Bun Cha food

Hanoi - I was woken up the 2nd day by the din of cars honking.   It was really annoying.   For brunch, Lesley and I walked over the shopping mall next building - Hanoi Tower.   Sat down at Papa Joe cafe -

Bun Cha is a Vietnamese dish, thought to be originated from Hanoi - Grilled Pork Noodle Soup.  I dip the white rice noodle (bún) in the broth and eat it with the gilled pork and vegetables. 

I wanted a Vietnamese coffee but Papa Joe ran out of Vietnamese coffee - unbeliveable - lunch time and they ran out of Vietnamese coffee but no choice choose a cup of cappuccino.

Lesley order a Vietnamese baguette (french loaf) with chicken terriyaki.  After our lunch, we packed and ready to go to the Airport.   Coincidentally, both out flights on MH and SQ were delayed by 1 hr.

Bun Bo Nam Bon restaurant

Hanoi - We went to Hoan Kien Lake, which has an extraordinary and calming presence amidst the heavy Hanoi traffic.   Locals and foreigners alike stroll along the perimeter of the Lake.  For me, I wanted a good Pho - and Pho 24.   

We walked to Hanoi Old Quarter a short 10 minutes walk - a very densely and crowded area with many old shops selling shoes, bags, and other tinkets.  Many foreigners roam the alley and streets of this Old Quarters.   The weather was humid and hot, a good cuppa of coffee would be good.  So we poped into one of many Vietnamese coffee shop for a good ca phe sua da or Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk.

The left ice coffee is stirred up but not enough to dilute the thick sweet condensed milk.  The right ice coffee is what was served to me.

For dinner, we went to a popular restaurant frequent by locals - Bun Bo Nam Bo located @ 67 Hang Dieu.    This local restaurant served only one dish - Bun Bo Hue from the locality Hue city.    Eating here is an eye opener as there are many long tables and you just sit where there are vacant seats, eating next to many locals.   Without even ordering your food, a big bowl of hot Bun Bo Hue will arrive within 5 minutes.   Of course, drinks are ordered separtately.  

Hygiene should not be a consideration when you eat here as the floor is littered with debris and left overs from previous diners, even when there is a large waste basket underneath the table.

This is Bun Bo Hue - white thin noodles served in rich beef broth, with bean sprouts, carrots, slices of beef and peanuts. 

Sen Tay Ho Restaurant

Hanoi - After our meeting together with our channel partners we went to dinner @ a famous Hanoi buffet restaurant called Sen Tay Ho (West Lake Lotus) located @ 614 Lac Long Quan.   The restaurant is huge and wildly popular with local and foreigners alike because of the wide variety of Vietnamese cuisine at an affordable price.  For the 4 of us with 4 bottle of beer cost us VND 1,080,000 (S$ 67).

The garden in front of the restaurant.

The entrance to the restaurant....

This is the area for fresh sea food to be picked and the cooks will BBQ or broiled the seafood for you.  There was a long queue at this station waiting for the big prawns - I just skipped this station.   This restaurant was crowded with both foreigners and local alike.  There are so many stations to choose from.

Can you guess what this is?

It's a decoration arrangement of Ginger stems...

Back in Hanoi - Wild Lotus restaurant

Hanoi - arrived on SQ at around 12:20pm.  The flight into Hanoi was smooth but the landing on the Hanoi airport tarmac was far from smooth.   Did not catch any movie or TV series as the sound system only worked on one side of the headphones - it's the seat jack that was spoiled.  As it was a short flight and I was also tired, I did not make a fuss about it.   Lesley flight arrived shortly and we took the same taxi to our serviced apartment.  

This time I booked a servied apartment instead of a Hotel - in fact it's much cheaper.   Somerset Grand Hanoi (next to Hanoi Tower).  Many taxi drivers will not know this serviced apartment but they know Hanoi Tower.    The 2 room apartment is big about 883 sq ft.

Before our meeting, we had lunch @ Wild Lotus restaurant located @ 55A Nguyen Du.   This is an upmarket Vietnamese restaurant.

In the foreground, the soup is sea cucumber soup and background, prawn fresh spring rolls.

This is a delicious dish - grilled eggplant with prawn and pork.

I asked the waitress for her recommendations but I did not select her recommendations except this dish (above picture) - Grilled beef on lemongrass stick.    All my dish which I chose tasted good except this grilled beef - it was very tough like eating rubber.