Stay in the old quarter in Hanoi. Learn to love the congestion, the buzz and honking of motor scooters. Ah, and the smells. Two stroke, food and incense.
This is the place where the action is. Life is lived and transacted on the street or at least without leaving the motorcycle saddle.
It is a place where street names have a meaning. Hang Gad is chicken, Hang Hahn is onion. Hang Ruoi is clam worms. And the stretch between Hang Luoc (combs) and P Hang Can (scales) is Cha Ca or roasted fish.
One roasted fish restaurant Cha Ca La Vong (14 Pho Cha ca, Hanoi 825 3929) has remained there for, well nobody’s sure but at least 135 years. It’s a single fronted place with one small room downstairs and two rooms upstairs. We are led up a steep narrow staircase – think ladder – to the first floor painted in a shade of eau de nil that would make interior designer Tricia Guild weep.
Locals and tourists mix eating the one dish this joint.
An old lady stacking greens into a large plastic draining baskets comes over and places an ageing menu on the table. There is one dish on the menu and it costs 70,000– about US$4.50, which is expensive for Vietnam.
Soon our tabletop barbeque arrives together with a large plate of greens plus noodles, peanuts, local herbs and a dipping sauce.
The waitress dumps some of the greens in the pan and we tuck in dumping noodles into our bowls followed by fish and greens, herbs and nuts.
The flavours are amazing although by the end of the exercise the fish is a bit overcooked. J likes it so much that she wants to return the next day but I have other plans…
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