Food Trip

I've been so busy with 'other' things that I've neglected finishing my Hanoi series. We're now down to our last two days here. After visiting all the points of interest around the city, we now have enough time to relax, unwind and EAT. This post is devoted solely to food and the restaurants that served them! Heehee.



May 12 was my Mom's actual birthday and so I made sure we didn't rush her. Day 4 finds us having lunch at Brother's Cafe on 26 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. It is a quaint outdoor bistro that serves lunch buffets with everything Hanoi for the taking. We wanted to have a feel of the place and so we chose to eat outside even if the weather was HOT. Among those served, my favorite offerings were the bun cha grilled pork meat (can't get enough of them!), the rice dumpling cake with shrimp and pork, the special pancake, the tofu wrapped in salted egg and the shrimp cake wrapped on a sugarcane stalk. What a feast! It was Kenji and Tomo who introduced us to this place and they were our benefactors as well. After lunch, we hopped on over to Khai Silk which is a high end store specializing in everything (you guessed it!) silk. Khai Silk in Hanoi is what Jim Thompson is to Thailand. We found very interesting pieces which I can't wait to use once the weather in Manila gets cooler!



Mom wanted to go first class on her birthday and so we chose La Lua or Wild Rice on 6 Ngo Thi Nham Street for our dinner destination. Wild Rice is not your typical authentic Vietnamese restaurant. In fact, its decor to its menu is a fusion of different traditions and customs. The place looks like an upscale Hollywood restaurant with a touch of Zen, having tall stands of bamboo encased in glass, slate floors and bright white walls.

We all chose Menu no. 5 and ordinarily, each person would be asked to choose one appetizer, one main course, one dessert, etc. But since we were such a giddy group and we kept on repeating my Mom's birthday, they decided to serve everything on Menu no. 5! Hahahaha! For starters, we had Wild Rice soup, fried spring rolls, sea clam salad and pan fried young tofu. Lahat masarap! For our main course, we were served grilled prawns with chili and lemongrass, roasted chicken, pan-fried duck, steamed tofu and braised eggplant with vegetables, pork and spices. My Gad! I don't know how we made it out there alive because we still had dessert after all that!!! We were served coconut ice cream AND violet blutinous cake. Terrible, terrible. One whole day at the gym will not even be enough to burn all the calories gained! But we were all happily busog and we were still raring for some action!



So off we went for a round of cocktails at Restaurant Bobby Chinn (again!) on 1 Ba Trieu Street. BC was no longer around...either that or he was avoiding the rowdy group of ladies who were there the night before. Heehee. Seen here are Mom and her best dancing buddy gyrating while asking over and over again, who the f@#K is Alice! Also seen here is Tita Jean, their number one cheerleader and fan. Not seen here are the thirty something girls who were laughing their heads off while the senior citizens amused everyone in the restaurant. Heehee.





Our last day was super leisurely and we begin our day once again at noon. We are now at the Little Hanoi on 21 Hang Gai Street, a short walk from our hotel. It is a local-style fastfood joint that has basic bamboo and wood decor. Nothing fancy, very different from our dinner venue last night. The restaurant is a noisy but fun place overlooking the busy Hanoi street with roaring motorbikes passing by. We had our baguette fix, spring rolls, noodle soup but our favorite was the banana flower salad. I am told that it is also the specialty of the house.


Despite my pleas to head on over to Cha Ca La Vong for dinner, my companions had just about enough of the local cuisine and was now looking forward to something other than leafy vegetables! Tomo joined us for our last dinner at The Sushi Tokyo on 15 Ngo Trang Tien Street. As mentioned in an earlier post, Tomo is a Japanese national temporarily residing in Hanoi and so we knew she would bring us to the best place for our Japanese craving. We would not be disappointed! Sushi Tokyo served the freshest sushi and sashimi, tempura with the lightest batter, yummy gyudon and for a surprise treat, they even had scallop tempura! Nag-uunahan pa talaga kami! What a great way to end our Hanoi vacation. Although I really feel bad about missing out on Cha Ca La Vong, Reymond says it will be our first stop on our next trip there! Yipee! Looking forward to it already.