Day 4 (Back to Hanoi) - Triple Breakfast for the Hungry Souls?

Continuation from Day 3 - An Even Harder Path in Sapa, Vietnam ....

Pho Bo Gia Truyen @ 49, Bat Dan Street, Old Quarters, Hanoi - One of the BEST around?

For those who might be complaining/throwing tantrums/tearing the house down (heh) reading Motormouth From Ipoh only to discover more and more posts on travelling and sceneries, sans mouth-watering shots of sumptuous food (Oh Glorious Food!) can heave a sigh of relief, at long last .....

Opens daily from 6.30 am onwards, catering mostly to the BREAKFAST crowd. Don't come during lunch hours. But they open for dinner as well.

Vietnam boasts such an amazing repertoire of noodle dishes, from Pho Bo to Pho Ga, and Bun Cha to Bun Rieu. Sounds alien eh? They're mostly noodles with soup, and served either with beef (bo), chicken (ga) pork, seafood, or even with beancurd or plain vegetables.

Among all the selections above, the most famous one has to be the Pho Bo, (sounds similar to Fur-Ball) or Vietnamese Beef Noodle with Soup. Probably attained the status of National Dish of sorts (you can even find those so-called Vietnamese Beef Noodle almost everywhere in KL nowadays .... sans the authenticity), Pho Bo is commonly eaten by the Vietnamese community for breakfast, warming their stomachs in order to brace themselves for the day to come.

A heartwarming bowl of beef noodles, with an abundance of tender beef slices, and beef tendons, topped with various garnishings such as chopped scallions and coriander sprigs

Stepping into the shop at 6.30am, the place was thankfully half-filled only, rendering us with a choice of several nice tables for 6. But the ironic thing was that, only 50% of us eat beef, while the other half were scrunching up their faces, proclaiming SINS to all beef-eaters, and proceeded to pray on the behalf of us to "lessen our sins" and lectured on the sacrifices cows/bulls make for the comfort of mankind .... and yadda yadda ..... LOL.

They were forced to sit with us, as arriving by train from Lao Cai to Hanoi, we arrived rather early, at an unGodly hour of 5.30am. Thus, our rooms were not available yet, and sitting around in the lobby for TWO hours was clearly not the most clever thing to do.

The blurry shot was because the Pho Bo was emanating (bellowing?!) such thick smoke, as they're all freshly prepared on the spot, so be assured of a piping hot bowl of Pho Bo

We were seated, and waited patiently for our orders to be taken. No menu, no English translation, and even the staff were struggling with their command of the language. After about 5 minutes of wait, we were signalled to the stall in front of the shop. Oh, it's SELF-SERVICE, it seemed! Okay .... but it was indeed rather tricky carrying a bowl of hot noodle soup, almost overflowing with ingredients and soup.

As there was NO English translation on the menu hanging on the wall above the stall, I simply pointed to the beef slices (raw, reddish and oh-so-tempting! ... almost bleeding mash of beef meat) and beef tendons, and indicated I wanted 3 bowls of the same stuff.

The portion can easily feed 2, as they do not skimp on the noodles nor the beef. The beef was very tender, and the tendons were delicious and not overly chewy/stuck-to-teeth type, and the smooth rice noodles cooked in the clear but fragrant and sweet broth was delicious. The rich stock boiled from the bones and various parts of the cow was evidently the sole flavouring agent, imparting the bowl of beef noodles with such sweet and wholesome taste. Of course there's no bird's eye chillies (cili padi) with soy sauce here, but the orange-coloured chillies made a nice accompaniment to the dish, as were the fried dough sticks (Yau Char Kwai, to us M'sians).

A bowl at 30,000 Dong/RM6/USD1.70, not exactly the cheapest option around, but you're really getting what you paid for.

Location : PHO BO GIA TRUYEN @ 49, Bat Dan Street, Hoen Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam. Opens for breakfast and dinner. Try avoid peak hours (7am onwards for instance) as the place would be packed to the brim!

Banh My Stall @ 51, Hang Dieu, Old Quarters, Hanoi

Of course, since only half of the entourage had eaten, the other 3 were on the verge of fuming with growling tummies to boot! :)

And due to unfavourable news about bird flu attacks in Vietnam back then, we were rather apprehensive when it comes to chicken dishes, such as Pho Ga (Chicken Noodle Soup), and grilled chicken and such from the Chicken Street at Ly Van Phuc.

Next best option? PORK of course! In the form of sandwiches, or Banh My (pronounced as Barn-Mee). Oven-toasted baguette bread with a choice of pork, beef or egg as filling.

My baguette with pork pate, meat (ala Char Siew), lots of coriander and some chilli sauce. The drink is called Tao Pho, soybean curd + soy bean drink

The baguette bread was toasted before serving, hence you can be assured of crispy exterior and warm, fluffy centre. The pork pate was a tad salty, but flavourful, while the pork meat had a red perimeter, resembling our very own Char Siew. But the fatty portion may be a put-off factor to some. The fresh coriander leaves lent a fresh, green hint to the sandwich, while the chilli is the typical garlic-chilli sauce commonly available in Malaysia.

Tao Pho is the interesting combination of Tau Fu Fa (soybean curd) + soy bean drink, but to an extent, complete each other perfectly. Priced at only 5000 Dong/RM1/USD0.30 per glass, the drink is refreshing enough to counter the moisture loss from all the walking and trekking. The sandwich was priced at 8000 Dong/RM1.60/USD0.45, a cheap treat compared to the noodles.

Location : Banh My @ 51, Hang Dieu, Old Quarters, Hanoi.

Cafe 61, Bat Su Street

After the double breakfasts, we were longing for some beverage (Milo Kosong?! Teh tarik?! Kopi C Kaw?!) to down the grease and perk up our senses.

Squat/sit on those plastic stools, with taller plastic chairs as tables ..... a typical scene at Hanoi's cafes ....

Curious to see large crowds gathering at the porches of cafes along the streets of Old Quarters, we gave in to temptation and joined the locals for a cup of THICK coffee, with or without milk. (10000 Dong/RM2/USD0.60 per glass)

A shot of caffeine with condensed milk pre-stirred .....


And Kopi-O EXTRA KAW!!!!!! with sugar to tamper the bitterness

The strong coffee was an eye-opener in every sense of the word. Jolted up our half-hibernating state, and supplementing me with the kick I needed to start my day .....

He's Da Boss of the cafe ...... with his own shot, and a smoke

With that .... our day in Hanoi started on a slightly "higher" note ...... :)

What are these people lining up for?

To be continued .....