One of the highlights of my time in Vietnam was the food. Another great place to sample interesting dishes that don’t cost much. Here were some favourites:
Hanoi
The Devil’s dumplings, or so I named them! Doughnut-type things that I accidentally bought. The lady gave me one to try before I had realised that this is the ploy to pressgang you into buying some:
Vietnamese coffee. Very nice:
This meal (below) was from a very good restaurant in Hanoi, except the only veggie option I could find on the menu turned out to be off. I gave in and had these Hanoi special prawn things and a chicken noodle soup dish:
Tam Coc (near Ninh Binh)
Vietnamese egg coffee… ooooooh this was goooood! Sweet, with egg white fluffed into it:
Smoothie:
Delicious tofu and papaya salad dish, with a characteristic sweet chilli type sauce. Really really tasty!:
The waitress gave me a couple of little bananas, I think as an apology for having muddled up my drink earlier. These little bananas (green and yellow) were growing everywhere in Ninh Binh.
Ninh Binh
An enormous plate of shredded cabbage and carrot, with noodles and soy sauce and some other kind of flavours made a great lunch one day in a backpackers pub place opposite a beautiful lake:
Breakfast at Mai Spa Homestay – the best banh my Vietnamese sandwich I had. With pork here and omelette. Nice coffee too:
Our meal prepared with lots of teamwork at the Homestay was a real highlight of my whole trip:
And the 🥇 veggie pho I mentioned in an earlier post for breakfast on my last morning at Mai’s place was just beautiful 👌🏼😋
Having walked for an hour and a half with a big backpack from the Homestay towards the station in the centre of Ninh Binh, I found a place to stop for a cold coffee, and a custard apple smoothie and the obligatory warm green tea:
This was the hot meal they were serving on the night train if you paid extra for it. They somehow managed to wheel a trolly containing all this down the incredibly narrow corridors and dish it up right outside your carriage:
Hoi An
Claypot restaurant… Maps Me had a note on it saying “Eat here. It’s delicious” or something. It was correct! Another smoothie, with complimentary nuts:
Aubergine and tofu dish cooked in the claypot slowly. This was another contender for the 🥇 best meal I had in Vietnam. It was heavenly!
Iced coffee I think (though it looks a bit big?):
Tra Qué Vegetable Village. This whole tour was remarkable… I think qualifying as the 🥇 best tour of my trip. It ended at the restaurant, which uses the vegetables grown in what is essentially an enormous community allotment on really rich fertile soil in the area. Here are all the dishes we tried as part of the tour. They were all delicious. As you can see, we got to see one of them being prepared as well:
Best Street food experience definitely in 🥇 Hoi An – these are in a previous post too, but just to have them all in order here:
All in all, actually I reckon Vietnam comes joint first for 🥇 best place to eat out cheaply and adventurously, along with Singapore. I’m dribbling now, just remembering it all!! 😋😋😋
la perle 