Hanoi Market
Life in Vietnam starts very early and people are out and about having breakfast by 6am. Sometimes it looks as if they never went to sleep but just took a quick nap between evening/late night eating and the morning pho. On Wed morning we went to Hanoi market which is just a few blocks from our hotel in the old quarter. The market is a wonderful celebration of colors, smells and smiley people. You can find every kind of shrimp, crab, squid and spices alongside a roasted dog (tail and teeth attached…) and frogs. We decided to skip the roasted dog and sat down at the Banh Cuon table. After fitting our larger-than-local butts on the little plastic stools we ordered 2 dishes of Banh Cuon – a rice flour crepe filled with pork and mushroom pate topped with crispy fried shallots. As soon as we finished our dishes and had a chance to chat with the locals, we got a third plate but still, somehow that breakfast wasn’t enough for us and we both had the same thought-Banh Mi! It was time for the Vietnamese sandwich (baguette with pork, cilantro, carrot, fish sauce and pate). Yum!
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Loving your narratives and photos– you large-butted Americans.
Tell the smiley people of Vietnam that I love them.
xo, Edward
23 Dec 2007 at 12:05 am