Lifeblood of a city - Hanoi Street Food

Having been cast in the role of domestic god (for at least the first few months) here in Vietnam; Jo’s cunning Christmas present plan was to give me some Vietnamese cooking lessons – in the hope that at least some of the knowledge gained will transfer to the offerings coming out of my kitchen over the next few months!!
Seriously though, I am keen to learn more about the local cuisine and having survived the initial couple months of relocating to Hanoi, celebrated our first Christmas and a family birthday in our new home it seemed an opportune time to hit the streets of Hanoi and make some sense of the infinite food sellers and abundance of different gastronomical delights that are on offer wherever you turn in this city – even if it was from the relative safety of a guided tour led by a chef from one of the local cooking schools.

As with most foreign eating experiences we have heard many stories and been given a variety of advice on trying food from street stalls in the Red River City– ranging from never eat food in the street to absolutely having to experience the tastes and atmosphere of this quintessential part of Vietnamese life. Playing things safe has resulted in our dining experiences over the first couple of months generally involving:
1) restaurants - that we have judged safe to our health and budgets. After the price and lack of variety in Rarotonga we have been a bit like kids in a sweet shop working our way through Vietnamese, Italian, Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Chinese, Turkish, Singaporean, French menus which generally cost between 400 and 600,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND) for a substantial meal for all five of us (about NZD $20 - $30)!!
2) fast food joints – no McDonalds in Vietnam, but KFC is long established (although menu adapted to local tastes with many rice variants – including rice cake burger), BK has just arrived, Pizza Hutt and some Vietnamese equivalents Lotteria, BBQ Chicken, Pepperonis Pizza etc
3) home delivery – pretty much anything from 1) or 2) delivered to our door; the selection is awesome and a real lifesaver when we lived in the Hotel for first two weeks or now when nobody feels like cooking but we don’t want to go out. see www.eat.vn
4) home cooking – after our initial 2 weeks in a hotel relying on 1), 2) and 3) being thrown into a kitchen with no utensils and an empty pantry in a food environment that was completely foreign to us certainly had its challenges! As a result the meals coming out of my kitchen were limited to some stock standard pasta, chicken and minced beef dishes – this may have had an influence on my wife’s choice of Christmas present!

5) big splurge – On Christmas day we indulged in a fabulous smorgasbord lunch at the Luxury 5 Star Movenpick Hotel, all for about $50 per head
http://www.moevenpick-hotels.com/en/asia/vietnam/hanoi/hotel-hanoi/overview/
...So now it is time to branch out and discover the delights of Vietnamese streetfood. I don’t know whether the Vietnamese have always eaten and lived their lives on the street, but obviously with the pressure on space in a heavily populated urban area it is now inevitable that life spills out onto the footpaths, parks and any other free spaces. This isn’t limited to the countless plastic stools surrounding the endless different street food options but includes a multitude of activities that are part of Hanoians daily life. It is not unusual to see games of badminton or exercise classes on the footpath or any other vaguely suitable space or a mechanic stripping a scooter on the footpath next to somebody having their haircut,

polishing some shoes, washing eating utensils, selling all types of goods (including the kitchen sink) or sharing a lunch with their work colleagues or family.



My street food tour started with the a bowl of the iconic dish Pho Ga (Chicken Noodle Soup)
Next stop was a tour of a local market – for the uninitiated, the sounds, smells and sights of a first visit here may be a bit overwhelming but this is a chef’s paradise of fresh (read “often still twitching”) meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables and more. Nothing is wasted around here so be wary of everything from exotic fruits to animal brains and various other organs. While steering clear of the dogmeat, watch for the inevitable motorbike and don’t stand on the live frogs or slip on live fish jumping out of a tank as you give the chicken or quails eggs with chicks inside a wide berth! Despite the absence of refrigeration I'm assured that the throughput and twice daily delivery of fresh meat makes this a safe purchasing option, even in the high temperatures of mid-summer.I guess if the animal is sourced from a safe environment you can definitely be assured of the previous storage if you watch your chicken or fish being slaughtered before you take it home for dinner!


The rest of the tour was a full on dining experience tasting such things as rice pancakes (seasoned with a bit of cricket essence!), street lollies, Bun Cha (BBQ pork with noodles - another Vietnamese classic), Bia Hoi (famous Vietnamese fresh beer served straight from metal kegs) and a Coffee with egg in it to finish. All in all a thoroughly entertaining and educating experience which was shared with our chef Y and Constantine and Marcus (from Berlin) and that I would recommend to anyone visiting Hanoi.

A week later I was back at the Hanoi cooking centre to learn from the experts how to prepare and serve some street food dishes. Our morning started by preparing and eating some Pho Bo (Beef noodle soup) and a local omelette for breakfast and then a feast of Westlake Prawn Cakes, fresh rice noodle spring rolls, pickled vegetables, green pawpaw salad and banana Che dessert for lunch.
Another really enjoyable and informative class, sees me armed with a bit more knowledge on the five components (sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter) that are key to most Vietnamese cooking. The morning was superbly finished off with a sit down lunch sampling the fruits of our labour, over some local beer and wine with the 3 Aussies and 2 Brits who were also on the course. Great food (if I say so myself) and really interesting people and conversations.

And yes, some of these have already been tried and enjoyed at home...so everybody happy until I try and figure out how to cook my latest discovery at the supermarket!!!

See more about Hanoi Cooking Centre here: www.hanoicookingcentre.com

See the cool story of fellow cooking class chefs Caitin and John’s tandem cycle adventure from London to Sydney: www.talesfromthetandem.wordpress.com