Bun Cha Hanoi: A Must-Try Vietnamese Delicacy Bún chả Hà Nội

 

Indulge in the flavors of Hanoi with Bun Cha, a beloved Vietnamese dish that tantalizes the taste buds. Savory grilled pork, aromatic herbs, fresh vermicelli noodles, and a side of dipping sauce create a harmonious combination that defines this iconic Hanoi specialty. Immerse yourself in the bustling streets of Hanoi as you savor the smoky aroma and exquisite flavors of Bun Cha, an essential culinary experience for any visitor to Vietnam's capital city.

Vietnam Locations -Hanoi's everyday beauty, beautiful in every corner

Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, is known for its rich history, vibrant culture, and stunning landscapes. The city exudes an everyday beauty that captivates both locals and visitors alike. Here are some aspects of Hanoi's everyday beauty:

Eat Walk Love

Since we started our first street food tour offically a few months ago, this is the first time we've written about the experience with our clients (with their permission, of course).

Mrs Loretta joined our morning tour and she wanted the experience to be a surprise so Tu didn't show her any of the itineraries. Tu took her by motorbike and started the day by trying a delicious fish noodle soup called bún cá. This dish incorporates crunchy pieces of fried fish with different herbs, including dill, bean shoots, mustard leaves and of course, the noodles.

The tour continued through one of Hanoi's wet markets where Loretta enjoyed the atmosphere very much, saying it was very different to the markets back in Australia. More streetfood followed in the form of Hanoi's signature lunch dish, bún chả, which combines grilled pork belly and pork patties with noodles, herbs in a wonderful warm fish sauce based broth. A stop at a traditional Vietnamese coffee house rounded out the tour and Loretta was definitely full by the end.

Another client was Viola, a Canadian expat who has been living in Hanoi for a long time. We did the tour on a pretty cool day and she enjoyed the hot chicken noodle soup (phở gà) to start. We walked through a wet market and Tu explained the different ways of cooking in Vietnam, something Viola appreciated a lot as she loves spending time in the kitchen. After that, Viola also learned about wedding and offering culture in Vietnam which is something unique to this part of the world. We finished our morning trip by having coffee and exchanging our coffee experiences.

Sometimes I learn a little something from my clients, too.

Morning .....

It seems the Dutch are pretty adventurous. I've had close friends from Holland who have lived in Hanoi for long periods of time and now, the majority of our current streetfood tour clients are also from that country. They are great to have aboard because they embrace the experience and will give almost every thing a try.

I always try to connect the clients with the market atmosphere, try to involve them with the market vendors. As Holland is a dveloped country very different to Vietnam, the concept of a wet market is something new to them and some of the activities in the wet market can be shocking. Skinning frogs and killing chickens and ducks are examples. I don't see the point in protecting the client from this as it's part of the wet market culture. Generally, after the first few minutes they get used to it and start to understand the difference...or they turn away! When it comes to eating though, they don't mind sitting down on the tiny stools in the middle of all this activity to enjoy a bowl of noodles.

Many people who take part in our street food tours want to try some bazaar food such as duck fetus eggs or tofu with fermented shrimp paste. They like the combination of these dishes and their accompanying herbs. Duck fetus eggs are served with ginger and Vietnamese mint for example. I get a real buzz when people are prepared to try food that may be unusual for them and the Dutch are the most adventurous so far.

Fun Evening

Over the last few days, we've been receiving quite a few bookings for our evening snacks tour. I do love this tour as it's like a social occasion, like going out with friends for a beer and some tasty treats. It's more relaxed than the chaos of the markets in the day time.

With Hanoi resident Joanne and her friends from Sydney and KL the other night, we did some serious eating. For starters, it was fried noodles with beef which is available along the lengths of many old quarter streets in Hanoi. A special dessert followed; only available from October through to April in Hanoi's cooler weather, local TV personality Pham Bang serves the Chinese influenced sweet dumplings known as Banh Troi Tau. I like to do some taste testing with our clients whenever I visit this place...see if they can guess some of the exotic ingredients that go into these daumplings and syrups. It's fun!

We needed wheels for our next stop. I wanted to show Joanne and co my favorite duck noodle soup so we took a short trip by taxi to a vendor just out of the old quarter. Duck with bamboo and Asian basil served with fresh vermicelli noodles and a robust broth is a nice proposition on a cool evening in Hanoi, everyone agreed. Walking towards West Lake, we stopped in to Truc Bach village for some spring rolls known as pho cuon, a fresh spring roll with stir fried beef and herbs. Joanne actually suggested that one as she didn't want her friends to miss out on one of her local favourites.

Steamed rice pancake with some Hanoi beer was next on the street food menu. By this stage in the tour, there is normally quite a bit of sharing going on rather than everyone having their own serve. Sensible because we had two more stops; for lemon iced tea and sweet banana with jelly and coconut milk followed by grilled dried squid and a beer nightcap to top it off.

Thoroughly full, Joanne and her friends waved me off saying they had experienced something special. That's the way we like it.

Eat Walk Drink

British actor Adam James joined our morning street food today.
Together, we hit some of Hanoi's main eating stages and Adam was up for the challenge. Our three hours started with Bun Ca - deep fried fish with noodles and herbs. This was perhaps his biggest challenge of the day as he indicated that seafood was not something he was all that fond of. With some apprehension, Adam tasted the fish and was surprised that it wasn't that fishy. Who knows, it may be that the experience will add another dimenion to his diet in future.

A lakeside coffee followed before we continued our route into one of Hanoi's wet markets. Adam noted the differences between markets here and markets back in the UK and was impressed with the freshness of the produce and the fact that there were no flies.

We made our way back into the Old Quarter for a dessert dish typical of Northern Vietnam, consisting of fermented wild rice with yoghurt. Other sweets we enjoyed during the morning included banh com, a traditional rice made from pounded rice, mung beans and sugar and che chuoi, dried banana with coconut cream.

As lunch time neared, the bun cha experience loomed. This Hanoi barbeque of pork belly and pork patties is a must for all visitors to the capital. Adam was particularly interested in the range of herbs that accompany Vietnamese cuisine and, of course, they are not in short supply when bun cha is for lunch.

An after lunch coffee was our last stop on the tour. Adam departed the tour with a full stomach and a kind word. And we thank him for choosing us to guide him through Hanoi's street food scene.

Street Food For Honeymoon

A couple of weeks ago, I led a tour for a "Just Married" couple from the US. They were not too concerned about an itinerary, just stating that they wanted me to surprise them.

First off, we headed to West Lake for fish noodle soup which is a pretty standard breakfast noodle dish in Hanoi. This was followed by a morning visit to the Quan Thanh temple to explain about how Vietnam's people make offerings to the Gods and ancestors.

At this point in the tour, coffee is generally a good idea and in Hanoi, there are quite a few choices about how you have your coffee. Sweetened condensed milk and even yoghurt are used in some coffee drinks. It's also common, because Hanoi is pretty hot most of the year, to have ice in coffee. Some of our clients worry about the ice but it is all commercially produced this days. Vietnam's hot so if you don't have ice in your drinks they won't be very refreshing.

With caffiene in our systems, we headed to market which can be a challenging experience for westerners who are used to doing their food shopping in supermarkets. Vietnamese wet markets are a place where many processes occur, even the killing of animals like chickens, ducks, fish, even frogs. My client Patrick helped the vendor pull the skin off a frog, saying that he thought that if you are going to eat animals you should be prepared to kill them.

After the market, the eating continued. We had Hanoi's most famous lunch dish Bun Cha which is served with Hanoi spring rolls. To celebrate their recent wedding, we had some beers too. And then cake...but not wedding cake. Instead, a traditional cake made from pounded rice, mung beans and sugar which is actually eaten at engagement parties in Vietnam.

We stopped off in one of Hanoi's streets where ceremonial merchandise is sold, stuff for altars and festival occasions. In between, we took the paintings that Patrick and his wife, Kelly bought at the temple to my favorite framing place and it turned out super cheap for them.

We finished our day at Bia Hoi (draught beer) with grilled dried squid in the old quarter. I had a brilliant day with them and I guess it was a unique thing to do on a honeymoon.

A Sweet Stop

Vietnamese cuisine, in fact Asian cuisine in general, is not particularly known out of the region for its sweets or desserts. The people who come on our tours are generally well-versed in the main features on Vietnam's plates; the range of herbs, rice and noodles, the use of fish sauce. But get them to name a dessert and they struggle.


So, on our wanders, not only do we eat savoury but we also seek out sweet.

Just north of Hanoi's Old Quarter, we sit low to the pavement for a sugar fix. Out of a narrow alley comes a northern speciality known as sữa chua nếp cẩm, which translates roughly as yoghurt with fermented wild rice. This dessert house is a Hanoi institution run by some wily elders and a bunch of enthusiastic teenage boys.

The wild rice, predominately purple in colour, is cooked, covered and left to ferment for a period of days with the aid of men ngọt (sugar yeast/fungus), shorter in summer, longer in winter. Laid out in bamboo baskets on withered banana leaves, what eventuates is something akin to jam - minus the fruit, or with rice playing the role of fruit!

Dolloped on top of sweetened yoghurt, it gets delivered to customers. In Hanoi's pulsating summer, a generous scoop of shaved ice adds another layer. All that is required of the customer is a rigorous stirring with the spoon.

And, the enjoyment of the flavours - a slight twist of sour alcohol from the fermentation, the milkiness from the yoghurt, sweetness - a true dessert and a Hanoi tradition to boot!

Egg Coffee

Egg coffee??? It sounds fascinating and I have been wondering how they make it. After 10 years living in Hanoi, I finally tried egg coffee the other day with my clients from Australia.

After half a day walking around eating heaps of different street food, we walked into Cafe Pho Co in Hang Gai street and tried their signature drink and signature view over Hoan Kiem Lake. The egg coffee is made with normal black Vietnamese coffee and egg yolk whisked with milk and sugar. It tasted a bit like tiramisu on the top, very creamy and rich.
This is a good place to stop for an hour for a coffee , juices or a beer as it located right in the middle of the old quarter even though it is a bit dearer compared to other cafes in town.
Cafe Pho Co
11 Hang Gai Street
Hanoi

Hanoi's Food Workers

There's no doubt visitors to Hanoi - especially the food-centric ones - notice the constant presence of edible stuff on their strolls around the Old Quarter and further afield. Street-side meat, bicycles laden with fruit and vegetables, simmering pots of stock on doorsteps, boiling kettles, tipping teapots, sacks overflowing with rice - the streets are where the food action is at, not hidden indoors in gigantic supermarket halls nor protected behind glass windows or cabinetry. One can reach out and touch food up and down the length of any Hanoi street.


But where there is food there are people. Hanoi is definitely not a western supermarket aisle, where even shouting blue murder is unlikely to bring customer service assistance. Butchers here constantly cast a tending eye over their cuts of meat, keeping up their appeal, shooing the odd fly, ready and poised with a sharp blade at hand. Fruit vendors spend their days pushing bikes and re-arranging their specimens into perfectly conical formation, meticulously examining longans or lychees for flaws. The watermelon vendor, with baskets bending from her shoulder-poles, is weightlifting - all day!

The bun cha fanner needs recognition, too. In 80%+ humidity on a 35c day, she is sweating before she waves the fan once in anger. Crouched before a tin tray white hot with coals, one hand turns a fat-spitting wire griller filled with pork while the other is keeping the wind up to the fire. A kind of gym session in a smoky furnace - there is a reason why she looks on the verge of tears. It's bloody hard and hot work, obviously unhealthy.



Maintaining Hanoi's image as one big bustling food shop relies on the physical toil of thousands of people, mostly women, all underpaid and under-appreciated.

Smile when you catch their eye.

So you think you don't drink coffee...

During our street food tours, we inevitably end up at one of Hanoi's local coffee shops. It's a mandatory part of all of our itineraries, morning, noon or night. As Mark wrote recently on stickyrice, in Hanoi, coffee can be sipped "against a century old ochre wall, in a memorabilia-lined passageway a metre wide, up a spiral staircase overlooking a lake. Even a standard Hanoi cafe is perfectly good for watching the frenetic passing parade." So the experience is very much about ambience and cultural immersion.


But occasionally we strike a client who self identifies as a 'non-coffee drinker'. While we try not to openly show pity, such admissions can be disheartening because the whole coffee experience in Hanoi - old-world atmosphere aside - is quite fascinating. So, to such clients, we assume the deviant role of 'drug pusher', enticing them with details that stray from the deleterious and addictive nature of coffee and caffeine, away from the side-effects of sleeplessness and anxiety, away from the notion of "I like the aroma of coffee but not the taste."


We say words like sweetened condensed milk.

 
We say words like homemade frozen yoghurt.


We say words like "imagine liquid tiramisu".

We don't even mention the word coffee. We say "just try it "or "take a sip". Consequently, we've had feedback emails from certain clients saying that their Hanoi coffee experience was transformative. It made them see coffee in a brand new light. They are now drinking coffee back home.

Some would say what we're doing is evil.

HANOI CITY MOTORBIKE TOURS

Enjoy a customized tour of the city by motorbike with English speaking guide. Option of being driven around(good for picture taking).

Option of riding your own bike alongside guide. Great for the higher adventure seeker!