Good wee Hanoi photo gallery from Vietnam-based snapper Aidan Dockery accompanies a Hanoi advertising travel piece in USA Today. The shot above comes from the famous Cha La Vong restaurant on Cha ca street in the capital's old town. I had the "same" dish in London a couple of weeks ago. I'll blog about that soon.
This from late last month, forgot to post at the time - street vendors banned from Hanoi's thoroughfares - interesting factoid in the article;
According to the Asian Development Bank project, Making Markets Work Better for the Poor, an estimated 5,000 mobile vendors – mostly women - operate in the city centre.
But, what of the impact ont he folks doing the selling? All a bit unclear,
From 1 July, Lan will no longer be able to sell her packets of sticky rice in the city because street vendors will be banned from commercial streets. Lan says her family will starve.
"We will all go hungry," Lan says. "We are poor people. We have no land. We are dependent upon the street."
Mobile vendors have been an integral part of Hanoi's street life for centuries. Women in conical straw hats, balancing twin baskets suspended from bamboo poles, are one of the city's most enduring images...
...But not everyone sees the ban as spelling the vendors' demise. The status of Hanoi's street hawkers is very murky, says Paule Moustier, a food marketing researcher with CIRAD, the French institute that studies agriculture in Asia. One regulation calls it illegal and another one taxes it with the Green Ticket.
So has the latest law on street vendors crawling the streets of Hanoi had any impact? Not according to the latest snaps coming in from Flickr.
Possibly my favourite Vietnam story this year,
Vietnamese authorities say they are mystified as to who owns a Boeing 727 which has been abandoned at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport. The plane was flown in from Siem Reap in neighbouring Cambodia in late 2007 and has been unclaimed ever since. link
Maybe the cops should hit the "villas" of gia lam to try and locate the owner :)
Hanoi crazy night traffic from v!Nc3sl4s on Vimeo.
Hehe. Hanoi. Takes me back that. Thought I'd see more cars. I lived on this intersection in 1997. Bonkers.
"Although the humidity and haze of Hanoi is a million miles away from the chilly spring of central Europe, Hanoians can treat themselves to a taste of the Czech Republic at Hoa Vien Brauhaus restaurant, which just opened a new branch in the capital city. HCM City has been home to one branch of the Czech bar Hoa Vien since 2001 and Hanoi has had one for more than a decade. But that one was much smaller, located at 8 Ngoc Ha Street. The new building in Vietnam’s capital is much bigger and more modern. At the grand opening of the new building, I was allowed a sneak preview of the Czech bar and restaurant. It was packed with guests; Vietnamese people who had lived in the former Czechoslovakia and also many Czech nationals including Ambassador to Viet Nam Ivo Zdarek," writes Thanh Ha in The Vietnam News.
"With over 100 Western and Vietnamese meals on the menu, ABC Fast Food has something for everyone. And while the surroundings won’t leave you in awe, the prices will, says Jessica Gray. There are few restaurants I frequent here in Hanoi, but ABC Fast Food is one of them. With over 100 western and Vietnamese dishes, there’s always something new to eat at a reasonable price to boot. To start, I recommend trying the fried spring rolls. The crispy, bite-sized treats are an ABC speciality. I guarantee you’ll be wanting more as soon as they’re gone, a phenomena that usually happens in about five minutes," from the Vietnam News.
"When the Dong Son Drum Restaurant opened three months ago, people weren’t sure what to expect from an eatery filled with 2,000-year-old artefacts in the northwest corner of Hanoi. Beyond its ornate decorations and display cases is a highly professional staff and tasty treats from a one-of-a-kind restaurant, located on the second floor of a private museum. Owner Nguyen Dai Duong, who’s name means the ocean, is the son of a sailor. Also the owner of the New Century Club in downtown Hanoi, Duong said he opened Dong Son to showcase his collection of bronze drums made about 2,000 years ago in central Vietnam," writes Nguyen My Ha in The Vietnam News.
Interesting to see a review of Pho Thin at 13 Lo Duc street in Hanoi in the Vietadvertorialnam News,
"I have a confession to make: for the first three months I lived in Hanoi, I didn’t especially like pho... But then I tried Pho Thin at 13 Lo Duc Street. After my first bite (slurp?), I knew this was not just any pho. It tasted entirely different from any I’d ever tried: the beef was lean and tender, the broth flavourful and aromatic. I dived into my bowl and ate until not a noodle remained. As I discovered on a subsequent visit to Pho Thin at 8.30am, I’m far from the only one who thinks this is the best pho around."
I'll admit I used to think this way until I visited Saigon... since when I was converted/enlightened/brainwashed - take you pick. (UPDATE: Sticky Rice has the full skinny - see comments). I noticed one factual error in Julie Ginsberg's review and I've corrected the sentence. See below,
"We do business with our hearts," he said. "Our priority is pleasing our customers, not making money or spending so much as one measley little shilling of our money on doing this shit pit of a soup shack up or letting rentokill loose for an hour or two. No siree. You want comfort then you can bugger off to the Hilton."
"Tucked away on a side street west of West Lake is a little bar where the American War is remembered with a giant arsenal of memorabilia. Old military uniforms, antiquated army equipment and defused bombs are scattered around NoK Bar along with hundreds of other vintage objects from an era that is understandably still a sensitive topic in modern Vietnam. Visitors to Hanoi who are interested in local history and culture but shell-shocked after spending too much time in the Old Quarter’s tourist traps will find NoK to be a handy retreat," writes Michael Libucha for the Vietnam News.
Spend $5 in Hanoi. I spotted this stall pictured above. I can certainly vouch for it, especially in the winter. But, banh goi are not samosas, not even close :) but they are fried. And they're quite a different animal in Saigon.
