14.04.2014Hanoi – Running Errands

We arrived at the Hanoi train station around 5am. Luckily it was only a short walk to our hotel and we had organized an early check-in.
Our main occupation during the first two days in Hanoi was catching up on washing our clothes and organizing outings. These will be coming up in our next couple posts.
Of course we had to eat too, so this post mostly covers the food we ate and the sights we saw while running around the city 🙂

The first place we visited was “Bun Bo Nam Bo” which serves a damn fine bowl of the noodley loveliness we were after. The name “Bun Bo Nam Bo” literally means “Southern beef noodle”. However that is the name the people from the north call it (Hanoi is in the north of Vietnam). In the south of Vietnam this dish is just called “grilled beef noodle”. I guess it is similar to New York pizza you can get everywhere, but in New York 🙂

So what is it?
The dish is based on “bun” noodles which are thin spaghetti-like rice noodles which are placed inside a bowl on top of a bed of fresh lettuce. This is topped with bean sprouts, onions and stir-fry of beef marinated in sugar, fish sauce and pepper among other seasonings. Delicious broth is poured over all of this and chopped roasted peanuts and dried shallots are sprinkled over the top. Some fresh local mint leaves make it in there as well.
Once it is served, you get to add fresh chilies or chili-sauce to your taste and a squirt of lime juice. You lap it up with chopsticks and use a spoon for the broth.

What we liked about this dish is that there is no oil or fat involved at all. They use the lean beef filet meat and the entire dish feels healthy, green and fresh.

Once again it was time for Andy to get a haircut. This time in Hanoi:

We passed “Huc Bridge”, the bridge of sighs which spans Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem lake and is a popular sight, even for the Hanoi-ans:

And wondered the streets of Hanoi on our ways organizing the outings and visits of the upcoming days:

We never missed an opportunity to try new dishes and by now were convinced that Vietnam was one of our favorite food places.

We made use of these couple days to get our gear and ourselves back on track. Also we were looking forward to the upcoming events we had organized. Among others we would be enjoying a Hanoian food tour, exploring Halong Bay, visiting a traditional Ca Tru show and the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater before we would enjoy some luxury…