Hanoi's food

Let's review Hanoi's food.  I liked their local fare.  All throughout the 3 days that we were at Hanoi, we ate at restaurants that served Vietnamese food.  For breakfast, we ate at the buffet of the hotel.  The Silk Path Hotel (read my review post here) served international fare with Vietnamese food (particularly Pho...their noodles) for their breakfast buffet.  Here is what I usually have during the 3 times I had breakfast in the hotel...

This is what I usually have...bacon, egg, french toast (or waffle or pancake) and muesli.

And if I still had space in my tummy(which was always the case...ha ha ha), I'd indulge in Pho.

The buffet breakfast of the hotel had a decent amount/decent variety of breakfast fare.  I liked my breakfasts at the Silk Path Hotel.  I'm easily pleased when it comes to food.  As long as it's clean and it's edible, I'm happy.

We ate our first dinner in the hotel too.  Here's what we had...

Crab meat with asparagus soup

Glass noodle salad with roasted pork, coriander and roasted sesame

Steamed cabbage with braised mushroom in oyster sauce

Spicy and salted fried cuttlefish fillet

Grilled beef steak with chili and lemon grass

Fried rice with vegetable and eggs

Fresh fruit salad with sweet syrup and mint leaves

This was the usual format of what we would eat for the next few days of our stay in Hanoi.  Every meal we ate was from a set menu.  The set menu usually consists of appetizer, soup, 3-4 main dishes, rice and dessert.  The servings are small.  It's usually enough for the number of people seated in a table. I'm not sure if this was done just for our group but all pieces seemed to be counted.  If it's fried spring roll, we get 4 pieces if we were 4 in the table (or 6 if we were 6 in the table).  Even if the portions were small, I was still satisfied and my stomach content after every meal.  Maybe that's the trick for being small and thin like the Vietnamese?  Maybe.

Here is another example of one of our set menu (for dinner).

Sweet corn and crab meat soup

Appetizers...

Minced shrimps and pork on sugar cane

Green papaya salad with dried beef

Main courses...

Mixed vegetables in oyster sauce

Grilled chicken on lemongrass skewer

Barbecue pork loin with plum sauce

Sauteed fish with garlic and chili

For dessert...

Sweetened green beans and lotus seed

They say that one should try Vietnamese coffee while in Vietnam.  I did...

The people of Hanoi use condensed milk for their coffee.  Our tour guide said that during the time that the government controlled the food supply, the people were given a ration for milk.  Milk was very scarce, so they relied on condensed milk to put in their coffee.  At present, the people of Hanoi don't have rations anymore.  They can buy their own food and supplies are not scarce.  Still, the use of condensed milk stayed.  I like it.  I like the taste of their coffee with condensed milk.  Try it when you're at Hanoi.

The food that was always present in the menu was fried spring rolls.  Every meal, we had fried spring rolls (surprisingly, it was always fried...I always thought that Vietnamese spring rolls were always fresh).  I was a bit surprised that the only Pho I was able to taste was the one in the breakfast buffet of the hotel.  We were never served Pho in any of our meals outside the hotel.  Anyways, I like their spring rolls.  It's the right size (1-2 pieces are enough...I always sat with someone who didn't eat anything but fried chicken so I can have her share of spring rolls...he he he) and very tasty.

In summary, I love Vietnamese food.  It's tasty and good.  I highly recommend the food of Hanoi.  Yum, yum, yummy!

Thank you very much for reading!  Drop by next time for another dose of Real Products...Real Experiences.  Talk to you later!