24 hours of food in Hanoi

This post will give you a taste of what is availble for each meal of the day in North Vietnam.



I would like to preface this with a disclaimer about our ignorance. We are true novices at vietnamese food. Names of dishes go in one ear and out the next, that is when we can even pronounce them. Vietnamese as a language has six distinct tones making it difficult for us to hear and reproduce words. So when we think we are asking for chicken we end up with tripe (although the tripe is still really delicious). So we are somewhat blindly stumbling around back alleys of Hanoi with our eyes and mouths open. This is what 24 hours of getting lost in Hanoi can produce.



Breakfast:
Is generally eaten out. Very few Vietnamese make breakfast at home. And why would you when every corner has cheap and beautiful bowls of Pho noodle soup.





Breakfast soon gives way to the morning snack. We opted for some puff pastries sold by the basket full on the street.



It can get pretty hot in the late morning, so it's best to take a break for ice cream. The French colonists influenced the cooking of Vietnam and one such influence is the ultra creamy ice cream. It's best enjoyed with whip cream on your nose.



Lunch:
This meal is generally taken in the home by the vietnamese, and followed by a nap. But as backpackers we lacked both kitchen and mid-day accomodations. So we just resigned ourselves to an assorment of hot street food.



First piglet meat and pig ears on shredded raddish.



Then deep fried spring rolls with mint.



Finally a small bird we are still debating if it was a quail or a pigeon.




To tide us over before our next snack we picked up some dried jack fruit. We still don't know what jack fruit is.




Our next snack we stumbled into was rice panckakes filled with mushrooms, fatty pork, and shrimp.



This was accomapanied by dried salted pork shreds.





Dinner:
Street vendors follow the time of day. Some things can be found all day, but many are only for the morning and the afternoon. So when evening fell and Lilly and I wanted fish we were directed to an indoor resturaunt. Here we dined on fish and greens grilled in hot oil at the table.




But no day in Hanoi is complete without a late night snack. We opted for a grill stand.



We picked squid, salmon, okra, and mushrooms wrapped in beef from the large variety of skewers.





Then we chatted the night away with fellow travelers.




Sleep. Repeat.