Egg Coffee

Egg coffee??? It sounds fascinating and I have been wondering how they make it. After 10 years living in Hanoi, I finally tried egg coffee the other day with my clients from Australia.

After half a day walking around eating heaps of different street food, we walked into Cafe Pho Co in Hang Gai street and tried their signature drink and signature view over Hoan Kiem Lake. The egg coffee is made with normal black Vietnamese coffee and egg yolk whisked with milk and sugar. It tasted a bit like tiramisu on the top, very creamy and rich.
This is a good place to stop for an hour for a coffee , juices or a beer as it located right in the middle of the old quarter even though it is a bit dearer compared to other cafes in town.
Cafe Pho Co
11 Hang Gai Street
Hanoi

A Sweet Stop

Vietnamese cuisine, in fact Asian cuisine in general, is not particularly known out of the region for its sweets or desserts. The people who come on our tours are generally well-versed in the main features on Vietnam's plates; the range of herbs, rice and noodles, the use of fish sauce. But get them to name a dessert and they struggle.

So, on our wanders, not only do we eat savoury but we also seek out sweet.

Just north of Hanoi's Old Quarter, we sit low to the pavement for a sugar fix. Out of a narrow alley comes a northern speciality known as sữa chua nếp cẩm, which translates roughly as yoghurt with fermented wild rice. This dessert house is a Hanoi institution run by some wily elders and a bunch of enthusiastic teenage boys.

The wild rice, predominately purple in colour, is cooked, covered and left to ferment for a period of days with the aid of men ngọt (sugar yeast/fungus), shorter in summer, longer in winter. Laid out in bamboo baskets on withered banana leaves, what eventuates is something akin to jam - minus the fruit, or with rice playing the role of fruit!

Dolloped on top of sweetened yoghurt, it gets delivered to customers. In Hanoi's pulsating summer, a generous scoop of shaved ice adds another layer. All that is required of the customer is a rigorous stirring with the spoon.

And, the enjoyment of the flavours - a slight twist of sour alcohol from the fermentation, the milkiness from the yoghurt, sweetness - a true dessert and a Hanoi tradition to boot!

Street Food For Honeymoon

A couple of weeks ago, I led a tour for a "Just Married" couple from the US. They were not too concerned about an itinerary, just stating that they wanted me to surprise them.

First off, we headed to West Lake for fish noodle soup which is a pretty standard breakfast noodle dish in Hanoi. This was followed by a morning visit to the Quan Thanh temple to explain about how Vietnam's people make offerings to the Gods and ancestors.

At this point in the tour, coffee is generally a good idea and in Hanoi, there are quite a few choices about how you have your coffee. Sweetened condensed milk and even yoghurt are used in some coffee drinks. It's also common, because Hanoi is pretty hot most of the year, to have ice in coffee. Some of our clients worry about the ice but it is all commercially produced this days. Vietnam's hot so if you don't have ice in your drinks they won't be very refreshing.

With caffiene in our systems, we headed to market which can be a challenging experience for westerners who are used to doing their food shopping in supermarkets. Vietnamese wet markets are a place where many processes occur, even the killing of animals like chickens, ducks, fish, even frogs. My client Patrick helped the vendor pull the skin off a frog, saying that he thought that if you are going to eat animals you should be prepared to kill them.

After the market, the eating continued. We had Hanoi's most famous lunch dish Bun Cha which is served with Hanoi spring rolls. To celebrate their recent wedding, we had some beers too. And then cake...but not wedding cake. Instead, a traditional cake made from pounded rice, mung beans and sugar which is actually eaten at engagement parties in Vietnam.

We stopped off in one of Hanoi's streets where ceremonial merchandise is sold, stuff for altars and festival occasions. In between, we took the paintings that Patrick and his wife, Kelly bought at the temple to my favorite framing place and it turned out super cheap for them.

We finished our day at Bia Hoi (draught beer) with grilled dried squid in the old quarter. I had a brilliant day with them and I guess it was a unique thing to do on a honeymoon.

The Disappearance of Wet Markets

There is no doubt that wet markets in Vietnam are indeed part of the culture, as much a feature of the country as street vendors. These days, however, these wet markets are being threatened by development and it may be that their days are numbered.

In Hanoi, in recent years, many of the city's biggest central wet markets have been knocked down and replaced by commercial office and retail complexes. Obviously we don't want to live in the dark ages in Vietnam but it would be nice to think that the authorities could attempt to maintain certain aspects of this unique part of our heritage. Many Hanoians have been patronising these markets for their whole lives, have established friendships with their regular vendors and their day is not complete without a stroll (or two) through the market each day to pick up the ingredients for lunch or dinner.

Even for me, a beach boy who's been living in Hanoi for ten years, the speed of change and development has been pretty remarkable. The number of cars clogging the streets, especially the narrow ones of the Old Quarter, makes life difficult. Crossing the street is not so easy and the charm of this special part of Hanoi is getting lost in the noise and pace of modern life. I still enjoy my trips to the remaining wet markets but they're getting harder to find and harder to get to.

Of course, some of the big retail and commercial office complexes have permitted the market vendors to operate in the basement of these buildings. But for regular customers, for the older people and even me, we don't really like shopping in such a strange environment?

Maybe I'm weird but I do like to shop in a real market and choose my own produce from my friendly market vendors.

Braised Eggplant with Pork

Like most Vietnamese people, I can cook some basic daily dishes but I really enjoy cooking for my good friends. I love trying new recipes but I always put my own interpretation in there and don't always follow the recipes or the rules for cooking. Luckily the dishes normally turn out pretty tasty. I would like to introduce this recipe on our Street Food Tour website one of the dish called Braised Eggplant With Pork. I cooked it over the weekend for some friends.

Cooking Vietnamese food doesn't take lots of time or preparation. I cut preparation time by asking my vegie vendor, who is fantastic, peel and sometimes chop the vegetables at the market. This dish takes next to no time to prepare but the key is allowing the eggplants to soften and take on the other flavours.

For 4 to 6 people:
Eggplant 4 : slice into batons
Pork 200 grams : slice into batons
Gala Thau - Pickled dried radish : slice into batons
Ginger : thinly sliced
Chilli : thinly sliced
Onion : diced
Garlic : finely chopped
Chicken powder
Oyster sauce
Sugar
Soya sauce
Coriander to garnish

Stir fry the eggplants in oil for a few minutes for color and tenderness then put them on a plate. Stir fry garlic, add pork then Gala Thau for three minutes. Add chicken powder, oyster sauce, a little bit of sugar and soya sauce. Keep stir frying for 5 minutes then return the eggplants, ginger, onion and chilli and stir fry for a minute or two more.

I think this is such an easy (but very tasty) dish in which eggplants are the star.