Hanoi Street Food

I have never seen food as cheap as it was in Vietnam.  I can understand why it is such a destination for tourists, young and old.  For a few dollars, one could get a very good nutritious meal on the streets.  It could be for this reason that the Vietnamese ate out a lot.   Street stalls could be quite elaborate with multiple choices of meat and vegetables like the one you see below.  Customers sat on little red stools behind the stall.

Or it could be a moveable feast on a street corner with a more limited choice.  But it is still obvious that beef and sea food were on the menu.

This one was off the street and the food was behind glass.  Expect to pay a little more but still very inexpensive.

Chinese style barbeque

and Doner Kebab was right at home here!

Our guide took us on an early morning breakfast tour of street food.  This stall specialized in rice rolls (Banh cuon nong).  Here  the chef was pouring the batter onto the steamer.

The batter cooked almost right away as it was spread thin like a crepe.

A long chopstick was used to roll and lift the crepe off the pan

He placed the crepe on an inverted wicker basket and filled it.

And voila - our rice rolls, the thinnest crepe ever with a filling of mushroom, pork, onion and served with mint.  The Vietnamese used mint extensively.

This is Hang Chieu alley - food stalls heaven.  Our next stop was at this woman's stall.  We had Bun Ca To - vermicelli with fish in a soup that had 20 ingredients!

These wraps looked delicious, paper thin wrappers and finely chopped ingredients

This is a dessert stall!

Specially prepared chicken for wedding

This is where the locals eat breakfast too

Right in the middle of the street motor cycle parking - a cardboard box around a portable stove with an open flame used to warm up baguettes and fry eggs and pancakes!  Can it get more dangerous!?  But no one batted an eye!

Choice selection of seafood and meat

This is where we had our early lunch - Bun Cha - BBQ pork - 

grilled on wood fire

The BBQ pork was dipped in an intensely flavoured soup - sugar, fish sauce, vinegar - in sharp contrast to the plain rice noodles that was served with it.  It was so delicious!  I had requested this particular food because I remembered my dad used to make this when we were young.  He made the bbq pork in the oven and we had a sauce to dip the pork in - but nothing like this intense soup!

It was quite a morning of street food adventure!