Hanoi street food, professional motorbike tour

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.

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.

A light rain started while chowing down on fried pho so we donned ponchos

Hanoi street food, personal tour

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

Per direction, drop spring roll into broth & eat as it’s the perfect spicy dipping sauce

Banh cuon are super light steamed rice crepes filled w chicken, shrimp & mushrooms

Saigon foodie tour

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.