Some of us eat to live, some of us live to eat, and then there are the Vietnamese.
From the looks and smell of things in the streets, Hanoians embrace eating the way Americans embrace work and Europeans embrace holidays – as a birthright and source of boundless pleasure. At every hour, sidewalk stalls and food shops in the Old Quarter are jammed with people squatting on pee-wee stools or rickety chairs sipping coffee drinks, slurping pho, licking ice cream or sinking their teeth into banh mi, often as bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, maybe even a train whizzes by.
Doris kept saying she’d never been anywhere that smelled so good. Merely sticking our heads out our hotel room window made us hungry.
It wasn’t just the resplendent produce spread for sale on street curbs or the staggering numbers of vendors or the mindboggling array of beverages or any single thing that was so arresting. It was everything – from product delivery through food preparation to the way people openly savored meals, often while noisily chatting and laughing in groups.
It was fresh produce delivered on bicycles . . .
Fresh meat delivered by motorbike . . .
It was vendors churning out hundreds of dishes a day on makeshift stoves in the middle of sidewalks and washing up the pots later in buckets of soapy water at the curbs . . .
It was a single cook whipping up sizzling pancakes for customers who have sought her out on the same spot for 30 years . . .
And bustling food shops and restaurants barely wider than the hallway of an average American house . . .
It was food that appeared to be as much social currency as sustenance, a way of sharing life. Even coffee drinks (milk coffee, sweetened milk coffee, egg coffee, coconut coffee, yogurt coffee and, yes, weasel coffee) are a thing of beauty never to be carried around in a paper cup but to be savored for an hour or more, preferably with friends or family or both.
Specialization is the norm. Each of the hundreds (thousands?) of food stalls and shops prepares and serves only one dish. The eel shop serves eel, the duck shop serves duck.
At the pancake stall, we ate shrimp pancakes and pillow pancakes. At the spring roll shop, only spring rolls. Satisfying a hankering for anything – donuts, noodles, pho – requires searching out the vendor or shop that specializes in that one thing. (How a group ever decides where to go out together is beyond us.)
As an agricultural powerhouse with a significant Buddhist population, it’s no accident vegetables often take center stage in Vietnamese dishes and that they take forms we rarely if ever see at home.
At the Michelin-anointed restaurant Cồ Đàm Chay that our San Diego friends Donna and Howie steered (more like commanded) us to visit, the ethos of specializing in a limited number of dishes, all built with the freshest possible products, was the same, just turned into art.
A picture may be worth a thousand words but even the best pictures cannot convey fragrance and taste.
For that, Ha Noi awaits. Bon appetite.
WHO KNEW?!?
The movie Barbie has never been shown in Vietnam because of a squiggle. The squiggle is the “nine-dash line,” a U-shaped demarcation China zigs and zags onto maps to assert its claim to about 90% of the South China Sea including a number of islands Vietnam counts as its own. Vietnam’s maps eliminate the line. Because of a flicker on the screen when Barbie stands in front of a map where the nine-dash line is visible, the film was deemed “offensive political imagery” by the Vietnamese government and banned.
Partout with Louis & Doris 
Great!
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Great story, Beautiful pictures!
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This city is such a testament to resilience. It teaches us so much about the human spirit.Vicki
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Thanks so much! How is your back?
Jeff
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Louis’s back surgery made him a new man, Dr. Larson, and there’s no end to adventures, thanks to you!
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Do you have to be careful about eating anything, eg dairy or fresh washed vegetables due to the water? Years ago we avoided those in Cambodia but still had one nasty reaction from street food.
But even if you can’t eat it it’s beautiful to see and smell!
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Ya know, Vicki, as a newsman on the road for 40 years, Louis followed an iron-clad policy of never eating street food. Because it always looks so good, we have modified the policy to give ourselves permission to eat it on outings with locals. In Ho Chi Minh City last year, we took a motor scooter tour of the city (each of us behind a driver) that included wonderful street food. The guide told us it takes a local to know where we could eat safely. We often don’t eat raw produce like lettuce even in restaurants and hotels in many parts of the world, but we have not needed to take that precaution in Asia so fare. We have eaten with abandon in three countries now, without ill effect. (And may that statement not jinx us! Nothing is worse on the road than traveler gut.)
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Hi Doris and Louis, This is a wonderful documentary of Viet Nam travels. I love it.
I have a question: As you know, we now have a Viet Namese/American branch of the family that has not been back for 30+ years, although they have frequent visitors from Viet Nam.
I wonder if they might follow your trip via Facebook? It might be interesting to hear about how things are from an American point of view, currently.
Thanks dears! Sharon
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Hi, Sharon, and what a great idea for your extended family. Anyone who receives email can subscribe to the blog by clicking https://louisanddorispartout.com/subscribe/ and filling in the blanks. Googling https://louisanddorispartout.com/ will bring up the blog any time. Our newest blog will always be the one at the top.
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Good Morning – I read this while eating shredded wheat, and some how, my experience was elevated! Loved the pictures – my favorite is the fresh fruit on the bicycle.
As for Barbie, she will make a statement where ever she goes.
Take care, have fun and see you soon,
Ann
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I’m salivating from reading your post.
everything looks delicious. But good luck in crossing those streets
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I see I completely had my fingers on the wrong keys, there. I’m Gwenn Marie!!!
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Oh so so so and even more so splendid, this piece! Now I’m remembering the amazing foods we ate in Laos, but I can’t now recall. Something wrapped in a banana leaf, filled with something ground out in an upside down shaped colander thing. It’ll come to me later. And of course the coffee. Didn’t try weasel or any of the others you mention, but of course we brought home the apparatus.
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WOW, my taste buds are truly jealous!! Great story (foodie!!) and the photos are so evocative. Thanks for getting us out and about!!!
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Gre
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Louis. Il était temps que tu retournes au Vietnam, juste pour tes photos magnifiques. Pour y avoir été, je revois cette endroit très photogénique.
Bonne continuation.
Suzanne
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