Last Day in Hanoi

For our last day in Hanoi, we decided to take it easy as the heat and humidity of the afternoons were starting to wear us down. After a light breakfast at the hotel, we make our way to the Temple of Literature, about 1.7kms away. Although we started early, the humidity had the same idea. As we reached the gates of the Temple and already, we were feeling it.

The Temple of Literature is an actual temple amongst a collection of smaller courtyards and gardens. Flanking both sides of the entire garden are rows of ancient stelae that chronicles the history of education and literature of ancient Vietnam, right down to specific names of those who were successful in achieving the empire's first doctorates back in the early 1600s. Unfortunately for us, most of the translation plaques for the stelae are exclusively in Vietnamese, so we could only piece together some of the information from other signage around the garden.

Still, it was indeed interesting to visit a site with such well documented history. But the heat was getting to both Helen and I, so we left shortly after making a full circuit. Appropriately, we witness a graduating class celebrating by the front gates of the Temple of Literature. How cool is that?

For the rest of the day, Helen and I planned on tracking down a couple of joints that Anthony Bourdain checked out on his last visit to Hanoi: a pho place that he returns to every time he is in town, and a small eatery that only serves one main dish... steamed rice rolls stuffed with seasoned pork and herbs.

As we make our way back to the heart of the Old Quarter, Helen is getting worried that I'm overheating. I felt ok, but apparently I was getting really red. We took the opportunity to duck into a kind of lounge/bar because it looked like they had the air conditioning cranked.

Some of you know that I am a really big Bourdain fan. He is all at once, honest, awkward, self-deprecating, and values the fact that good cuisine is both an art and product of pure hard work. He hates the trendy, cliche, and unsubstantially tacky. I bring this up because this particular establishment is exactly what Bourdain would hate; everything from the faux-French decor, uncoordinated drink menu, and most prominently, the lounge soundtrack of continuous love songs... we're talking the really sappy stuff... the stuff that pretty much made the karaoke industry. Careless Whisper, Right Her Waiting, Endless Love, etc... it was craptastically amazing.

And like Bourdain sometimes does, or has to do when faced with so much tackiness - I embraced it. I thought, "Well we're here... may as well get into it!" So, I went ahead and ordered foofoo drinks to go with the foofoo lounge:

A pina colada and a Blue Hawaiian!

They actually turned out ok... mostly because they were very heavy pours. Nothing like a couple of island drinks to get me over sunstroke.

Moving on, we head straight over for some steamed rice rolls. We snag a table in the tiny eatery and wonder how we can order since we don't speak the language. Luckily, since they don't really serve anything else, Helen throws up two fingers for two orders and they show up momentarily. Helen also notices they have some side dishes to accompany the rice rolls and so she orders some of the roast pork as well... to go with the pork-stuffed rice rolls. That's right...pork on pork action.

These bad boys are tasty indeed. They are similar to the rice rolls you would get at dim sum, but much lighter and more savoury, thanks to the garnish of fried onions and garlic chips. The steamed rice rolls were soft but still retained a slight elasticity, but not so much that you would have to fight it. They were just thick enough to hold the delicious savoury pork filling cooked with what I think is in part, a fish sauce; but thin enough that it does not overpower the rest of the dish with rice flour flavour like at some lesser quality dim sum places. The mint leaves helped brighten each bite and balanced out the savouriness of the filling itself. The fish sauce for dipping with fresh garlic and sliced chilis added another level of umami as well. We found ourselves finishing both plates before we knew it.

And this is where the magic happens:

We decided to leave the pho joint until dinner. We headed back to the hotel to cower from the heat. As the afternoon passed, a thunder shower rolled in and made a real mess of the streets. Helen and I decided to just grab something really quick at the place across from our hotel. Again, it caters to a lot of tourists, so we anticipated compromised versions of what we wanted for our last meal in Hanoi. We were happily surprised.

Helen went for the chicken noodle soup again, while I went with the Saigon Bun Cha; a bowl of rice noodles topped with sliced pork and a garden full of lettuce and herbs. I pour the fish cause over my noodles and instantly smell the saltiness and garlic that makes this Vietnamese staple so inviting. I stuff as much of everything into my first bite and was rewarded. The mint, green onions and cilantro made each bite incredibly herbacious, and held up nicely to the spicy sauce and grilled pork.

I would have cleaned my bowl except we also ordered Hanoi spring rolls and banh xeo; an egg crepe-like omlette filled, in this case, with bean sprouts, shaved white onions, and mung beans.

The server took the time to deomnstrate how to do eat this properly. I've done this a couple of times in places local to Vancouver, and I've seen the lettuce used to wrap the segments of the omlette. Here, there is the added element of rice paper rolls... to which holds the lettuce, mint, then omlette. The whole thing gets rolled in the rice paper, and dipped in another variation of fish sauce, except this time with ginger instead of garlic. Totally satisfying.

To finish my meal, I decided to step it up and throw a spring roll into my roll and tightly wrapped it into a stubby cigar:

Then dipped it into as much sauce as the surface could hold:

Then took it down... took it down to Chinatown...

So, although Helen and I didn't get to try the pho joint we were hunting for earlier in the day, we still had an incredible meal. Prior to this trip, I think I was obsessed with finding the "best of..." or the "most of..." anything. Spending a few days in Hong Kong and Vietnam reminded me that indeed, if you visit places that take pride in their food, and cultivate a culture of sharing that pride, you will eat well pretty much anywhere in the city. And, eat well we did.

Thank you Hanoi for a thoroughly enjoyable few days. We look forward to more of the same (but different) as we move on to Hoi An.