The Gravy Train

bun cha: love at second sight

Bun cha, consisting of grilled meat, rice vermicelli noodles, fresh greens, and a light daikon pickle

Having bun cha in Hanoi is like eating a slice of pizza in New York: it doesn't get any more quintessential than this.  The thing I've come to really love about Vietnamese food is that it usually involves a combination of a rice noodle or crepe, fresh greens, and some sort of meat.  Bun cha encapsulates all three, and adds a smorgasbord of grilled meats, the main feature of which is pork patties, to boot.  

Getting a good bowl of bun cha was on my list as soon as our plane's wheels touched down on Vietnamese soil, and the hubby and I darted to Bun Cha Dac Kim on our first day, within hours of arriving.  Bun Cha Dac Kim is known not only for its stellar bun cha but also for its amazing nem cua be (crab spring rolls, which I blogged about earlier here).   But something was off.  There were piles of thousands, and I do mean thousands, of nem cua be on giant platters outside, but from what we could tell, no one was eating there.  If it's one thing that puts the hubby and me off from eating somewhere, it's the lack of customers.  (As a sidenote, a lack of local customers and an abundance of foreign tourists can also mean something is fishy.  As in, it's a Mexican restaurant -- yes, those exist here in Asia, but most of them are frighteningly awful, for obvious reasons.)

The exterior of Bun Cha Dac Kim; note all the dishwashing takes place on the ground floor and overflows onto the sidewalk, as necessary

So we passed on Bun Cha Dac Kim.  I was sad to do it, but the hubby and I have lived in Southeast Asia long enough now to trust our instincts.  We spent the next two days passing over a few other bun cha establishments for various reasons (one had too many tables, which meant that the quality control might be suspect, another moved locations and we weren't sure of the new address, one was closed for business permanently, and one didn't even serve bun cha).  I started getting nervous by the afternoon of our second-to-last day in Hanoi.  It was unthinkable to me that I'd leave Hanoi without a bowl of the tasty stuff to wrap my soul around, and yet, here we were, with less than 12 hours remaining, and time was ticking.

By evening, my concern had blossomed into full-on eye twitching panic, and so the hubby, the Gravy Baby and I put our heads together and decided to give Bun Cha Dac Kim another go.  After all, we'd last visited Bun Cha Dac Kim at 4:00 in the afternoon, which hardly was a mealtime by anyone's standards.  Perhaps we'd made an incorrect judgment.  

Above, left: the bun cha and all its accompaniments; above, right: the Gravy Baby enjoys watching the shenanigans of his parents and their desperate search for bun cha -- at least, that's what we think

Boy, am I glad we did.  It turns out that like other old establishments in Hanoi, what we'd seen was only the ground floor of the establishment, which was their dishwashing/dish preparation area.  The restaurant was actually five stories, with each story consisting of one room and a spattering of card tables.  We climbed three flights of rickety spiral stairs, wide enough for only one person at a time, and landed in a dimly-lit room, sharing a table with a Vietnamese couple clearly on a date.  I'm not sure that our arrival -- with the Gravy Baby, a giant backpack, and my humongous camera, did to make romance happen that night.

Wait -- I take that back.  It happened, all right.  IN MY BELLY.

Bun Cha Dac Kim | 1 Hang Manh | Hanoi, Vietnam 

*Note: be sure to arrive during dinner hours between 6-8 pm.  By the time we finished dinner around 7:30pm, the place was already winding down for the night.  Talk about efficiency.

vietnam dreaming

Above, left: a banh (baguette) vendor; top, right: a family eating pho (soup noodles) at a curbside hawker stall; below right, frying crullers to soak in pho broth

We found out recently that due to some travel delays on our way to Hanoi, our favorite low-cost carrier has credited us with a 400 ringgit voucher (a little more than $130 US dollars).  That might not sound like much, but when some flights on Air Asia are as low as 10 ringgit, all of Southeast Asia becomes our oyster.

Beautiful, delicious baguettes in Vietnam

I had such a magical time in Vietnam a couple of weeks ago that I'm still thinking about the food I ate -- and didn't get to eat.

A lady, a basket, a burner, and voila! A restaurant

But, at the same time, there are many more places we have yet to visit, and many more foods we have yet to eat.  It's a good dilemma to have...

...so in the meantime, I'll just keep daydreaming about Vietnam.

courting street food

Nem cua be, or rice paper spring rolls stuffed with crabmeat and served with lightly pickled carrot and daikon

For a one-stop shop where we could taste all things Vietnamese, the hubby and I stopped at Quan An Ngon in Hanoi, a partially open-air food court in the Old Quarter.  This was actually our second time to a Quan An Ngon, the first being during our trip to Ho Chi Minh City last year.  These establishments are known as affordable places to try a smattering of Vietnamese dishes from all over the country, and specifically specialties in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.  The hubby and I view our trips to this venerable food court as a sort of "learning lab" -- a one-stop shop to educate ourselves about the dishes we see on the street.

The welcoming courtyard at Quan An Ngon

One of the things I really wanted to eat again when I revisited Hanoi was nem cua be, a classic Hanoian dish of deep-fried rice paper spring rolls stuffed with crabmeat.  I have really fond memories of being broker than broke and eating these for lunch almost every day with a bowl of bun cha (rice vermicelli noodles with grilled pork) because they were cheap and crazy delicious.  The ones at Quan An Ngon were just the way I like them -- lightly fried crispy, stuffed to the gills with crab meat, and served with a light pickle on the side for some acid.  

 
Mien xao luon, or stir-fried yucca noodles with eel

The hubby and I also ventured into new territory and tried several dishes we'd never heard of.  One of the surprise hits was the mien xao luon, or stir-fried cassava (yuca) noodles with strips of crispy eel, bean sprouts, shredded carrots, cilantro, green onions and served with a light pickled cucumber and spicy sauce on the side.  We absolutely went nuts for this dish.  It had lots of fun texture and wasn't overly greasy at all considering that it was stir-fried.  Plus, it was really nice to eat eel in a context other than our usual, which is in Japanese unagi form. 

Above, left: che suong sa hot luu, a Vietnamese iced dessert drink; top right, che chuoi hap, steamed banana topped with thick coconut cream, tapioca pearls and sesame seeds; bottom right: the hubby enjoys an icy ca phe sua da, an iced Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk

Now that I've fully converted the hubby into an Asian dessert eater (two years ago, he would've balked at the idea of eating soup or beans for dessert, which are common threads in Asian sweets), we both were really excited to try some new desserts.  First, we ordered what everyone else was having, which was the most insane-looking drink.  Called che suong sa hot luu (try saying that three times fast), it's an iced coconut milk dessert with grass jelly, water chestnut tapioca pearls, something custardy, and a few other jelly-like items that we couldn't identify.  It was crunchy and cold and chewy all at once, and while that probably doesn't sound all that great, it was a party in my mouth. 

So the CSSHL (I have to abbreviate, because I sure don't know how to say it) is probably one of those desserts you had to be there for, but I'm pretty sure the other dessert we ordered, a steamed banana topped with coconut cream, tapioca and sesame seeds, is universally appealing.  My little bowl arrived at the table comfortably warm, and I immediately wrapped my hands around it, cradling it with love.  Its silky smooth texture combined with the chewy tapioca and subtle crunch from the sesame seeds really capped an extraordinarily fun meal.

Quan An Ngon | 18 Phan Boi Chau, Hanoi | 138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, Ho Chi Minh City | Vietnam

cha ca ca

Grilled turmeric fish prepared tableside with slightly wilted Vietnamese greens

There's a restaurant in Hanoi, Cha Ca La Vong, that's been serving up the same turmeric grilled fish since the 1870s.  Some say it's touristy and overdone nowadays, but it's still considered one of the national dishes of Vietnam and is available in a variety of iterations all over Hanoi.  When I read the description, I couldn't resist.  Freshly grilled fish prepared tableside with fresh greens?  Yes, please.

 
Clockwise, from top left: no one spoke English, but this laminated sign explained everything we needed to know; a sizzling pan of fish filets arrived tableside on a burner with rice vermicelli and fresh greens; the greens get a nice little oil bath, wilting them slightly; the whole spread included peanuts, chilies and garlic in fish sauce to top the meal off

Even though the hubby and I weren't forging any new territory by frequenting a must-eat on the Hanoi food tour, I found the experience still charmingly rustic.  When we arrived, an adorable elderly Vietnamese lady gestured up a dark flight of creaky stairs, a practice we came to discover as common in Hanoi.  Popular restaurants in the Old Quarter probably had nowhere to expand but upwards, as shopfronts are narrow and generally comprised of one room per floor.  Plus, despite the restaurant's clear popularity with tourists, not one person spoke English, and we were handed a sign that clearly emphasized the restaurant's only dish -- cha ca. 

The whole process was efficient.  Within minutes of sitting down, a tabletop gas burner appeared with a pan of oil, followed quickly by rice vermicelli, blanched peanuts, chilis and garlic in fish sauce, and a variety of fresh greens.  Once the oil was hot, our server gingerly placed pieces of lightly seasoned fish, emitting a reassuring sizzle.  After turning the fish once, she then dumped a whole pile of fresh greens on top and turned the oil over onto them, wilting them slightly.  Turning to us, she gestured to all of the other components on the table to explain that everything should be eaten together.  And boy, once we put all the pieces together, what seemed like it was an almost too-basic meal became a complete symphony: crunchy greens, soft rice noodles, and crispy fish topped with spicy chilies. 

I can totally understand why this dish has been around for more than a hundred years.

Cha Ca La Vong | 14 Cha Ca Street | Hanoi, Vietnam

calm in the chaos

Crossing the street with some market wares

Hanoi is a special place for me.  In 2001, I spent a summer interning there.  It was my first experience working in a foreign country, and I knew absolutely nothing about Vietnam before I arrived.  Figuring out the country on my own was a challenge, and when I left a few months later, I was really proud of myself that I'd not only survived Hanoi, but also fallen in love with it.

It was fitting, then, that our first trip with the Gravy Baby was a return trip to Hanoi.  Traveling with baby brought a lot of unknown into our normal travel routine.  Would the Gravy Baby take to flying?  Would the chaos of the motorbikes and all of the street noises be too overwhelming?  

The lights on the bridge crossing over Hoan Kiem Lake

As it turns out, the Gravy Baby takes after his parents, and we had a delightful weekend wandering the streets of Hanoi's Old Quarter.   Our traveling style has changed pretty dramatically, but for the better.  Rather than cram in as many sights and tastes as we can, we tried to see and experience while paying respect to the Gravy Baby's schedule.  In practical terms,  we'd find somewhere to sit every three hours or so for the Gravy Baby's mealtimes.  And we were mindful to give him a break from the baby carrier we lugged him around in, stopping for a couple of hours in the afternoon so he could nap at the hotel.

Flowers in a basket for Tet (the Vietnamese New Year)

The Gravy Baby's natural routine taught us a new way to travel.  The hubby and I discovered a gentler way to see the world, a way that demands that we slow down, look around, and simply enjoy being where we are.  Instead of waking up each morning with a battle plan to find at least five places to eat and squeeze in two attractions, we'd amble down each morning to the cafe next to our hotel for a ca phe sua nong (a hot Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk).  As we sat and enjoyed our coffee, the Gravy Baby would inevitably attract attention from a local or two.  The Vietnamese, we soon discovered, are absolutely enamored of babies, and would cross busy streets of traffic, fight their way through a crowded cafe, or even interrupt a nursing session to try to pry our little guy out of our hands to coo and giggle at him.  It was heartwarming to see a new side of this country.

Top left: the lantern choices at a shop selling Tet decorations; bottom left: the Gravy Baby after a nice morning nap; right: the French influence shows up in these old doors leading to an alleyway in the French Quarter

After breakfast, we spent our day wandering around the city, getting lost in the narrow, antiquated streets of the French Quarter and stopping to snack every once in awhile.  It's hard to know what a four month old thinks about a world he barely knows, much less a chaotic environment like the streets of Hanoi.  The Gravy Baby seemed pretty calm about it all, though, even when we were delayed on our way to Hanoi and had to sit on the tarmac for two hours while our plane crew worked out some technical issues.  Judging by the swearing and the rage exhibited by some of the other passengers on our flight, we could all take a page out of the Gravy Baby's book: when in doubt, go to sleep.  Maybe things will make more sense after a nice long nap.

starting early

We just came home from our first trip with the Gravy Baby, who, much to our delight, was a fantastic traveler.  At four months old, it's much too early for him to be eating solid foods, but I thought he should at least catch a whiff of the delicious banh cuon (rice crepes stuffed with minced pork and woodear mushrooms) in Hanoi this past weekend.

I'm still sifting through and editing my photos and stories, so check back for more tomorrow!