Because we really like to eat, are obsessed w street food & loved our Saigon motorbike food tour, did you really think we weren’t going to do one in Hanoi too? Similar concept as cute young women drivers are paired w customers but this time there were just 4 of us, including a very nice young Russian couple who lived in Kuala & was visiting for the weekend (I managed to resist asking them if they’ve visited Nha Trang bc I didn’t want to profile them but it was a struggle all night). The tour was a bit more informal as the girls didn’t wear traditional dress & only the chick in charge, Nga or “Money”, came in & sat w us at the street food restos to explain what we’re eating & how to eat it. Thankfully I was paired w her on the motorbike so we had great convos coming & going as she knew exactly what we ate & discussed & I really got to know her as well as you can. I felt a bit guilty as Amy didn’t have that same luck but despite that, we both had a really great time. I was a little curious, since we had been traveling in Vietnam for over 2.5 weeks, whether we’d know all of the dishes or still be surprised. I was thrilled as Money introduced us to so many new dishes which just speaks to the massive variety in Vietnamese cuisine as this tour varied significantly from the Saigon one.
Stops:

Stop 1 – Bun Cha w barbecue pork, noodles, fish sauce, green papaya, add chili & garlic for spice. Hysterically, we had bun cha w beef that very day for lunch on our own personal street food tour but I didn’t have the heart to tell Money. Delicious twice in one day.

Stop 2 – Thanh Hop restaurant; special pho (pho ga tion); dry pho so no soup; noodles same, mixed w soy sauce, chicken, cucumber, coriander, peanuts; add pickled garlic in vinegar & chili sauce. Called Pho ga tran (dry chicken noodle). I’d never heard of dry pho before & it was fg fantastic!

Stop 3 – Long Vi Dung for (1) nom bo kho, beef jerky salad, green papaya, peanut, basil & dipping sauce; (2) banh bot loc, tapioca dumpling so transparent w shrimp, pork & black mushroom & dip in same sauce (4 parts water, 1 part fish sauce, vinegar & sugar). We are only 1 hour in & we’ve had 4 dishes. Belly is bursting but must push on.

Stops 4 & 5 – Thankfully these were sightseeing stops at the pretty lake & a bridge.

Stop 6 – Pho chien trung, egg fried pho at Trung Ran; w beef, an amazing sauce & topped w greens. Again, no idea that fried pho existed but need to find this & dry pho in Chicago. Also had rolled pho, pho cuon – fresh rice paper, beef & herbs (very similar to Southern Vietnamese fresh spring roll but definitely not called that… they like to highlight the differences between S & N Vietnam cuisine… Kinda amusing).

Stop 7 – HCM mausoleum w parade in front when lower flag daily at 9pm (raise at 5am)

Stop 8 – Banh mi sandwich w fried pork, pate, veggies & a shot of rice wine to wash the food down; also had ca phi trung or egg coffee – yolk on top; Vietnamese say bc they have a bitter life, they like to sweeten everything; used to drink w condensed milk but replaced w egg; seriously delicious!!! I had to come back to the same place to get another one the very next day. Money gave me her email address to stay in touch but I told her first things first, I needed the egg coffee recipe.

Stop 9 – Two desserts including fruit w caramel & sticky rice w ice cream
And as an extra bonus… She recommended 2 other great street food restos for us to try on our time. Number 1… Bun bo nam bo, my obsession. Done & done. So that just further validated our amazing taste buds.