Eating summer rolls and drinking lemongrass and ginger tea in Hanoi, Vietnam

When strolling through the busy streets of Hanoi, be alert at all times. The motorcycle army doesn't care about your existence. When entering most stores, you have to squat down and sit on a small stool. The love handle on your belly has nowhere to hide and is squeezed out, pressing against the waistline of the skirt. Sweat slowly breaks out and breathing becomes shallow. As for the smell, it's the smell of various soups from food stores, and it's the smell of pho.

Among the many cities that you go to for food, Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, is special. Different from the past where I would definitely gain weight every time I ate, this time I didn’t gain a pound after eating in Hanoi for a week.


The snails on the old city buildings are meaningful

It’s not that Hanoi food isn’t delicious. After trying the most famous Pho, Vietnamese baguette sandwiches, Vietnamese spring rolls, egg coffee, night market barbecue, Hanoi street tea, and several exotic restaurants, I have a preliminary impression of the daily diet of Hanoi people. It’s street, herbal, colorful.
  



Pho is one of the classic representatives. Not only are the local people very fond of eating it, but as Vietnamese immigrants spread around the world, the word Pho on the doors of Asian restaurants has also been included in the international food dictionary, just like jiaozi, which is also the English translation of dumplings. It doesn’t really matter whether Pho originated from rice noodles in southern China or from the massive demand for beef during the French colonial period. The important thing is that Vietnamese people use beef bones to make delicious soup base, which is gradually loved by people. In the early days, pho was sold by street vendors carrying burdens in the early morning and evening. This burden is still a mobile kitchen. Two wooden containers hung on both sides of the load. One contains the stove and pot, and the other contains powder, noodles, spices and tableware. Usually men wearing Vietnamese bamboo hats carry the burden.


Nowadays, most of the people carrying burdens seen on the streets of Hanoi are women.

Today, pho has a large or small facade. No matter how the store is decorated, there must be small benches and love tables outside the store. Therefore, you can always see relatively small Vietnamese men and women sitting on the street eating noodles. Even the larger foreigners do as the Romans do and hunker down to experience authentic Vietnamese street food.
  



A small blue shop near Hoan Kiem Lake was full of people outside. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. It looks really pleasing to the eye. Along with the powder comes a plate of raw grass. Bean sprouts, nine-story pagoda, lemon, coriander, etc.



The sauce on each table is the finishing touch. There are fish sauce, chili sauce, small onions, and small red peppers. Whenever I Travel to the tropics, my body automatically becomes more tolerant of spicy food. To the relatively bland pho, I added a bit of fish sauce and chili, imitating the diners next to me who added bean sprouts to the soup. Take a bite and experience the unique taste of a bowl of Pho.



However, my partner who ate with me found it bland and unpalatable. She stopped halfway through her meal. I continued to stir in the noodles, squeezed some more lime juice into the bowl, and carefully finished the last bit of noodles.



At different times, I went to the same blue shop to eat Vietnamese spring rolls. I accidentally saw someone calling it summer rolls. After eating it, I felt that this name was perfect, refreshing and healthy.



The diners and guys are extremely Tourist friendly. The waitress patiently teaches you how to wrap the rolls. Rice paper is indeed as thin as paper, but tough. Then wrap the lettuce, perilla, cucumber shreds, carrot shreds, etc., then wrap the barbecue in it, and eat it with the corresponding sauce.



The diner at the opposite table looked at my camera and showed a dimple.
  


The guy who can put his fingers through his ear piercings smiles shyly.



Not far away is Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of the old city. Whether you want to eat or feel bored, you can go and hang out by the lake, going around and around. Think about this city.



In 1922, Maugham rode a mule and roamed Southeast Asia. Seven years later, he wrote a book about this Trip to Southeast Asia: The Gentleman in the Drawing Room. The end point of this book is Hanoi, Vietnam. Maugham ended the book in Hanoi because he found nothing in Hanoi that interested him.

Although the French told him that this was the most charming city in the East. Of course, it was the French who ruled the country at that time. Later, the long-term anti-French and anti-Japanese war led to today's socialist republic.


Vietnam is a kingdom of motorcycles, and the streets are full of these two-wheeled motor vehicles.

Although Maugham thought Hanoi was boring, I still wanted to experience it myself. Escape briefly to a foreign language world, taste fresh food, and revitalize your life for the next stage of your life. The friend who went with me had done enough research. She had a detailed understanding of "which rental companies are good at scamming people." It was already late at night when we arrived in Hanoi. She chose a trustworthy taxi she found online and took a taxi to a hotel 3 kilometers away.

For some unknown reason, the driver not only treated us with a black face, but also kept sighing impatiently. Ask him what's wrong and continue to sigh. I was also angry and didn't plan to talk to him anymore. He is small and has dark skin. Traveling around to make a living for the family. When checking out, we added one extra zero after the number and paid 240,000 VND, which is equivalent to 10 US dollars. He took the money and continued to look grim. When our friend realized that it actually only cost 1 US dollar, and asked him for change, he handed us 1,000 VND, as if he was the one who suffered the loss.

But shouldn't he be happy? After all, he made a little more money. Therefore, there must be something more important than money that makes him suffer so much. It's hard to imagine what kind of difficult day he had to go through to have such an unreasonable reaction. Perhaps due to this contrast, the friendly nature of the Hanoi and outsiders I met next was surprising.



For example, the diners and guys at a Vietnamese snack bar near Hoan Kiem Lake (just mentioned). A Taiwanese family I met on the road enthusiastically recommended the egg coffee here. "You can't get it anywhere else," he said.



Went to try the egg coffee. For those who usually drink black coffee, coffee with sugar, cream and eggs is a bit unpalatable. Including all the coffees I drank in Hanoi, I couldn’t say I liked them.



Highland Coffee, a local chain, provides sockets at almost every location and an air-conditioned environment, attracting many locals and foreigners to come here to relax.





The iced black coffee is composed of pure coffee juice and countless ices, and the signature condensed milk coffee is also overly sweet. On the other hand, the Vietnamese baguettes in the store may be the best ones I have eaten in Hanoi.




Common street breakfast

On the contrary, the green tea on the roadside is refreshing and thirst-quenching, and costs less than one yuan a cup. Even young girls and boys like to have a drink and smoke some cigarette on the roadside.
  



The most pleasant drink to drink in Vietnam is ginger tea with lemongrass. This tea should be available in many coffee shops or pubs. Later, whenever I saw ginger tea, I would order a hot cup. Pour a little honey into hot ginger tea and drink it in hot and humid weather, which will make your stomach feel particularly comfortable.





Continue back to the lake. Students are interacting on the streets and talking in English with Western tourists. Most of the boys and girls held papers in their hands and asked questions to the tourists. A question is asked and answered. Then look at the question in your hand and continue asking. There are no connecting words. The last question is undoubtedly: Can we take a group photo?





You guessed it was probably an after-school homework assigned by the English teacher. Until I saw a girl, she didn't have any paper. I couldn't help but communicate with her. She tells you that actually they shouldn't read from the paper, they should remember the questions. They can be more flexible. In this girl's eyes, you can see a hint of agility. It can be said that the entire Hoan Kiem Lake is dynamic. Not only are the surrounding buildings different, some are ancient Chinese buildings, some were built by the French; but also the various people you can see around.




For example, one evening while walking by the lake, I met a group of aunts and an uncle. They looked up to the sky and laughed together. haha-hahaha—hahahaha- After you are done laughing, laugh and chase each other like apes. After a while, they were like children again, holding hands and singing. You would imagine that this might be the same as square dancing, making those involved in it physically and mentally happy.





There are also uncles who play shuttlecock as a football. With a volley kick, the shuttlecock flew high into the sky. His partner blocked it with his chest, came to his feet, and kicked it with a snap. Back and forth, as if playing a mini football.

  


If you want to experience the excitement of the night market, after dark, go to a place with a lot of people and you will be able to walk to the beer street. Beer, barbecue, hot pot, rice noodles, fruits, desserts.
  


"God, why are you sweating so much." A hippie from Australia was sitting opposite, laughing at the sweat on my forehead.
  


Maybe I was too focused on eating chicken feet. "If you can, come and eat chicken feet."The two guys from Hong Kong next to me ordered hot pot. I reflexively spoke Cantonese to them, just to chat with them. Hey.
  


Please try this cheese stick. Not bad either.
  


Back in the girls’ dormitory of the youth hostel, the two Dutch girls from yesterday have left to continue their month-long trip to Southeast Asia. The new arrivals are two Singaporean girls and two Canadian girls. They are both taking gap year trips, and they all travel on a budget for more than a month. Let's chat casually about food and travel.
  


While chatting, I realized that this is really a place suitable for budget travel, with low prices and international standards. It felt like I was back in school.