Today, a group of us went on a food tour in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. 7 stops, 8 different dishes, 8 Americans, and 1 amazing (and hilarious) tour guide named Moon. For the purposes of this tour, I decided to be vegetarian ... I had pho ga a couple of days ago and they use EVERY part of the chicken, resulting in some odd textures that I'm not a fan of. Before we left the tour office, we did introductions and Moon gave us guidance on how to cross the street today. "You stay together like sticky rice, one group. Look at them and keep moving. Do not go back." So every time we cross the street ... "Sticky Rice!!!" . . . it later became a euphemism for other things but more on that later. *PARENTAL WARNING - there will be cursing and mild adult topics later. Moon also gave us mini Vietnamese language and culture lessons at each stop. Bun cha's lesson was on saying "Thank you" properly . . . "cảm ơn" = Thank you. Now pronunciation is super important ... if you say (phonetically) "come on" you would be telling the person to shut up. Therefore, don't do that. Moon made sure we could all say it properly "com un" (to the best of my typing pronunciation ability). . . . I'm not gonna lie, I'd definitely told a few Grab drivers to shut up instead of thank you ... oops.
Next place was mien tron (glass noodles). Forgot to take a picture and was not a fan. But our lesson was very educational there. Moon talked about the culture surrounding dating and marriage from female perspective (you = female in this context). There is no "try before you buy" in dating and often times the women are the ones who ask for marriage. In order to have a good marriage, you must pass a cooking test from your mother in law. After you are wed, you move in with his family. If you are good cook, you get lots of freedom (come home late no questions asked, less requests from your mother in law, etc). If you're not such a good cook, you better be home early and do everything your mother in law asks of you whether you like it or not. However, "good cooks" can get away from bringing home take out food and presenting it as their own after they're married. Also eating duck the first day or two of the new month (lunar calendar) is considered bad luck. Eating duck the last couple days of the month is supposed to flush out your bad luck. And you should ask the monks if you are your partner are a good match before getting married.
Last stop (last 3 pictures), we had apricot rice wine (really liquor since it was like 45%) ... really rough stuff, then banh mi (little sub sandwich type thing), and egg coffee. Yes, egg coffee. Coffee on the bottom, whipped egg yolk on top. Surprisingly delicious. Of course by the end of this we were all SUPER STUFFED. Some people stayed and wandered around the Old Quarter as there were many shops (whole streets dedicated to one type of shop ... kitchen street which sells kitchen ware, jewelry street, etc), some went off to get motorbikes (lots of people having difficulties with GRAB), and some of us went back to the hotel to veg out for awhile with our food baby.
Overall a great way to spend $25 USD and a morning/afternoon.
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ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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