Foodie Paradise

Hanoi is perhaps the best of the country for street eats (my name for street kitchens and street food vendors). I have found throughout Vietnam that street eats are the best, much better than restaurants, but in Hanoi there so many more from which to choose. Each specializes in one thing, and does it very well. Street kitchens are narrow storefronts that open to the street, with the cook operating in the doorway, and tiny plastic tables and stools on the sidewalk. Street vendors carry a bamboo pole, weighted with a cooking pot and food on one end, and tiny plastic stools and dishes weighted on the other end. In a museum, I saw a 100+ year old photo of street vendors, and the set up was the same back then! They set up on the sidewalk in busy areas, and you just pull up a stool and eat quickly. The other option (besides a Western style restaurant) is a place that sells so-called “people’s meals”, which I consider the dirty little secret of Vietnamese cuisine. There is usually a case out front with dishes of prepared food, and you just walk up and point at what you want. They serve it with rice, and sometimes a watery soup. Every people’s meal I have had has been quite bland (as was the home-cooked meal I had), and I wonder if that is the true nature of “real” Vietnamese food.

While this is a great place for the stomach, not so much for the lungs. Did I mention that everyone smokes here? The men anyway. In restaurants, on the train, just everywhere, blowing it in my face, quite oblivious to a Californian’s sensitive nose. Interestingly, most of the foreigners I see are smoking too. Ugh. And this on top of all of the vehicle air pollution!