Meal 1: Dinner on the plane. Unspecified 'beef with rice'.BDM – Wow! No mini bag of pretzels? It's been quite some time since I've been treated to a hot meal on a flight. Beef with rice was warm and rather tasty. Fruit was pretty good too, but I steered clear of the shrimp salad under plastic. Props to EVA air for the biodegradable cutlery.
JM – Even though we'd just eaten a dinner of take out pizza a few hours earlier, I decided to take one for the blog, it is a culinary blog afterall, and ate a second dinner. And, as BDM already noted, we don't get hot meals on planes much these days. Nothing spectacular to chime in on my part, but it didn't make me want to run to the bathroom either...
Meal 2a: Breakfast (1) on the plane. Mushroom & cheese omelet. BDM – yeah, I copped out on the more authentic choice for breakfast (rice porridge, see below). But I'm sure to have plenty of non-western meals ahead. Tater tots elicited a nostalgic reaction at first, but that faded quickly away as the mushy-ness of the tots became apparent. The fruit, however, was great: fresh pineapple and grapefruit are a welcome sight after 10+ hours in the stale air of the planes cabin.
Meal 2b: Breakfast (2) on the plane. Rice porridge.JM – being a big fan of asian-style breakfasts, I anted up for the rice porridge, boiled peanuts, green beans, and steamed bun for breakfast. It wasn't great, but it beat the omelet my neighbor was eating (in my opinion.)
BDM – I thought about ordering a sandwitch! The dumplings with veggies & pork were tasty, but the ones with straight up meat were even better! Had that juicy 'explode-on-contact' type reaction when you bit into it. I also thought that the ginger shreds in the soy sauce were a nice touch. Truth be told, I was really just happy to be off the plane after the 13.5 hour leg to Taipei (whose airport felt pretty surreal...not sure if it was the time shift, or the hello kitty gate our flight to hanoi departed from).
JM – i'm sensing a theme here—2 dinners, 2 breakfasts...this can't last. Once again, really enjoying the soup option for breakfast. Was a little uncertain about the “bone broth” but it was tasty and perhaps something got lost in translation?
Meal 5: Dinner in Hanoi. Cha ca (local hanoi speciality).
JM – figured our first dinner in hanoi should be an authentic one. I'd heard a lot about this cha ca place, so I thought we should hit it up, plus it's pretty close to our hotel—key given our uber-jet lagged status. The place only serves one thing, which I think is a good thing right? It's got to be good. Cha ca is basically a dish of white fish cooked with tumeric (to give it the bright color) and then you throw fresh dill and spring onions into the pan and let the goodness cook. Next you pile your bowl full of bun (rice vermicelli), add the dill and fish mixture to your noodles, top with fermented shrimp paste (sounds gross but is tasty) and some roasted peanuts. So good!!
BDM – this was a super cool restaurant in the old quarter of Hanoi. Community tables, awesome charcoal hot-pots keeping the dish sizzling, and zero menu confusion. Very tasty!
BDM enjoying beer #1BDM – Awake for 14.5 hours after broken sleep on the plane. This single beer put me right to bed. I'll have to do some further research into the actual qualities of the local beer tomorrow...
Mid Morning Snack: Vietnamese coffee and the 'Taste of Koto' sampler: shrimp spring roll, duck egg roll, and pork & mushroom stuffed pastry.
BDM - Much love to Koto and the community outreach that's happening here. Spring rolls were small, but packed a mighty taste. Pork and mushroom pastry was my fav (other than the warming and rich cup of coffee).Lunch: ComViet. Fried rice, fried tofu w/ tomato sauce, fried squid 'ComViet' style, hanoi bia.
BDM – Squid was excellent! Texture was similar to the dumpling earlier and I really enjoyed it. The fish sauce with dill (for dipping) lends it a sweet and slightly salty taste. The beer was light...very light, which is refreshing after a long morning of touristing-about.
JM – fried tofu in tomato sauce took me right back to my days working in Saigon. The grandmother of the family I lived with used to make a dish very similar to this that I loved and I haven't had it since I lived in Saigon—more than 11 years ago!!
Dinner: Tandoor. Chicken tikka masala, navaratam korma, saffron rice, nan.
JM – After an afternoon nap, BDM and I considered hopping in a cab and heading to a popular restaurant that serves traditional street food, but we weren't sure if it had indoor seating and it was cold outside. So we decided to walk half a block from our hotel and have Indian food instead. Turns out Indian food in Vietnam tastes very similar to Indian food in America! We're off to Ha Long Bay tomorrow for a two day cruise on a junk boat, so we'll be back to eating the food of my people soon enough...
BDM – Hey, we're in Indochina so why not explore the Indo-taste? Unfortunately, the awesome Indo-flavor I was looking for wasn't at this particular restaurant. Meh.
Lunch & dinner aboard Hai Phong #8: fish w/ ginger, shrimps (w/heads: see BDM enjoying a shrimp head at right), stir fried beef with veggies, fried pork, fried squids.
BDM – Great meal to power up for our kayaking excursion (we took home first place!) Seafood was super fresh and super tasty. It was so relaxing to be out on the water, away from the hustle & bustle (video) of Hanoi (well, almost...)
Dinner: After a killer day – and a beautiful sunset to top it off – dinner was great. Crunchy/crispy spring rolls were outstanding, as was the fried fresh fish. Picked up a bootleg, err...copy of 'The Wire' (seasons 1-4) in Hanoi, so after watching the full moon rise, we were anxious to adjourn to our cabin to catchup on the crime/drug scene in Baltimore.
JM – Fine dining on the Hai Phong #8 for sure. Nothing beats a meal of fresh seafood and a tiger beer aboard a junk boat floating around Ha Long Bay. After a few days of cold, crappy Hanoi weather, it was great to get out into some fresh air. The weather cleared up just in time for our cruise and it was quite enjoyable.
Dinner was well earned after BDM and I tested our teamwork skills kayaking around the bay. We may not be able to play well together on the same volleyball team anymore, but we can kayak up a storm! The dinner was ngon lam (very tasty). Nothing too out of the ordinary, but the quality was quite good. So good in fact, that I didn't even realize that I haven't had dessert in days! A huge feat for those who know me and my addiction to processed sweets!
