Special street food of Hanoi

With traditional secrets to create delicious and attractive flavors, the typical street foods of the capital Hanoi always make diners remember them forever.

Hanoi's 36 streets with its long-standing culinary culture have never disappointed diners from near and far.

Over the years, Hanoi dishes still retain their old flavors. Diverse, unique, and with attractive flavors, street food creates a special feature in the culinary culture of Hanoi. Many dishes are highly appreciated by culinary experts and voted by diners as the best in the world .

In addition to being attractive, the capital's signature dishes also create connections between people, helping them enjoy the rich flavors of Vietnamese cuisine while immersing themselves in the vibrant atmosphere of Hanoi's streets.

Bun rieu

Bun rieu is served with raw vegetables including chopped lettuce, some herbs, banana flowers... (Source: Dan Tri)

In a documentary about Hanoi produced by CNN (USA), crab noodle soup was described as the quintessence of Asian cuisine. Crab noodle soup was also honored by the Australian Traveller website in the top 21 most delicious dishes in the world. This result was based on votes from diners and tourists worldwide.

Bun rieu originated from the North with a rather elaborate preparation method, suitable for the sophisticated personality of the people here.

A delicious bowl of vermicelli has white vermicelli, pink-brown crab fat, red tomatoes, green onions, a little shrimp paste to enhance the aroma, fragrant fried onions, golden fried tofu, pieces of pork ear and served with raw vegetables such as: perilla, lettuce, coriander or young banana shoots... when eating, squeeze in a little lemon, chili, creating an extremely attractive aroma.

The important ingredient to make a delicious bowl of vermicelli soup is to choose small, yellow-fleshed field crabs. The crabs used to cook the vermicelli soup are still alive, fresh, and contain a characteristic sweet taste. They are cleaned, the dirty parts are torn off, and crushed. Then, the crabs are filtered to get water and simmered so that the crab meat forms into a firm cake that floats on the surface of the water. The crab fat is kept separate, and the clear water will be the broth to pour the vermicelli soup over.

In the slightly chilly autumn and winter weather of Hanoi, there is nothing better than enjoying a hot bowl of vermicelli soup with crab soup, imbued with the flavors of Hanoi streets.

Noodle soup

Traditional Hanoi chicken pho does not use cinnamon or star anise, but only grilled onions, ginger, coriander roots, and onion roots to create a unique light flavor. (Source: VNE)

Recently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has included Hanoi pho folk knowledge in the list of national intangible cultural heritage.

For a long time, Pho has been considered the soul of Vietnamese cuisine in general and Hanoi cuisine in particular. Not only is it a traditional dish, Pho also carries within it the unique culture of Hanoians with a secret family recipe, creating a delicious and attractive flavor.

Many historical documents record that pho in Hanoi was born in the early 20th century. Pho was originally a street food, carried around and sold throughout the streets of Hanoi.

Although many localities in the country have pho, pho has long been associated with the lives of Hanoi people, becoming a popular snack. The need to regularly enjoy pho of the capital's people has influenced the cooking techniques of restaurant owners, making Hanoi pho more delicious and more distinctive.

Traditional pho brands (with more than 2 generations of experience) usually specialize in beef pho and chicken pho. The fragrant and sweet pho broth is made from bones. The pho noodles are white and soft, with the added flavor of chicken or beef, and some spices such as lemon, chili, onion, pepper, etc., making them both rich and unique.

Pho also shows the sophistication of Hanoians not only in cooking but also in enjoying. Culinary experts, researchers, writers and poets all admit that: Pho is a special gift of the capital, not only here, but because it is only delicious in Hanoi.

Bun cha

Bun cha has become a famous dish around the world. (Source: Vietnamnet)

Bun cha is a Vietnamese dish consisting of vermicelli, grilled pork patties, and a bowl of sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and sour fish sauce, served with raw vegetables. The dish originated from the North and has been present in the capital for a long time, so it can be considered one of the typical specialties of Hanoi cuisine. Bun cha is similar to grilled pork vermicelli in the Central and Southern regions, but the fish sauce has a lighter taste.

Bun cha bowls usually have both meatballs and pieces of meatballs. However, depending on eating preferences, diners may only choose one of the two types. The grilled meatballs are fragrant and fatty, served with soft vermicelli, raw vegetables such as lettuce, cilantro, perilla, mint... and a rich dipping sauce (often called fish sauce) creating a blend of texture and flavor that makes diners crave for more.

Bun cha is a dish that brings true joy to both locals and international visitors looking for an authentic Vietnamese culinary experience.

Boiled snails

The hot bowl of snails after being processed gives off an attractive aroma. (Source: Vinwonders)

Snails have been a popular dish in Hanoi for a long time. They are delicious and cool in the summer, but even more so in the winter because they warm the heart. Boiled snails are considered a great choice for a culinary exploration of the capital.

The authentic Hanoi snails are the boiled snails or jackfruit snails, the snails are picked out with grapefruit thorns or beveled tin foil. The distinctive flavor of the steamed snail tray and the smell of lemongrass, lime leaves combined with the rich fish sauce create a special attraction, increasing the joy when enjoying in happy conversations.

Bread

Hot ham bread is very famous and familiar to the people of the capital. (Source: Long Dinh ham)

We can easily find sandwich shops on the streets of Hanoi. As a familiar dish, sandwiches are now much more diverse than before, depending on the ingredients inside, sandwiches have many different names: sandwiches with meat, sausage, eggs, pate…

Although it is a unique combination of East and West, Hanoi banh mi still has its own characteristics with diverse local ingredients: a little bit of herbs, a few pieces of cucumber with delicious sour sauce, along with meat, sausage, nem khoai or skewered meat, eggs... depending on the request of the diner.

The bread is heated before reaching the customers, helping to preserve the full attractive flavor with the crispy taste of the bread plus the rich taste of the ingredients inside. All of this makes the bread delicious and attractive.

Over the years, Hanoi dishes still retain their characteristic old flavors.

Hot rice cake

Hanoi hot rice cake has a very unique flavor, making users remember it forever. (Source: VTC news)

Hot Banh Duc is one of the Hanoi delicacies that many people love. Usually, the cake is made from rice flour, mixed with lime water. After the cake cools, people will cut each piece into squares, dip it in Ban sauce. At this time, the fatty and nutty peanut smell is hidden in each piece of chewy cake, soaked in the rich sauce flavor.

However, under the creativity of the people of the capital, banh duc is transformed into extremely attractive hot banh duc.

Hot Banh Duc is cooked from rice flour and lime water with a soft and smooth cake. To make the hot Banh Duc more delicious, the seller will add minced lean meat stir-fried with wood ear mushrooms, sprinkle with coriander, herbs, fried onions mixed with sweet and sour fish sauce, creating a naturally sweet flavor.

Snail noodle soup

Bun oc is always a favorite dish of tourists when coming to the capital. (Source: Dan Viet)

Bun Oc has been around for a long time. Over the years, Bun Oc has undergone many changes and has been prepared in many different ways, but still retains the typical flavor of Hanoi. The reason Bun Oc has such a strong traditional flavor, the characteristic of the capital, is because the ingredients are all found in this land.

When talking about bun oc, people immediately think of Hanoi bun oc. From the sour taste of vinegar, a little bit of spicy chili mixed with the rich taste of snails, chopped green onions to the sweet aroma of tomatoes and tofu. Bun oc is also served with herbs, bean sprouts, and perilla to create a delicious, rich flavor.

In addition to hot vermicelli with snails, Hanoi is also famous for cold vermicelli with snails. Most diners like to eat cold vermicelli with snails in the summer because of its refreshing, light taste and lack of oil.

To have delicious cold snail noodle soup, sellers often have to go to the market to choose batches of snails and jackfruit snails that are not slimy or fishy. Then, they soak and rub the snails to clean them. This step needs to be done carefully because the broth is taken from the water in which the snails are boiled.

The snails are boiled just enough to keep the meat fresh, and the flavor is released into the water. The snail broth will be boiled into soup for diners to enjoy. The broth is the boiled water mixed with vinegar, seasoned to taste. The vermicelli eaten with cold snail vermicelli must be coin vermicelli, also known as mussel vermicelli, snail vermicelli. The most authentic is vermicelli from Phu Do village.

The characteristic flavor of the broth is the vinegar from the golden sticky rice. The vinegar is brewed locally, so the taste will be different. Whether you can eat spicy food or not, you should add a little chili to make the cold bowl of vermicelli with snails more colorful, the spicy flavor brings out the sour and fragrant taste in the broth.

With only simple ingredients, ancient Hanoians created a dish that attracted many diners.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/dac-sac-am-thuc-duong-pho-ha-noi-283285.html