Dinner @ Vua Cha Ca

Hanoi - It was still pouring and when we reach the restaurant it took us 1hr in the grab taxi.   

Dinner with DTAsia team

Cha Ga is usually made with snakehead, a freshwater fish found across Vietnam, cha ca is considered one of Hanoi's signature dishes. The marinade -- a mix of turmeric, garlic, shallots, galangal (similar to ginger root), salt, sugar and fish sauce.  

Cha Ga

Mixed the marinated slices of fish with spring onions and Dill herbs.   Once cooked eat this dish with rice noodle and dipping sauce.

fermented prawn dipping sauce

The DTAsia team was surprise I like this dish - I like a lot of fermented food from Kimchi, tempe , etc.  This is like Singapore's Belachan - this Hanoi fermented shrimp paste is called Mam Tom.  Mam Tom is not for the faint of heart. It has a strong and pungent smell. It’s made from a mixture of fermented shrimp paste, fresh crushed garlic, water and lemon juice. 

Lunch @ Al Fresco's

Hanoi - A short walk from Sheraton Hanoi is this Italian restaurant Al Fresco's that has been in Hanoi since 1996 and now a chain of restaurants under the AFG group.

me and Willy 

Pygmy ribs platter

6 pieces of pork ribs and only one rib is tender.  Cannot match the tenderness of Tony Roma's baby back ribs.  But they are still very delicious with good marinating of the pork.  The potato wedges is hot and crispy with the dipping sauce makes a perfect match.

Heavy downpour in Hanoi

 Hanoi - Today the skies opened and it was a heavy downpour.  From my hotel room you are able to see dark skies and flood streets.

Streets in Hanoi flooded

Dark skies 

Sheraton Hanoi courtyard

Dinner @ Nam Phuong restaurant

Hanoi - Willy and I went to this Hanoi fine dinning restaurant recommended by our Hotel, Sheraton Hanoi.   The ambiance was classy with traditional musicians playing at the floor below us.

traditional musical instruments

Willy and I 

Fresh spring rolls

Chayote leaves

Chayote leaves are small to medium in size and thin, broad, and heart-shaped, approximately 10-25 centimeters wide. The vibrant green leaves have a sandpaper-like texture and have 3-5 pointed lobes with small thin tendrils attached near or at the base of the stem. Chayote leaves grow on a perennial climbing plant that has stems that can reach up to ten meters in length. Chayote leaves are crisp and juicy with a mild, sweet, and grassy flavor with mellow undertones of cucumber.

Chayote fruit belongs to the gourd family.

Pork ribs garnished with garlic

Fried rice with crab meat

A pleasant environment but the food looks simple with a high price tag.   Not worth coming here again.

Lunch at Nihonkai Sushi - near Sheraton Hotel Hanoi

 Hanoi - Today was a tight schedule of meetings, so we had our lunch within the vicinity of Sheraton Hotel Hanoi.   Surprise to me that there isn't many Vietnamese restaurants around the hotel as there are many expatriates living in this area - known to many in Hanoi as rich township.   

Tuna sashimi platter 

Seafood ramen

Sushi Unagi with avacado

A reasonably priced Japanese food with quality taste - 3 dishes was enough for the two of us

Dinner @ Nhà Hàng Tôm Hùm Seafood - fine dining lobster restaurant

 Hanoi - Mike from DTAsia invited us to this fancy seafood restaurant - we had a private room to enjoy and ambiance and company.

Extracting lobster blood

A lobster's blood is usually greyish/clear in colour. It is circulated by a heart located just behind the stomach, through a few large blood vessels.   Lobster's blood is colourless and when exposed to oxygen it turns to a tint of blue. The blue hue is due to the iron the lobster's body used to transport oxygen.

The restaurant will use the blood to cook the dishes for us.

Willy, Mike, Edmund and me

deep fried fish skin topped with prawns

farmed snails

These farmed snails were baked and dipped in sauce tasted delicious.

Fresh spring rolls

salmon with sea grapes

Salmon sashimi

stewed beef on hot plate

Lobster with cheese

It was one lobster divided into 4 pieces and baked in cheese.   

Pumpkin porridge with lobster

Tanks of lobsters

Lunch @ Quan An Ngon restaurant

 Hanoi - The food is always good at Quan An Ngon - since 2005 the novelty of preparing in a street setting style open pavilion serving authentic Vietnamese regional cuisines.  The menu offers a wide variety of popular dishes from Vietnam’s three main regions – South, Central Highlands, and North – the specialist chefs at each stall within Quan An Ngon use only the best quality locally sourced fresh produce for their preparations. 

With casual communal seating at large wooden bench tables arrayed across the courtyard, guests at Quan An Ngon are immersed in the preparation of the dishes. Quan An Ngon is always packed and sometimes a short wait is required for a table.  

Entrance of Quan An Ngon

Fish dish

Escargot with lemon grass

This is always my favourite dish cooked in lemon grass when I was in HCMC.

Fresh spring roll

Vietnamese pancake

We had to wait a long time for this pancake as it is a very popular dish amongst patrons - the server had to help cut the pancake to edible slices.

Always packed

Hong Hoai restaurant

 Hanoi - Willy did a search and found this restaurant on google as a popular choice.   Most of their patrons are foreigners probably read the same google reviews.  

Stewed local fish in claypot

This dish had pieces of pork and fish but tasted not tender even though it mentioned stewed.   

Green papaya salad with chicken

This was a good dish with sliced green papaya tossed with chicken and peanuts.

Beef rolled in wild betel leaves

Betel leaves are a powerhouse of antioxidants that clear radicals from the body. It restores normal PH levels in the body and helps an upset stomach.   Betel leaves is not to be confused with Betel nut - the Betel nut is cancerous.

The betel nut is the seed of the areca, or betel, palm (Areca catechu), family Arecaceae, and the betel leaf is from the betel pepper, or pan plant (Piper betle), family Piperaceae.

This was a delicious dish and we ordered another similar but with Pork.

Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in The French Quarter of Hanoi

Hanoi - The French Quarter and its famed colonial charm is what sets Hanoi apart from Ho Chi Minh.  This place was built by the French when Hanoi was the capital of French Indochina (1887 - 1954).   This walking trial around French Quarter brings up many old colonial building and one of them is the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel.   

Outside Metropole Hotel

This iconic hotel blends a heritage colonial style with neo-classical luxury and a dash of modernity, you'll find an elegance during your stay you're unlikely to experience anywhere else. 

Edmund celery drink

Chocolates 

Tea time @ Metropole

Hanoi Train Street

 Hanoi - After our Pho Cuon lunch, we took a grab taxi to Hanoi most dangerous street - Hanoi’s Train Street is Vietnam’s surprisingly most famous street.  It’s a tiny narrow street hidden in one of the back streets of Hanoi and surrounded by high narrow houses packed closely together. These families’ backyards are the railways where the train passes a few times per day. 

the railway tracks

A photo on the infamous train track

The reason I wanted to come and see how close the train was when it passes us and it was literally a meter away from the houses. The safety line (marked with yellow color) is only about 20 centimeters away from the homes, and that’s the line you shouldn’t cross when the train is coming.

Before the train arrives, tourist was walking up and down the tracks - taking photos. But all of sudden, a loud airhorn sounded and a man shouting in Vietnamese to get all tourists off the tracks.   The tourist went scrambling back to their chairs to get a good view of the passing train.

The cafes are nicely decorated and colourful to attract the tourist.  They are so vibrant, full of flowers, art, paintings, and all kinds of decorations. You can sit down just a meter away from the tracks, or even choose a spot upstairs where you get a higher perspective of the passing train.

Willy cheers to the passing train

Our drinks 

In October 2019, visiting it as a tourist was presumably banned because of the railway operators’ previous problems. What caused the final ban was when the train had to make an emergency stop to avoid hitting tourists.   But the covid pandemic changed everything, businesses and cafes were allowed to operate once again.   I was to say very fortunate to be here to see this train passing.

Mooncake & mid summer celebration in Vietnam

Hanoi - In Vietnam, nibbling on mooncakes and sipping tea with loved ones is an essential part of the Mid-autumn Festival, called Tết Trung Thu.  As long as we can remember, it’s tradition to serve golden baked mooncakes and soft sticky rice mooncakes — on the night of the harvest moon.  I was fortunate to be in Vietnam during this festival, and experienced the fun of this mooncake celebration.