The trip to the island of Phi Phi in the Andaman Sea took 3 different boats & only one minor mishap. We took a longboat from Railay to a ferry boat parked just offshore to Phi Phi & because there are no roads on the island of Phi Phi, we hopped aboard another longboat taxi to our hotel. Boarding the initial longboat at Railay required us wading into knee deep water w our backpacks & purses, slinging them over top the wooden boat & leaping up while small waves come crashing in. Amy made it up on first try but then promptly toppled over backwards into the boat. I exclaimed “oh, Amy!” as I thought there was a chance she was going to knock her head but she managed to recover by pulling off a pretty adept barrel roll & successfully sat up w a big grin on her face. We died laughing along w the longboat captain. Only later did the bruise develop. After I hopped up & in along w the next 2 people… the captain finally decided to put out a ladder, after he perhaps got his entertainment for the day.
We were one of many people leaving puritanical Railay for Phi Phi as it is apparently the Mecca of Southern Thailand (beyond Phuket), made famous by a Leo Dicaprio movie, “The Beach”, filmed there some years ago. We weren’t taking a day trip to “The Beach” with everyone else nor did we feel we needed to see the main port town of Tonsai turn into a crazy club town at night, so upon recommendation from other travelers, we opted for the less-populated far NE side of the island. We splurged a bit on the hotel as we were looking for total relaxation after some busy days in Vietnam & the somewhat disappointing Railay. We got exactly what we hoped for, in addition to amazing food & it was lovely.
Every other city we’ve traveled to, I’ve been able to get my bearings, figure out where stuff is & find my way around in about a day. Hanoi baffled me for 2-3 days as it took me nearly the entire stay to get a handle on the city. It’s a mass of small winding streets, intersected randomly w larger boulevards and you’re concentrating so much on not getting hit by a car or a motorbike, bc the locals have commandeered the use of all sidewalks (bribes to police to ignore city ordinances) for their own personal storage, motorbike parking or an extension of their house/shop/restaurant, you easily lose track of where you are. It’s madness. Definitely the city with the most frenetic pace, insane traffic & high energy. I loved it from jump.
The food just pushed it over the top. You can clearly tell by all my posts, that I’ve eaten very well over here. When we hit Hoi An, the food ratcheted up a notch but Hanoi has easily surpassed it. Not only is the food ridiculously amazing, it’s also dirt cheap. We only had one proper sit down meal at a restaurant in Hanoi & excluding that, we stuck to street food all visit for every meal.
There were some hiccups on day one, in addition to the near hotel scam. In our first couple hours here walking the city, a biker ran into Amy. I’d say it was a somewhat gentle nudge, as we were walking on the street & he was turning a corner very slowly & we were all trying to squeeze together, but it was a bit of a surprise to her. Later, a street vendor, carrying what appeared to be a shoe repair kit, approached Amy with a glue stick aimed directly for her shoe before she reacted strongly with a “no”. I think he was probably just looking for money as if he “repaired her shoe”. Another vendor later, snuck up behind me with her wooden shoulder bar bearing 2 baskets of fruit & without me seeing, attempted to place it on my shoulder & then asked for money for a picture. I turned, sternly said no & shrugged it off my shoulder. She perhaps would’ve balked were she not worried about it going crashing to the ground, thus losing her pretty fruit displays in the mad Hanoi traffic. The hotel scam, those incidents & the insane traffic would, I think, scare off a lot of people. We just laughed our way through the incidents, didn’t give up on the city & subsequently fell in love with it.
So for a host of reasons, I may now consider coming back here on my extended trip. There’s this lovely place in the mountains, Mu Cang Chai, that I read about online before the trip (it didn’t even make my SE Asia book or Amy’s Vietnam book so that tells you how tiny it is). We didn’t have time to squeeze it in this time as we were told 4 days/3 nights minimum as it’s 8-10 hours north of Hanoi (this is after a guide asked me, intrigued,… How did you hear about that place?) & we wanted to end Amy’s portion of the trip w some beach time in Southern Thailand. Plus we didn’t knock off nearly half of the key Hanoi tourists sites. Prior to the visit, I’d never have dreamed Hanoi could challenge Saigon for culture, food, feel, etc. but it certainly does that ten-fold. It has culture coming out of its ears & I could aimlessly wander the old quarter all day hopping from place to place, stuffing myself full with street food & egg coffees. I love it so much.
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.
Bun cha
Money on the right. She goes by “Money” bc she says her real name, Nga, is difficult to pronounce. I tried 10 times & never got it, while she just launghed at me, so “Money” it was. She’s also the one who told me I was asking for smelly beer & telling people to shut up. She was a big help.
Dry pho
Beef jerky salad & tapioca dumplings
Fried pho
Rolled pho
A light rain started while chowing down on fried pho so we donned ponchos
So Hanoi is all about the food. Street food in particular. You may have figured this out already, but I’m kinda obsessed w Vietnamese street food so I was really looking forward to trying it out. Our LP travel guide, in addition to normal resto recommendations, also included a listing of 10 great street food stops in the city, each one focusing on one specialty (do one thing & do it the best). For anyone who has traveled before relying on guidebooks, you know that can be a great source, oftentimes better than hotel concierge recommendations as those oftentimes involve kickbacks or more tourist-friendly sites that sacrifice local food flair, for local dining options. We had enjoyed great success relying on it to-date, so we thought we’d give it a whirl & do our own personal street food tour of the Hanoi Old Quarter as we wander through its winding streets over the next 4 days.
The first stop did not disappoint as I claimed it to be the single best dish I’ve had on the trip (how quickly I forgot cao lao, what can I say… flavor of the month). So good, we had to have it as our last meal in Hanoi as well. The other stops did not disappoint. Love love love the food. There’s little to no ambience but who gives a shit. Best part… Entire meals including a beer were less than USD$3.00 & it was the best food of the trip, hands down.
They have a menu on the wall but as soon as you walk in, they ask “how many bowls?”
Bun bo nam bo (dry noodles w beef) is served mixed w bean sprouts, garlic, lemongrass & green mango then you cam separately add chili spice, soy & vinegar; this is pre-mixing
Post-mixing w chilis; it’s life changing
Xoi Yen’s specialty is sticky rice topped w various goodies including Asian sausage, slow-cooked pork & a fried evg w delicious sauce & chili sauce added to taste, of course
Bun cha is a combo of grilled pork patties in a delicious broth, vermicelli noodles, fresh greens & herbs, & chilis for spice, all served separately & you mix your own
All mixed together. Delicious!
Comes w crab spring rolls
Per direction, drop spring roll into broth & eat as it’s the perfect spicy dipping sauce
Umm… I can make fresh rice paper too!
Banh cuon are super light steamed rice crepes filled w chicken, shrimp & mushrooms
High on my list of to-dos in Vietnam was getting into the mountains in the north. We chose Mai Chao as it’s a bit more accessible than other options. We were able to witness ethnic villages still fully functioning today as they had years ago as every family is allotted a certain number of acres to farm rice, primarily for personal consumption as everyone lives off the land in these parts. We did both bike & trekking tours of the surrounding villages & mountains led by Hoi, our adorable young host who is from the area so we were able to interact w the locals.
The afternoon spent biking was fairly easy while the trekking involved hiking on tiny dirt trails up & down mountains, the same trails used by locals to travel bw villages. We were busy concentrating on our sneakered foot placement while climbing over big boulders & staying on tiny path (bc it falls off on one side) when these 3 older tiny women, some barefoot some in flip flops, come briskly walking towards us balancing w 2 hands, atop a cushion constructed from jungle greens on their heads, a massive amount of wood or bamboo cuttings. Hysterical.
We stopped at a local stilt house & the little old woman invited us in. She couldn’t speak a lick of English but was very welcoming as she gave us homemade tea in plastic cups that looked as if they hadn’t been washed in months. She commented, via our guide, that we were very beautiful bc we have white skin. That’s the thing over here. Everyone wants to have white skin (while I keep getting tanner)… It’s a sign of affluence so people strive for it, bundling up in long sleeves, pants & sunhat while outside in the hot sun & buying “skin whitening” suntan lotion, moisturizer & deodorant. It’s very interesting. She was cooking lunch in her kitchen & for a bit, I was afraid we were going to eat there as she seemed to be grilling a rat impaled on a stick so I was preparing myself. We didn’t & instead left after the tea & a photo. The guide explained later the rat is a welcoming gesture for guests and a signal that good food will be served. Yeah, real welcoming. The guide did say the Vietnamese eat everything & let nothing go to waste.
We had yet another transportation snafu on the trekking tour as our driver picked us up to head to lunch after a hike down mountain only to find that a 25 ton truck broke its axle trying to turn around on the only single lane road that leads in/out of this tiny village as he was clearly lost. It was blocking the entire road & our driver couldn’t get around. All of the townspeople were coming to see what happened. Women carrying babies would look & just start laughing. The men seemed to be having more stern conversations w the driver. Hoi later explained they were cursing & calling him a “stupid driver” & “bad driver”. Given no other options, Hoi led us walking another 10km to lunch (after 10km+ that morning) while the townspeople sorted out the obstacle. We made it halfway there before a friend of Hoi’s rode by on his motorbike & agreed to take us, one at a time, to lunch. Amy went first so Hoi & I kept walking. After a bit, we were pleasantly surprised to find our driver honking wildly behind us so he scooped us & took us the remainder of the way. I was afraid our driver would be stuck there overnight & be unable to drive us back to Hanoi, that’s how bad the situation seemed, but in 1.5 hours, those resourceful people cut down trees & built a bridge of bamboo & wood over a nearby stream, sturdy enough for cars, while that truck sat still under the watchful eye of its “stupid driver”. We had lunch at a local family’s home who host home stays. Amazing food cooked & served right in their home while they went about living their daily lives. I joked to Amy they sure went out of their way to create an authentic experience for us as they even washed a baby in a basin for us.
We opted for the shorter 3km hike in the afternoon past the glorious tiered rice paddies over the 10km full hike due to the delay & complications over lunch as our feet were tired & we had 5pm massage appointments. The rice paddies were just stunning & made the whole trip worthwhile.
We stayed at this lovely eco lodge in little thatched huts. Just a gorgeous property.
View from our porch
With our guide
Local putting us to shame
Stilt house
Stupid driver
Adorable local kids chasing after us on our walk out of town
Lunch at the home stay
Tiered rice paddies
Water source at the top
Of course we ate like champs (yes it’s beef on fire)
Duck w Vietnamese 5 spice
Grilled eggplant
Seafood & glass noodle salad
Pork grilled Mai Chao way w 5 spices & lemongrass served w pepper, chili & lime sauce
Because we had such a blast at our Thai cooking class & bc Vietnamese food is my fave cuisine back home, we decided to do a Vietnamese cooking class in Hoi An. It was a different but equally lovely experience. I do think Vietnamese food is generally much more difficult to cook than Thai food bc not only are you making the dish, you’re also making a different sauce to be served w every dish. Perhaps the coolest thing we learned was how to make fresh rice paper… It’s akin to Italians making fresh pasta as the difference vs store bought is night & day. But it’s a long process. Given 2 of the best local Vietnamese restos are within a mile of my place in Chicago, I’m unsure of the practicality to trying to make these dishes on my own but I do think the rice paper would be a great party trick.
We made the following along w accompanying sauces:
– Pancake, wrapped in rice paper
– Papaya/mango salad w shrimp & squid
– Spring roll including fresh rice paper
– Quang chicken
The Red Bridge cooking school was co-located w one of the best restos in the city out of town & accessible by both road & boat. We took a boat after our guide toured us through the local market.
Cooking stations
Pancake w rice flour, veggies & greens, prawns as demonstrated by our chef/teacher Mimi
Rolling pankcake in rice paper w greens, basil, mint, bean sprouts, etc.
Mimi’s beautiful creation
Here’s mine… not too shabby
Prepwork for green papaya & mango salads (one of my obsessions)
Seafood & flavorings for salad
Green papaya & mango salad
Spring roll ingredients
Fresh rice paper… starts w soaking rice for 7-12 hours
It involves this contraption of a cotton tee held atop a boiling pot of water by elastic w a very important slight gap in the side (releases steam & allows you to wet the flat wooden utensil to slide under the paper once its’s steamed there for 65 seconds… that’s the most difficult part)
After removing rice paper, simply roll ingredients
Sauce ingredients
Mimi’s perfection
My attempt… and YES, I really made the rice paper!!!
Prepwork for local chicken dish
Chicken w flavorings & tomatoes ready for the stove
We were quite excited to visit Hoi An, a “charming little town on a river & canal system, known for its food & allure”, I think largely due to a downtown area lit up w lanterns at night. Day one we spent wandering the town and eating, per usual. As the day wore on, I grew a bit weary as the volume of tourists in the old town only increased. I recalled something Clare, a Brit living in Saigon for 2 years teaching English whom we met at Doc Let, said about the city… “It’s 100% devoted to tourism but somehow it’s the most amazing place that you’ll just love.” I was not loving it that night as tourists w their selfie sticks were in my way, vendors harassing me to send a lighted candle down the canal so a wish would come true would not relent, & the locals handing out happy hour flyers to all the ladies enticing them to enter their bars were like mosquitos to my sweet blood. I went to bed thinking I was in a nightmare bc we had already paid 4 nights hotel. I thought I was going to love it & I was initially disappointed; but I refused to give up that easy. Thankfully, I grew to like & appreciate the city over the next few days & found during the day, it’s much calmer & less overrun w tourists, so we tended to be out & about during the day & simply parked ourselves at night for dinner & drinks to minimize annoyances.
The food. The food is ridiculous & made any annoyances w the city so worth it. Starting w lunch on day 1. Blew my mind. Dumplings, spicy grilled scallops, Hoi An special banh mi (pork & sausage) & grilled prawns in tamarind sauce. Up to this point, I’d probably lost 5 lbs on the trip due to the activity, despite all the eating, but based on this lunch, Hoi An, as the “food capital of Vietnam”, came fully into focus so I thought I’d pack those 5 pounds right back on. Happily.
The local specialty is cao lao – noodles w pork & greens & amazing sauce plus the chili spice you add. I loved it so f’g much that I ate it 3 times in 24 hours (Amy only 2x), including from an amazing street food vendor.
It’s not only about food, it’s also about expert immediate tailoring. Apparently the thing to do is to show a picture of a dress/suit/etc, pick out the fabric & these seamstresses churn out a perfect replica in 48 hours inclusive of a couple fittings. Jobless, w more suits & dresses than I can count, but who doesn’t need one more? I found a great dress in this Saigon shop, when the shopgirl wouldn’t negotiate on price (WTF… Amy laughs at my negotiation obsession… I have to do it & I always feel like I get a deal but I’m sure I’m still getting ripped off; I just love the dance so much so Amy lets me take charge there; I wish we did this is the US), so I sneaked 3 perfect pics of it to have it recreated in Hoi An. But the process seemed so overwhelming as I bet the city has over 300 tailor shops & it turned me off so much night one, that my heart just wasn’t in it so I didn’t get it made.
Instead, we hung out w our hotel neighbors. By day, it’s an empty restaurant/bike & motorbike rental/laundry storefront run by the cutest old Vietnamese couple. They did our laundry for us one day for 60 cents per kg. They hounded us to come for coffee/lunch/drinks thereafter so we finally relented & found that at night, their charming little place turns into the hottest bar in town, managed by their grandson. They gave us a dope table overlooking the street & river & the cute old man let me use the private bathroom upstairs vs wait in line w rest of bar patrons. I felt like we made it.
The city
Pork & pork sausage bahn mi
Scallops
Prawns in tamarind sauce
Cao lao (no 1)
Grilled pork w chili & greens & chili & more chili, served wrapped roll style in a fresh rice paper. I love street food if you can’t tell. Amy is a good sport.
who made it
where i ate it (on the street in tiny chairs)
Cao lao (no 2)
Who made it
Amy w all the chili & sauce adds
Ridiculous papaya salad
Cao lao (no 3)
Open kitchen & these chicks rocked. This resto was the first one opened in Hoi An years ago by a woman whose parents shut down their street food stand. This is now 1 of 4 restos in Hoi An Vy own plus a cooking class (she might as well own the city). That very night we ate there, we happened to stumble upon the first ever Hoi An international food cestical w 12 famous chefs in town. Vy was the only chick on the stage. It was pretty dope.
Sorry mom. This is the best (grilled) eggplant I’ve ever had.
There have been a few places I’ve traveled in Turkey & the Middle East that are a bit off the beaten path & it seems as if there’s a pretty good shot these people have never seen a white person before, let alone an American. We found a place like that in Quy Ngon. This seems to be a weekend holiday destination for the Vietnamese, but bc there are no name brand fancy hotel chains, the international traveling elite hasn’t yet discovered it, nor have the early adopting backpackers. Young people especially seemed very taken by us & often went out of their way to ride a bike or run past wildly waving just to say hello. A young Dutchman was interning in our hotel & explained in his rough English there was only one person in the city who spoke good English. So it seemed perfect for us.
We visited during the week so the gorgeous, wide beach & waterfront were empty and all ours all day long, for the most part. The early rising locals mobbed the beach at 5am before sunrise to cram exercise into their busy schedules and then the school kids would hit the beach after school released at 3:30 to swim & play football.
Like everywhere else, the people were very warm & helpful and we enjoyed the very best seafood we’ve had all trip. The beach was lovely but to be picky (& to compare & contrast), not quite as white & soft of sand & as blue & warm of water as Doc Let & a bit more intense afternoon winds than Nha Trang, but it’s massive & empty so we really enjoyed it. So overall, very glad we found this place & continued to get off the beaten track.
The beach
Kids playing football after school
The panorama
The food… toasted grouper eaten wrapped in rice paper w mint, basil, cilantro, lettuce, cucumbers & chili spice
From Siagon, we decided to travel north up the SE coast of Vietnam, starting with Nha Trang. We read it’s built up w fancy hotels & restaurants but the beach itself is beautiful. All of that proved to be true. As we stayed at an “okay” place in Saigon, we decided to splurge a bit & stay at a nice joint right on the beach.
We took an early morning flight from Siagon. Prior to landing, we flew over Nha Trang & its surroundings & it looked gorgeous. A 45 min drive into Nha Trang revealed it’s even prettier as the beaches are vast and backed by lush mountains & the blue sea is dotted w similar lush mountainous islands (upwards of 70 islands just off the coast). I had pho for breakfast for the first time since landing in Vietnam & was on the beach in comfy chairs by 10:30am without a care in the world.
Our days went like this:
– Sleep in, workout in morning
– Pho breakfast
– Beach chairs & umbrella by 9:30/10 for swimming, sunbathing, napping, walks on the beach. We needed that umbrella. I think we’re fairly close to the equator here & that sun gets awfully hot.
– Lunch on the beach
– The winds would pickup around 3pm so we’d head up to shower at 4 & hit the rooftop bar w gorgeous views for 2-for-1 happy hour drinks & trip research
– Great dinners, drinks & then retire
After 3+ weeks of non-stop traveling & touring, it was just what we needed. What we certainly did not need was all of the loud, obnoxious, selfie-stick obsessed Russians who have infiltrated this place & apparently adopted it as a vacation destination. There are store signs and menus in Russian & some servers even speak a little, all catering to the fact that they apparently love this place & are everywhere. As a result, the city at night is a little douchey. There are bright neon lights everywhere. There are douchey clubs everywhere playing douchey music as if that’s going to lure me inside. After dinner one night around 11, we swung by a mini-mart type shop along the beach to pick up some water, beer & snacks for the room only to find the shop also sold handbags, luggage, shoes, etc. We commented on how odd it was they carried that stuff just as 2 different Russian couples entered & a woman picked out a bright pink handbag & a man was inspecting the luggage. I guess they know their customer base.
Also a little tiresome were the tour buses jammed with Chinese & Japanese tourists that would periodically stop for an hour break & swarm the beach dressed head to toe in clothes, hats & raingear so they could enjoy the sun without threatening their pasty white skin tone, painstakingly documenting the excursion w their selfie sticks.
So while the atmosphere during the day was, for the most part, relaxing & definitely entertaining, we had our fill after a few days as I needed to go in search of what I had dreamed about when thinking of Vietnam beaches… Pristine beach & a whole lot of nothing.
Saigon is a massive city split into 19 large districts. We stayed in district 1 in which most of the tourist sites are located as are a ton of hotel & dining options. The city is so big, it’s difficult to get out of district 1. For this reason, our unbridled enthusiasm for street food & perhaps the fact we’re hardheaded as we apparently didn’t learn from our Bangkok bike tour experience & are not scared off by the Saigon traffic, we opted to do a street food tour of various Siagon districts… All while traveling on the back of motorbikes driven by locals. I could not have been more excited. The motorbikes are driven by Vietnamese women aged 21-25 (approx) wearing local dress, who are English speakers, quite engaging & thoroughly adept at traversing Siagon traffic. I was paired with Quynh, a beautiful young girl recently graduated from university w degrees in English & restaurant management, who picked me up, w Amy’s driver, at our hotel on a busy street, strapped a helmet to me, & was off w a start, driving the wrong way through traffic before darting to the proper side at first opportunity. Amazing.
For the next 4 hours, we made stops for street food & sightseeing, all the while dodging traffic & exhaust pipes of other motorbikes. If I didn’t feel as if I was putting my life at risk, I would’ve loved to get a video. At times I felt as if we were in a race & Quynh generally won as she was heavy on the gas & a great maneuverer through traffic (but very safe mom). She did say there are very few accidents in Siagon as the traffic generally moves quite slow as it’s so backed up. The food was phenomenal, eaten in locations we’d never otherwise find & excluding commonplace items like pho & banh mis, the opportunity to see a lot more of Saigon was wonderful, & the time spent on the bike getting to know my driver was super special. Overall, easily one of the best tours I’ve taken in all of my travels & I’d certainly recommend it to all.
Stop 1 in District 1 for Bun Bo Hue – beef noodle soup from Hue; lemon grass flavoring; veggies (banana flowers, morning glory or water spinach, bean sprouts); sate (homemade chili w garlic)
Stop 2 is non-food stop in District 5 (Cholon or Chinatown) to see their crazy food market… Everything is alive
Stop 3 in District 8 for barbecue – tofu sauce served w goat & chili rock salt served w beef, prawn & frog (served w skin on & off… way more flavorful w skin on) with grilled okra on the side.
Stop 4 is non-food stop in District 7 (AKA Koreatown), a boring, polished expat spot w chain restos that I couldn’t leave fast enough
Stop 5 in District 4 (AKA Mafiatown). I had to take off my simple gold necklace so as not to draw attention. This was my fave stop. Extra lively place w people & street food restos lining both sides of the street. The place is known to have the best seafood in the city. Crab served w black pepper, chili powder & kumquat juice sauce; sweet sauce served w scallops on the shell; tamarind sauce served w quail. We also had mini veggie/shrimp pancakes wrapped in lettuce and soup w clams, steamed Thai way (like tom yum (sweet & sour)). The “special treat” was a local specialty… boiled duck embryo that you eat directly from the egg. Many were grossed out so few tried it but Amy & I both did; she didn’t care for it while I liked it but didn’t finish it (I kinda wanted to see its contents). Dessert was a coconut jello.
The girls dropped us back at our hotel w super full bellies & big hugs.
All ready to roll
Quynh would sit next to me at every stop to describe the food, the local customs, help prepare it & accompanying sauce & desribe how to eat it. At the first stop, I ate something delicious & exclaimed “yum” afterwards. Quynh, with a laugh, quickly told me I shouldn’t say “yum” in Vietnam as it means “horny”. Haha. We kept that in mind as it had been part of our regular vernacular.
Bun Bo Hue
Vietnamese food differs from other SE Asian foods as many are served w fresh greens & most are sauce heavy, which I love. While many Thai, Lao & Cambodian dishes are served inclusive of heat (& a lot of it), Vietnamese food is not but they serve you with chili salts, chili sauces, soys, limes, etc so you can mix your own sauce & ramp up the heat to whatever level you’re comfortable with (high for me). We are becoming professionals at this by now.
The whole crew… prob a group of 14 customers & their drivers.
The girls grilling for us
Grilled goat & beef
Grilled prawns
Grilled toad (the entire toad)
An inpromptu game pitting Amy & I against one another in a battle of chopstick skills by testing fastest to transfer bean from your driver & put in a bottle.
Winner & receivor of Champion button
We traded places for a bit… but just for a pic.
Fresh seafood at District 4 stop
Quail
Crab legs
Crab legs w great chili salt & lime juice sauce. Perhaps my fave.
Scallops
Ridiculous
Pancakes
Clams
Quynh cracking open thr duck embryo. She then poured out the liquid for me to take as a shot & prepared my first bite. We’ve been told locals eat this as a delicacy & an excellent source of protein in the morning.
The aftermath… & evidence of a smile so proof I enjoyed it. I’m a weirdo.
I didn’t originally include this picture but I got a lot of questions about the duck egg so here goes. It’s eating a fertilized duck egg (not an unfertilized one). So there’s so much protein bc it includes a tiny undeveloped duckling. You can see the contents on the lower half of the plate (little duckling on lower left). It’s all mixed together in the egg, as you can imagine, so I took 4 bites to try the local delicacy & then we opened the egg to see the contents left (bc I was curious too). Sorry for grossing you out but I’ll try anything and we eat actual duck so I didn’t really have a problem with it. Judge away.
View from my hammock:
amusemusings 