13 Lò Đúc

Favorite bars in Hanoi

Tet Bar– 3 locations, 3 different themes! They’re all on Ta Hien street

Mad Botanist – The Gin Specialist. Seriously! The best gin selection i’ve seen outside of San Francisco. Located on 45 Lý Quốc Sư

Polite & Co. Amazing craft cocktails with a Vietnamese twist. located on 5b Ngõ Hàng Hành

The electric buzz of tens of thousands of scooters zipping through the streets, LED encrusted skyscrapers each doing their own light shows and street vendors winding through the streets, loudspeakers advertising their wares. You can be only in one place, and that place is Saigon Vietnam- where the region’s history of farming collides with its fast passed future. Saigon is a city on the move and we were excited to jump right into all it had to offer!

Saigon’s skyline from one of its many rooftop bars

Saigon is split into districts- basically just like neighborhoods, boroughs or wards back in the states. Each has its own vibe but most of the action (tourist and otherwise) happens in District 1. We decided to keep things a little bit more chill and stayed across the Son Sai Gon river in District 4 that was a bit more residential but still a quick cab into the heart of District 1.

The first thing that will astound you when you get to Saigon is the sheer energy of everything happening around you. This is most apparently in the streets, roadways and sometimes, even sidewalks where there are literally thousands of scooters all vying for space. According to Saigon’s Transit bureau, 7.43 million are legally registered in the city- which is kind of impressive when you consider there’s only 8 million people in the city. That means that scootering around is a no-holds-barred thrill ride. Traffic lights, right of way, and traffic laws in general seem to be very loose suggestions at best. For instance, if you want to cross the street in the states, all you do is push the “walk” button, wait for the walk sign to come on and then you walk.You’ve got the right of way! In Vietnam, that is NOT the case. To cross the street, pedistrians have no right of way so instead you reenact the scene from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where Indy has to take a literal leap of faith. The Saigon version has you basically shuffling at exactly the same pace without stopping or speeding up and praying no one hits you. This works surprisingly well AND it’s a huge adrenaline rush too! Just watch out for busses- they stop for NO ONE!

Vietnam was a French colony at one point and you can see it all around Saigon in their buildings and street layout. Getting around is pretty easy with the Grab app (kind of like Gojek in Indonesia or Uber combined with Grubhub in the states). Cabs are cheap but with the traffic, make sure to tack on a few extra minutes to each trip. The quickest way is to get a scooter driver to give you a lift. You’ll be certain to have an awesome ride!

Tiffany: We met up with our new friends Ngoc and Quan who showed us their Saigon. We really enjoyed hearing stories from Ngoc and Quan about what they loved most about living in Saigon. Quan taught us how to say cheers in Vietnamese; it sounds like “Yo” in English. It was so special to connect with them and experience the love and passion they have for Saigon. It’s amazing to me how much we as humans can share and connect with delicious meals and tasty drinks. I’m super grateful for our new friendship and look forward to hosting them when they come to visit San Francisco in a couple of years.

The food scene in Saigon is pretty impressive with everything from street food to Michelin rated restaurants to local delicacies to taquerias (!). It’s all here. One thing people really love here is their “sky bars” (basically a super nice rooftop bar). It seems like every building has one and some of them are really, really nice. What is super cool about them is they have actual happy hours where food and drinks are 50% off! Pretty epic compared to San Francisco’s “mildly amusing hour” where they maaaaaay take 1 buck off a drink. What’s great about the sky bars’ happy hour is that they perfectly coincide with sunset! We highly recommend checking them out. Helping us out in this department were Mo and Eric- two friends we made thanks to the awesomeness of how small a world it is and the willingness of friends to help us meet folks around the world.

Mo and Eric showing us all the kitschy fun of Saigon by night

Exploring another happy hour with Le Ha and Jenny

Tiff: Our friends Le Ha and Jenny showed us their favorite bars in the city. I really enjoyed laughing and joking with them in Saigon. They told us amazing stories about their recent adventures in Phu Quoc Island. It’s Vietnam’s version of a music festival like “Lightning in a Bottle” (aka burning man light). You get all the awesome Djs and parties without any of the prep work. I think we committed to going next year. Not sure after many drinks later. Either way, I’m confident we will have a good time with Le Ha and Jenny no matter where we are in the world.

As we try to do in many cities, we took a cooking class to try our hand at making delicacies like imperial rolls, Pho Ga and Vietnamese pancakes. The whole experience was hilarious with us lumped in with a bunch of New Zealanders. Throughout the day we learned new knife skills like smashing the shit of garlic and turning tomatoes into rad looking Swan food decorations. I’m definitely going to use that on Tiff on date night someday 😛 While I don’t think our Pho rivaled PPQ’s back at home, it was fun to try out!

Tiff: Checking out local designers is another fun activity to do while traveling. Saigon women are super stylish and proud of their unique sense of fashion. My friend Jenny Kim is an amazing local designer. You can check out her boutique “Cashew” in the heart of district 1.

Another top things to see is the War Remnants Museum. The museum shows the Vietnam War (or the American War as the call it here) from the other side. It’s a sobering a truly heart wrenching experience where you see the full damage that war has not just on the combatants, but innocent civilians, children and generations to come in the case of the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians (unexploded ordinance is still a huge problem). I was moved to tears seeing all the tragedy that war creates and as naive as it seems, I hope we evolve past it someday…

One awesome side trip I did was go to the Mekong Delta. The delta is a few hours outside of Saigon and could be its own trip destination in its own right. By the time the Mekong river makes it to the delta, its the width of the Mississippi River and has been through several countries. On my tour I got to see how the Mekong locals harvest coconuts and use every part for some interesting product. The water for coconut water (duh), the meat for candy or selling wholesale, the husk for making everything from charcoal to welcome mats and the leaves for thatching roofs and making cabin walls. Its really cool. We also got to navigate the mangrove bayous by canoe.

Dancing the night away with the Saigon Swing Cats

Final note- Saigon is home to some AMAZING dancers! There’s a vibrant swing dance and salsa dance scene here and the dancers are some of the most energetic, creative and welcoming folks I’ve danced with. For an epic night out, I’d highly recommend checking out the dance scene!

PHEW! That was a long one! And just like that, our week in Saigon was done. On to Hanoi- one of the greatest street food capitals in the world!

Tag: Street food

Hanoi- The Street Food Capital of the World

Places we loved in Hanoi

Saigon- the city in the Sky