During the 45 minute or so cab ride from the airport to downtown Hanoi, I contemplated what the city might be like. I knew very little about Vietnam or Hanoi or what to expect other than what I had concocted in my head after obsessively watching Anthony Bourdain’s travels unfold on Netflix. As I gazed at the city’s suburbs passing by in a flurry of bright colors, mopeds and rice fields, anticipation grew inside me and I knew something good was to come. After getting dropped off at my hotel in Old Quarter and taking a brief glance at the sights around me, one thing was apparent – I was already falling into a serious love affair with Hanoi. In the next 48 hours I crammed every waking moment taking in the city, strategically weaving my way on foot through the chaos of oncoming motorbike traffic, shopping for handicrafts and artwork at the abundance of colorful shops, fending off highly motivated (ok, fine, aggressive) street vendors, people watching my way around Hoan Kiem Lake, sipping thick Vietnamese iced coffee sweet with condensed milk, downing $0.25 Bia Hoi beers at “Beer Corner” and my favorite, sampling as much street feed as physically possible.
If you eat a single meal in Hanoi at an actual restaurant or even an establishment with a menu, you are wrong. The street food in Hanoi is unmatched, with street carts or one-man, one-woman, and on several occasion, one-child operations serving a wide variety of Vietnamese dishes and snacks from their overturned bucket perch. While you may question the “sanitary” conditions of such makeshift operations, I actually found comfort in getting to see the exact ingredients I would be eating and how they were prepared and found myself enjoying shopping around for who seemed to have the freshest products and most efficient processes before I took a squat and indulged (plus I’ve watched enough Restaurant Impossible to know that 1/2 the restaurant kitchens in America are probably less sanitary than these prideful street vendors). A full meal from a street cook typically cost me less than $2 and undoubtedly put even the best Vietnamese food I had tried previously to complete shame. Some of the highlights included the most flavorful beef pho imaginable, rolled-to-order fried pork spring rolls, charcoal grilled chicken banh mi sandwiches and stir fried garlic beef and rice noodles (cue lustful reminiscent drooling). Vicariously eating through Bourdain’s Vietnamese adventures no more, my own deliciously fond memories of Vietnam will keep me going until my next encounter with my newest love, Hanoi.
For more about what to do/see with 48 hours in Hanoi, check out our travel site’s article at The Brazen Itinerant.
