I need Paris Mai from Cafe Mai ...... Hanoi, Vietnam

I was trying to keep Cafe Mai a secret but I'm running out of my stash of Paris Mai Coffee from Cafe Mai in Hanoi, Vietnam. So, I am appealing to any Singaporean who read this to help me buy back some of this coffee when you are travelling to Hanoi, Vietnam. Just kidding ..... but I'm not joking when I imply that Paris Mai is good coffee.

Paris Mai is "weasel's poop" coffee. Why drink "weasel's poop"? Because these weasels only pick the best coffee berries. So the coffee beans are .......... anyway cleaned, processed and turn out to be the most aromatic, intense coffee. That's why some says it's worth it's weight in gold.

The coffee was brewed with a set of stainless steel drip filter that would take a good 10 minutes before the drink will be ready. Good stuff is worth a wait. A set of this stainless steel drip filter cost a about S$2 each.

Sweetened milk is usually added into this Vietnamese coffee. This coffee is as concentrated as the Italian espresso and did gave that extra caffeinated kick. At Cafe Mai, the shop front that retails the coffee beans is shown in the first photo. Right across the road is their portion of the cafe where you can sit down, enjoy coffee and watch the world go by.

The Paris Mai coffee cost about USD50/kg.

One tip to retain the aroma of the coffee : When the bag of coffee powder is opened, use what's needed, keep the coffee powder inside an air tight container or clip the bag up to keep it air tight, and then store it in the fridge. At least that's how I kept my stash of Paris Mai for 1 year and the aroma is still kept inside the coffee bag.

96 Le Van Huu

Hanoi, Vietnam

Tel : +84 4 822 7751

Vietnamese French Cuisine in La Verticale - Hanoi, Vietnam

La Verticale is a Vietnamese French restaurant owned by Didier Colou, a reknown French chef in Hanoi. His portforlio revealed that he had been cooking for kings and royalties in Asia. His interest in the region's spices and meddling with Asian spices into French cooking made Didier's cooking refreshing.

HY and I followed the map that led us from our hotel pass a couple of main roads and some smaller streets, that weren't exactly well lit, before we finally reached La Verticale. The restaurant building itself, in it's French style 3 storey architecture, was a pretty sight, especially under the luminance of the surrounding light.

We didn't know exactly where to go and we budged into the first floor into where they sell and store their spices. It happened that we met Didier, face to face but we didn't know who he was and how he looked liked then. He got one of his staff to usher us to an empty table. We realised that we were quite lucky to get a table without making any reservations. If we were a little later, we'll have to trod back out of the impressive restaurant that we already took a liking.

Inside Verticale, it's warm lights, cosy ambience and obliging gentle hospitality makes you feel welcome.

I was most impressed with Verticale's amuse bouche. In this case, we were "tickled" at the mouth twice before starters.

The Amuse Bouche

The fried fish cheeks was fabulous especially when we

ate it after the light, chilled cucumber sticks, dipped into

fish sauce and spiced sea salt. This amused me!

As we thought that our starters will come next, the hot

seafood soup and chilled tomato soup came.

The soup wouldn't taste extraordinary, on their own.

I felt that having them side by side, drinking a spoonful

of each alternatively made this amuse bouche interesting.

Starters

The Vietnamese rolls looked appealing to me and had

3 implentations. A fried version, a fresh one with mushrooms

and my favourite, the fresh spring rolls with fresh sweet prawns.

"Tokyo Hanoi" iodise broth sounded interesting to us.

This seafood soup had a unique fishy taste.

Unfortunately, a creation that I couldn't appreciate.

Mains

I picked the "Wagyu" and foie gras combination dish in

the menu that my taste buds was inclined to at that moment.

I was delighted when I saw the big chunk of foie gras lying

over the beef. The sauce that was created with the Yunnan morels

(Chinese truffles) blends well with the beef. and the foie gras.

This is a close up of the "Wagyu" beef which I suspect wasn't Wagyu

but beef tenderloin. Nevertheless, it was still well cooked and juicy.

I wasn't a fan of foie gras terrine, but pan fried or grilled foie gras was

another matter altogether. The foie gras was light salted and

peppered well. This one won me with two thumbs up.

HY ordered a duck mains. The pan seared duck fillet was done well.

The duck was prepared wel, without the "ducky" smell that she

absolutely dislike. Don't know how chefs out there do it. Duck

dishes that I cooked always smell "ducky".

The duck mains came with this duck spring roll and foie gras.

Desserts

My all bananas dessert came in the following 3 implementations.

The banana cake was my favourite. Soft and absolute bananas.

La Verticale is one of the top French restaurant in Hanoi if not the best. Their hospitality was impeccable. Prompt and gentle service put them tops in terms of overall dining experience. I thought it's a "must-try" French restaurant in Hanoi.

19 Ngo Van So Street

Hoan Kiem District

Hanoi, Vietnam

(040) 3944 6317

Location on Google Map

La Verticale Website

Eating on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam Part 3 – Street Food Finale

After browsing at the photos that I have taken on Hanoi street food, I think that it's worth a Part III. Anyone who's interested or will be travelling to Hanoi can benefit from it. I've played around with Google Map a bit and managed to provide the exact locations of these food places in Hanoi. So, it'll be easier to locate these street food. There are some street food in this diary page that I cannot pin point the location as they are the roving street food. You'll have to walk around and bump into them. If you would have noticed (looking at Hanoi map), our (refering to HY and me) street food experiences were restricted to just around the Hoan Kiem area as our hotel was in the region.

Bun Cha Dac Kim was another recommendation by the Luxe guide. We followed the map which led us into the Old Quarters. When we walk into the shop, there were several people cooking the pork patties and broth on the ground floor. A lady then ushered us up to the 3rd floor and "half shove" us into two seats. We had to share the same long bench with many others. Two bowls of pork patties, a plate of rice noodles, a plate of spring rolls and a plate of fresh greens appeared on the table when we didn't even order them. We were given a couple of empty bowls and the lady who ushered us to the seats gestured that we eat the rice noodles with the pork patties and broth. "Drink?" was the only question we were asked. At Bun Cha Dac Kim, the food was standard portions. It was 13000 dong for 2 people.

Bun Cha Dac Kim – Grilled Pork Patties Dunk in Broth

1 Hang Manh, Old Quarters

Location on Google Map

Standard portions of food served at

Bun Cha Dac Kim which can be a

bit too much for some people.

Pork Patties in broth the highlight at Bun Cha Dac Kim.

I liked the pieces of patties wraped with basil.

Fried spring roll here was a charm.

While we were walking around the Old Quarters during Christmas eve, immersed in the Christmas excitement around the St. Joseph's Cathedral, we came across this road side stall that sell fried food filled with pork. There were many people eating at the little stools and tables that spill out into the pavement, typical of street food business. There were basically three types of fried minced pork filled food items; fried puff, fried bun and spring rolls.

Banh Goi - Banh Ran

Fried pork finger food near St. Joseph's Cathedral

52 Ly Quoc Su, near the Cathedral.

Location on Google Map

The lady boss at the helm, frying the food

for her hungry customers.

The fried puff pastry that looked like the curry puff

commonly found in Singapore but this puff wrapped

up some tastey minced pork.

This is the fried bun also wrapped with minced pork.

Fried Spring Rolls

Here some other street food that we bump into during our leisurely stroll around Hanoi.

Fried Tofu Fried Doughball with soya bean paste, donut sticks

Fried banana

Walking further up from Banh Goi - Banh Ran towards Hang Gai, there was a little food lane, and we stopped at our tracks when we saw the congee that they were selling. We decided to buy one bowl, stand and eat at the roadside.

The bowl of congee that we had. It was simply,

congee that has no obvious rice grains, dough

sticks and shredded dried fish. Simple, down

to earth food, yet marvelously tasty.

Here some other street food that we into during your leisurely stroll around the old quarters.

All around Hanoi, you'll see mobile street vendors setting up and "balancing" their business across a wooden pole. This one sells me a piece of fried tofu. Although

My piece of fried tofu. It was simple and nothing to shout about

but having this hot piece of tofu in cold weather, out on the street

just made it my little bit of special personal experience.

We bought this wafer biscuit with black sesame when we just stepped out of the Temple of the Scholars. The wafer was light, slightly sweetened and fragrant, especially with the black sesame seeds.

Link to Hanoi Food Specialities

Eating on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam Part 2 - Our Love Affair with Phở (Vietnamese Rice Noodles)

Phở (pronounced as 'fur' in English) is a popular Vietnamese dish that is cooked and enjoyed by all in Vietnam. It is the equivalent for Pasta in Italy. Phở is actually rice noodles in clear beef or chicken based soup served in a bowl. The dish is commonly accompanied with basil leaves, mint leaves, bean sprouts and lime to enhance the flavors. Defining the soup for Phở as merely based out of beef or chicken is an understatement as many herbs and spices are added to create this tasty soup. The clear soup that was served with the white, sometimes translucent, rice noodles does make one think that concocting the tasty soup is like taking a walk in the park. To substantiate my point, here's a link to a Chicken Phở recipe in Viet World Kitchen that is suppose to be simple but it has already 11 ingredients to create the broth/soup, excluding the rest of the other ingredients.

So, how can we miss eating Phở, one of the national food in Vietnam? No way! Out of respect for the delicious pho, we will dedicate this one whole diary page just for our love affair with the Vietnamese Rice Noodle in Hanoi. How do we know the following Phở recommendations are good? My simplest rules of engagement to spot a good food place, even if there is a language barrier, is to ask myself the following questions. "Is there a queue?". "Is the restaurant at least 70% filled with customers?" Then follow your guts.

Phở Vuông is more like Phở chain than street food. However, for the sake of categorizing Phở, I'm including this experience here. Phở Vuông was, so far, the cleanest Phở eatery that we visited. There was proper air conditioning and they provided us with a menu in English too. That was how I'm able to order beef brisket phở rather than the typical lean beef phở.

The meat in the medium cooked beef brisket noodles that I ordered was very tender than as this part of the beef has some interlaced fats, making it juicier than lean beef. The rice noodles were thin and smooth. It would help minimize your effort if you are a slurp-up-your-noodle kind of person.

Phở Vuông shop front at

44 Ngo Thi Nham, Hoan Kiem

Tel : 3945 4740

Location on Google Map

My bowl of medium

cooked beef brisket phở

Lean Beef Phở that HY enjoyed.

We were along Le Van Huu searching for Cafe Mai that serves coffee and sell freshly ground coffee powder. While we were at it, we came across Mai Anh phở shop that many locals walked in. Mai Anh serves chicken phở.

Mai Anh's Shop Front at

32 Le Van Huu, Hoan Kiem

Tel : 39438492

Location on Google Map

My bowl of chicken phở from Mai Anh.

Again the typical clear soup. This time

with chicken shreds and chicken meatballs.

The dough sticks tasted great

when dunked into the soup.

Folks at Mai Anh preparing the phở for us.

Look like there's plenty of herb and

spices in the pot of phở soup.

Bún Bò Nam Bộ is one of the street food recommendation from the Hanoi Luxe guide. This is my favourite among the rice noodles that I had tried in Hanoi. Strictly speaking, Phở Bò and Bún Bò are different, even though both uses rice noodles. Phở Bò uses banh pho, the flat fat noodle (shape like fettucine) and Bún Bò uses the bún, thin circular type of rice noodle (shape like spaghetti). So, at Bún Bò Nam Bộ, the bún bò is a semi dried version of phở bò except that bún is being used instead of banh pho. Crispy fried shallots and peanuts were sprinkled all over. I was trying to stop myself from drooling as I was penning this down.

Bún Bò Nam Bộ Shop Front at

67 Hang Dieu, Hoan Kiem

Tel : 9230701

Location on Google Map

The bún bò served here were given a generous

sprinkle of fried shallots and peanuts.

Only mixing up the Bún Bò will reveal

the bún under the fried shallots and peanuts

While we were searching for Bún Bò Nam Bộ, a bún bò shop, along Hang Dieu street, we passed by Bat Dan Street and saw many locals crowded at one corner shop at the street junction. I did not catch the shop name but we had to track back to this phở stall after having just gotten through a bowl of bun bo. Gluttony struck today!

Street side Phở stall at

32 Bat Dan, Hoan Kiem

Location on Google Map

The highlight at this phở stall was the

stir fried beef phở. It tasted like beef 'hor

fun' back home in Singapore.

The soup in this bowl of phở was tasty but Phở Vuông's

rice noodle was smoother than the one here.

Eating on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam Part 1 - Dong Xuan Weekend Market

I have been misled into negative thoughts about Vietnam, having watched too many war movies of Viet-US war that portrayed the Americans as heroes. After a visit to Cambodia and Vietnam, I only realised that in a war, victory was only for the people or person sitting high up there. For the people below who wielded the weapons of destruction, there was no victory, only death and memories of pain and suffering. I am glad I visited Vietnam. This trip busted my misled cushy Singaporean mind about Vietnam and most of all, it helped to refute the advice about how the street food gets you stuck in the rest room. If the Luxe guide for Hanoi recommended some street food, it shouldn't be that bad right? I need to put a caveat here as HY's and my stomachs may have more immunity than others. So, do tread the water with some caution.

HY and I took the chance. We were cautious on the first day of the trip, venturing only into Pho shop with air conditioning. What kind of street food is that then when you had the comforts of air conditioning?

When we stepped into the Dong Xuan weekend night market, we got more adventurous as the food we saw were so enticing that we cave in. This was when the door opened and we started to roam the streets for food rather than sticking to the safer, “posher” restaurants that are not where local Vietnamese have their meals. One street food tip that we did take note and followed through, especially when my Vietnamese friend did caution, was to avoid raw food, including fresh vegetables.

At Dong Xuan weekend market, there was the road side pho stall where many locals were enjoying their pho despite the weekend crowd walking pass. This pho stall was full. Vacant seats were quickly taken up. We didn't eat here though.

Somewhere near the pho stall, was a lady that sells steamed pork bun. When you buy a bun from her, she’ll peel off the paper that was used as a base for steaming and then pass the bun to you in a plastic bag. HY love this steamed bun as there was lots of bun and little pork filling. She would like it even more if there was all bun and no pork at all.

As we walked further into Dong Xuan, and further away from Hoan Kiem lake, there was this stall that was selling cakes and burgers. The burgers looked too delicious for us to ignore, especially with an empty growling stomach. Sandwiched between the buns was a piece of ham and some tuna paste.

Amidst more shopping for souvenirs, we were about 2/3 done with the walking street, there was a mobile food stall that was selling skewered meat just like our satays. It was 1000 dong per stick. With 4 sticks of skewered grilled pork in a baguette, the cost was 10000 dong. The crispy baguette taste great with the flavoured filling inside. The ultimate, however, was the spicy sauce that was splattered on, just before this lady below (on her mobile) handed us our skewer/baguette.