Vietnam Part 2: Hanoi

We were in Hanoi for 5 nights. I highly recommend our hotel: La Belle Vie. It was by far the nicest one we had on the trip. All the hotel staff were super nice, their roof top pool was awesome, and the daily breakfast buffet spread was top notch!

Our first night in Hanoi, we wanted to get BBH (Bun Bo Hue). So the hotel recommended a place. They said it's where the locals go. Driving up in the taxi, we saw a row of people sitting outside on tiny little stools and low tables, very local! We thought we were going to have to sit out front like everyone else, but luckily they had an inside, upstairs, with AC!

Bun Bo Hue O Xuan.
Bun Bo Hue. We all got the same thing. 

They had a very small menu. But this is what they're known for so of course we had to get it. I did not know that BBH does not come spicy by default. I've only had it in Dallas and everywhere serves it spicy. I actually liked that it was not spicy. They give you a jar of chili sauce to add on your own. And that was SPICY!! A little scoop is more than enough. LOVE LOVE LOVED the BBH. I think it was one of my favorite meals of the trip. The noodles were perfect cooked. There was plenty of meat and it was filling. The broth had great flavor too. A great recommendation!

Of course we stopped by a boba place by our hotel. :P
Ding Tea
Classic Matcha 32,000 VND. Pretty good!

We went looking for pho one day cuz the only pho we've technically had was the hotel breakfast. haha. But we couldn't find the place we were looking for. But we found one that only served chicken pho. Why not?

Pho Ga 42
Chicken Pho (with or without gizzards). 

Although I eat most organ meats, I don't like liver. So I wasn't sure what all they put in the loaded one... I opted for just the meat. I liked it. It was light, but still flavorful. There was lots of chicken. The portion size was more than enough. I actually like the pho in Vietnam. I've heard many stories from people saying the pho in Vietnam is not great. I think because it's not like the US where we get a ton of meat. And the flavors are quite a bit lighter. Which is better for me. I don't like things that are too salty. The only thing I don't really care for is the actual noodles. It seems to be a thinner noodle and feels overcooked.

Mr. Bay Mien Tay. 
My friend wanted to come here specifically for a certain dish. But once we got there, they told us it was sold out. haha. Oh well. They had a pretty big menu.
Nem Nuong Lui (grilled mint pork in stick).

Bun Bo Nam Bo 60,000 VND. This is their signature dish. It was sooooo good. My favorite dish of the trip, I think. Sooo much texture with the peanut and crispy garlic chips and bean sprouts.

Banh Khot (dragon eggs pancake) 65,000 VND. Cute little bites. It's almost like a mini Banh Xeo in texture.

Jolibee. 
My friends wanted to try this place cuz it was there, and they've never been. haha. It's a fast food place... and they have fried chicken. Wasn't cheap either..
Spicy Fried Chicken. Their spicy fried chicken was damn good. Way better than the KFC we went the day before. haha. (Just to try KFC in Vietnam, you know? Wasn't worth it.)

Vanilla Soft Serve (with chocolate hard shell). Meh.

Royal Tea. 
The Royal Tea here isn't as good as Ho Chi Minh City, and the selections were different. Boo..
Guava Passion Green Tea 43,000 VND. The drinks were still good tho. But why didn't I get the cool cups?!?

Peach Orange Strawberry Oolong Tea 49,000 VND

Cari Truong. 
We came here because my friends wanted broken rice plates. Only to find that broken rice is not popular in the north and so they don't have it anymore. So we just got regular rice plates. haha.
Com Suon (rice barbecue) 65,000 VND

Beef with Yellow Rice

Trung Nguyen Legend. 
Have you heard of weasel poop coffee? Or the more popular one globally is the luwak poop coffee. But in Vietnam, it's the weasel. My friends wanted to buy the beans but couldn't find a place that wasn't going to rip them off. So they found this cafe that served it.
Legend Coffee 150,000 VND - mimics the "weasel" coffee. 

The process copies what the beans go through in a weasels digestive system or something like that. So it's not REAL poop coffee, but that makes me feel better. haha. It's super rich and hella strong. But really good with condensed milk. I can see why people would pay a premium for this.

We did 2 tours while in Hanoi. Lunch is typically included and catered to more Western palates. Not really the greatest food.. haha.

Bike and Boat Tour

Halong Bay Tour. We had this lunch on the boat. It was cool.

Cucumber Salad

Steamed Prawns

Stir Fried Squid with Celery

Fried Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Fried Chicken

Fish with Tomato Sauce

Steamed Rice
Fresh Seasonal Fruit
Afternoon Tea Time - Green Bean Dessert, Tea, Pineapple

Hanoi Food & Drink. 
After the tour we found this place just across from our hotel. Their food turned out pretty good. So I had them 3 times on our trip. haha.
Beef Sauteed with Mustard Greens

Crispy Roast Pork. They only serve this from noon-8pm or until they sell out. So we missed out the first night. But we got it to go and ate it by the pool the next day. It was awesome!

Beef Sauteed with Ramen. This is the dish I had 3 days in a row. haha. Got it to go to eat at the hotel room while I watched a movie. Total relaxation!

We wanted to do another afternoon tea since we had so much fun in Ho Chi Minh City. But this time we wanted to do an actual High Tea with the tiered carriers and stuff. We decided on the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel. It was highly rated for Afternoon Tea and the hotel is really nice.

High Tea 460,000 VND (per 2 people). This was by far the most expensive meal we had on this trip. And honestly, it wasn't even that expensive... but seemed really high since we've been paying so little for food. haha.

Pastry Stand:
Homemade Scones, Financiers, Madeleines
Finger Sandwiches,
Seasonal Fresh Fruits

It was not good. The display was meh. And the food was meh. I think they copped out with the fruit tier. And the pastries were lackluster too. Bleh.

Selection of Metropole fine teas
- Darjeeling de Printemps
- Mint Green Tea, Earl Grey pointed Blanch. This was my favorite one of the bunch. The mint was very mild.
- Quatre Fruit Rouge, The des Vieux Gancon

Fresh Coconut Juice 130,000 VND. The most expensive coconut ever!

Metropole Egg Coffee 120,000 VND. We've kinda been wanting to try this egg coffee thing, but gave up looking for it cuz none of the locals we talked to have heard about it. haha. But they had it on the menu so we got it. It's quite good. Super rich. And the candle underneath kept it hot. But we left it on the fire too long and it cooked!! Turned into coffee custard. hahaha.

Bun Cha Huong Lien. 
My friend wanted to come here cuz apparently Obama came here? There are pictures to prove it! (This is supposedly a Northern cuisine? I don't know much about the regional cuisines in Vietnam, but this is typically found in the north. Just like the north doesn't do much broken rice, but we found it in Ho Chi Minh City.)

Bun Cha (grilled pork, rice vermicelli, herbs with broths of sugar vinegar fish sauce) 40,000 VND. You basically take a chopstick full of noodles and dip it into the broth. You don't dump the whole thing of noodles in there. Quite interesting. And the broth is cold. I was full so I only sampled. It was ok. Wasn't my favorite.

Fried Seafood Roll (prawn, crab, pork, vegetable) 30,000 VND. Way too big. Felt like it was very greasy.

Fried Crab Roll (crab, pork, vegetable) 7,000 VND

Overall, the food in Vietnam was good. I wouldn't fly here just for it though. haha. I DID enjoy the price point enormously. :P

~~ CHOMP CHOMP~~

Vietnam Part I: Binh Duong: a Wedding, and Ho Chi Minh City

I went to Vietnam for the first time even in August to attend my bff's wedding. A group of us went so we decided to make a trip out of it. I'm splitting my post up in two otherwise there would be too much to scroll through!!

Part I will be Binh Duong (where the wedding was), and Ho Chi Minh City (we stayed there for 3 nights, then back for 1 night before heading home). Part II is our 5 nights in Hanoi. Forgive me when I try to write out the food names. I really have no clue with the language. haha. And I've tried to include prices so you can see how cheap the food generally is in Vietnam. Most of our meals were $3 or less a person I think. The exchange rate when we were there was USD $1 to 22,670 VND. You do the math...


Wedding - Binh Duong

After the Morning Ceremony, tables were set up literally on the side walk in front of the bride's house for lunch. This is how people dine in Vietnam. A lot of eating outside.

A lot of things I've never had before...

Drunken Shrimp (steamed with beer). The shrimp are live in the pot. They're basically get drunk on the beer and get steamed til they're fully cooked. You kinda have to keep your hand on the lid. They like to jump!

Grilled Deer. First time having deer. It's quite good!

After the lunch we went back to the hotel. Tried to go to the pool, but it started raining. So more eating it is! :P

Snacks at Becamex Hotel
Fresh Coconut Juice
Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Papaya Smoothie

Bánh Xèo

At the Wedding Reception we got a multi-course meal. Very typical to Asian dinner receptions.
Corn Soup
Appetizers. (Left) Mushroom filled, (Right) Pork on Sugarcane

Drunken Shrimp. They seem to really like this dish.

Fried Soft Shell Crab. Really yum. Quite a lot of meat in them.

Beef Curry (with bread). I loved this dish. The beef was so tender.

Chicken Soup/Hotpot

There were more courses after this, but we left to go take pictures then went back to the hotel. Apparently at Vietnamese receptions, people just come to eat, then go home. There's no dancing or party after. Which totally works for me cuz I was running on about 8 hours of total sleep in the past 3 days...

The day after wedding... walked around the hotel just to see what's around. Found a Gong Cha. It's funny that I haven't even been to the ones in Dallas, and I come to Vietnam to have it. haha.
Gong Cha. We had a lot of boba tea, y'all...
Probably the worse experience for boba this trip. My drink tasted like heavy cream, it was gross.

Snack. Some random cafe.
Sauteed Ramen Noodles (with beef). Surprisingly delicious, and it was like $2 USD!

-----------------------------------
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) 


Tan Lap - Coffee & Juice
Oreo Coffee?

Pho. 65,000 VND

Stuffed Cuttlefish

Crispy Noodles

Beef Stew

Sauteed Water Spinach. 60,000 VND

Fried Rice

Sesame Chicken Wings

Fried Chicken Wings with Garlic 90,000VND

Hàng Dương Quán - quận 7. My friends' family friend owns this restaurant, and many more around town. They serve a lot of fresh seafood. You can see the tanks lined up at the front with all the fresh fish. He treated us to lunch which was so nice of him. :)

He asked if we were adventurous eaters. I said no bugs, otherwise I am. Same with the others. And what does he bring us?? Live Coconut Worms. (I posted a video on my CHOMP! Facebook page.) They feed on coconut trees. And apparently taste like cheese. Ugh. Ok... technically these aren't bugs... but I'd put them in the same group. And they're moving. BLECHHHH! I could barely look at them much less eat them. Yuck! XP We all chickened out, but I couldn't do it, so I won't make others do it. 

Grilled Shrimp on a Stick

Seafood Eggrolls

Sauteed Squash

Seafood wrapped in Tofu. This was my favorite.

Beef Rolls

450+ lb. Catfish. Yowza.

Geoduck. Teehee... they look funny. :P

We got a tour of the place. They have a lot of themed private dining rooms. Pretty impressive!

We found this next place because we were looking for a place to do Afternoon Tea, or High Tea. But we didn't realize we had to reserve in advance for the actual high tea. So we just ordered a la carte. Which turned out fantastic. This was such a great find! We loved it so much we came back again the morning we were flying out to Hanoi.

Villa Royale Downtown - Antiques & 

Tea Room

Pot of Tea for 1 - 95,000 VND
Pot of Tea for 2 - 175,000 VND
We tried many flavors of tea. They had so many selections so it satisfied all our different taste buds. And how cute are the teapots and cups? Pinkies up!

Between our 2 visits, I think we tried most of their desserts... definitely all the cheesecakes cuz they were phenomenal. All made by their in-house chefs, btw.

Hershey's PB and Chocolate Cheesecake - 100,000 VND

Wild Blueberry Ripple Cheesecake - 95,000 VND. This was one of the favorites, so we ordered this twice.

Short Bread Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Scones (with jam and chantilly cream)

Hazelnut Tart (with ganache)

Dalat Raspberry Cheesecake - 95,000 VND

Oreo Cheesecake

Australian Meat Pie. 

The owner of the tea house is from Australia, so this is probably pretty authentic. It was great chatting with her too. Since I don't spead Vietnamese, my conversations were usually limited to those in my travel group. Finally someone new that speaks English! hehe. Cheers!

Marukame Udon. One of the best udon places ever. I first had it in Hawaii and fell in love. I told my friends we had to go. They all loved it. They had some interesting flavors that I didn't see in Hawaii too.

Mi Udon Tantan Miso. Loved this.

Mi Udon Bo. This was my favorite. I always prefer dry over soup noodles.

Mi Udon Hai San Cay

Various Tempuras

We walked around the night market by the hotel a little. It was meh.... nothing like the night markets in Taiwan. Ben Thanh Street Food Market.
Fresh Lychee Juice

I told you we had a lot of boba... Basically hit up a tea house or cafe every day. One drink is typically more expensive than a meal tho...

Royal Tea
Fruit Teas. 39,000 VND Freaking loved these cups. How genius are they? There's a capped hole to drink from, a hole for the thick boba straws, and a hole for regular straws. We need them in Dallas.

Cream Cheese Green Tea. So rich, but done right! Not like my gross heavy cream tea from Gong Cha. It was creamy but still had a lot of matcha flavor.

Highlands Coffee
Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Some sort of fruit tea with cream

Matcha Latte (with green tea jelly)

Peach Tea
Chocolate Freeze

This place uses too much ice. They basically fill the ice up to the top and just let the drink fill in the cracks. But at least the drinks are pretty tasty.

Bánh Xèo 46A. My friends wanted Banh Xeo so they did a search and this place was highly rated. Apparently celebrities come eat here when they visit Vietnam? I dunno.
Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese pancake) 80,000 VND. It was my first time having a legit Vietnamese pancake. It was huge! Good thing we didn't order one per person! Easily shareable among 3-4 people. The outside was perfectly crispy til the last bite. Loved it!

Pork Prawn Wrapped in Rice Paper (10 rolls) 150,000 VND
Shredded Pork and Vegetable Wrapped in Rice Paper (5 rolls) 50,000 VND. I have to say I like the spring rolls in Dallas better.

On our last night in Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to try Korean Fried chicken by our hotel. I actually saw a lot of Korean restaurants in Vietnam. Glad we got to try one.

Coco Dak

Deep Fried Chicken with Spicy Sauce 160,000 VND. Wasn't spicy much... but yummy.

Spicy Soy Sauce Chicken 160,000 VND. Also good. All the chicken was very tender.

Deep Fried Powder Chicken (cheese flavor) 210,000 VND. I didn't know what to expect with this powder thing. But It was really good!

Cheese Corn 80,000 VND. Disappointed. And I've never been disappointed by Korean cheese corn.

Mango, Strawberry, and Peach Smoothies

We had one night back in Ho Chi Minh City before flying back to the states. We weren't able to find broken rice in Hanoi so we found a place that only sells it in Ho Chi Minh. We didn't even look at the menu. Just ordered the loaded versions. haha.

Com Tam Ba Ghien
Broken Rice Plate - (with pork chop, meatball, shredded pork, egg loaf, and fried egg) 85,000 VND. This is a massive amount of food for $4. It was delicious. I love me some shredded pork.

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~