Last year when I started breaking the news to friends, family and colleagues that I was trading Sydney for Hanoi I got two main reactions. 1: “Oh, so you got a job in Hanoi? What will you be doing? Wait, what… you’re quitting your awesome job here to go the developing world to be unemployed?!?” and 2: “I am so jealous! I can imagine you drinking coconuts under palm trees, all tropical like. The weather will be fabulous and warm, I wish I were going. Wait, what do you mean… winter? Cold? Really?”. Yes, that is correct, I chose to be unemployed for 6 months, and it gets cold in Hanoi. I really like cool weather, so I didn’t too much mind skipping the southern summer for a short damp Hanoi winter. Actually I much prefer it to the current ridiculous heat. Winter in Hanoi is locals wearing puffy jackets, gloves and scarfs even on mild days, freezing on the back of a motorbike, days of constant drizzle, banana fritters, hot pot (lau) and warm sweet soup desserts.

As soon as the weather gets cold, dessert shacks around the city add pots of steaming Banh Troi Tau to their displays. These are glutinous rice dumplings boiled in a sweet ginger soup. Order some (the easiest way is to point at the pot, then sit down), and you’ll get two dumplings, one filled with black sesame, the other with coconut. In my extensive sampling of this dessert I have also had some filled with mung bean, or a mixture of black sesame and coconut (see picture above). These dumplings are mochi like, chewy, stodgy, filling, sweet winter perfection. The best soups are syrupy and heavy with spicy ginger, tempered by a splash of coconut milk and a sprinkling of crushed roasted peanuts.

The portions are quite small, perfect for a warming afternoon snack, though I have seen wisps of women down multiple servings in one sitting.

Banh Troi Tau is available all over the place, from about November to April. There is one famous place on Hang Giay in the old quarter (reviewed by stickyrice) that is supposed to have superior Banh Troi Tau. I swear there are like million different streets called Hang Giay in the Old quarter, and I have searched on all but one of them at the right time for this shack, and have yet to find it. But that is a task for next winter.

Ravenous Couple’s recipe for Banh Troi Tau.

Banh Troi Tau spots:

Che Bon Mua: 4 Hang Can
Che places around: 1 Cat Linh
Che places across the street from Bun bo nam bo: 76 Hang Dieu, and another shop a few stores down, opposite Bun Bo Nam Bo’s motorbike parking lot.
Banh Troi Tau Pham Bang (famous spot): 30 Hang Giay

Price varies, but should be about 10,000vnd (62c AU).

Coffee with frozen yoghurt.
By all accounts this combination should be nasty. When it was first suggested I wrinkled my nose and steered clear imagining a sour affogato, unpleasant fusion striking again. I mean its frozen yoghurt (which I like to call frogurt) with a shot of coffee poured over. How could it be anything but rank? Luckily for everyone involved (especially me), this surprising combination works.

Cafe Duy Tri is so narrow its easy to miss, or to mistake for just another Hanoi storefront selling coffee. But force your way out back, and you’re in a cafe so slender that miniature chairs line the walls with little space for anything else. Order a yoghurt coffee (sua chua cafe, 16,000vnd), just grab a menu and point because this order is a bugger to try and charade, trust me. Up the stairs, all the way to the top and take a seat on the balcony if you’re lucky enough to find it free of canoodling couples. Ignore the cats and the empty fish tank (that’s where they keep their spiders now) and enjoy the quirky retro Vietnamese style while you wait for your dessert/beverage/coffee (I haven’t decided which category it falls in to yet).

A tall glass will arrive soon enough three quarters full of smooth sweet tangy frozen yoghurt. The frogurt is creamy light and tastes just like an aerated frozen version of sweetened vinamilk yoghurt, which works surprisingly well with the shot of chocolate rich Vietnamese coffee. I always want to order another cafe sua chua immediately, and when I’m vibrating down the stairs I’m thankful that I didn’t. It is a surprisingly delicious hit of sugar and caffeine, I just wish Cafe Duy Tri were a little closer to my house.

Cafe Duy Tri
43A Pho Yen Phu
(thanks to @snackqueen for the hot tip!)

For a city of 6.5 million people Hanoi is still quite provincial. After a few months here the bright lights and bustling modernity of Bangkok was mesmerising, air conditioned public transport, shops with clothes that fit, food from all around the world and other such wonders. It was in cosmopolitan Bangkok that I decided to splurge on fancy western meal for the first time in months. Combining art and well-reviewed food, the choice was obvious: Eat Me restaurant.

With its walls painted a dark grey, art on the walls and alluring dimmed lighting Eat Me is sleek and stylishly designed, refreshingly there isn’t a Thai curlicue in sight. The menu is split intelligently into vegetables and grains, fish & shellfish and meat & poultry and is littered with Australian produce. It is little wonder that it is owned by an Australian, and the executive chef is his sister who splits her time between Bangkok, Sydney and the Barossa. This western influence is reflected in the abundance of well trained staff, and little touches of home, like iced water and great complimentary grilled bread served with spicy olive oil and dukkah and elevates Eat Me a step above.

Black chicken, red papaya, toasted coconut, chilli and lime salad with betel leaf

The menu hops continents resulting in an interesting multi-ethnic feast that I hesitate to label fusion, rather it is Modern Australian with a Thai bent. France is represented by the sweet onion tarte tatin with unexciting pastry saved by a rich red wine glaze and a generous splodge of melty brie. Our other entree hit Thailand, gussied up. A deliciously spicy Thai style salad with intriguing black chicken (Silkie, if you’re wondering) is lifted with fresh herbs and hides thin slivers of sweet ripe red papaya.

Fig & blue cheese ravioli with walnuts, rosemary and brown butter

Fig and blue cheese ravioli with rosemary brown butter and walnuts is a great idea in theory, but the dish was let down by fat, undercooked pasta. Despite this, the nutty brown butter and crisp roasted walnuts were made interesting by sprigs of fresh rosemary which added an earthy greenness without overpowering. My confit duck with honeyed brussels sprouts on the other hand was divine. A perfectly executed simple dish. By this point with two glasses of wine down I am full to bursting, so we opt for house made icecream for dessert. My first choice of Chestnut and Rosemary was sold out, but the English Breakfast Tea Ice Cream was a fine substitute, still the dark chocolate and chilli flavour was my favourite, deeply chocolately with a satisfying chilli hit at the end. Both were smooth, creamy and richly flavoured and most importantly, simple.

Crispy skinned duck confit with honeyed brussels sprouts and prosciutto

The simpler, well executed dishes and wonderful ambience made up those small disappointments, and the attention to detail here was so refreshing. Eat Me definitely exceeded my expectations, this is one of the best western meals I have eaten in Asia. After a lovely chat with the chef we emerged into the sticky heat and wandered back to the station, our spirits lifted by good wine, great food and a little reminder of home.

Eat Me interior with artwork by Sutee Kanuvichayanont

Eat Me
Soi Pipat 2 off Soi Convent
Silom, Bangkok

Google Maps

L-R Taro, pumpkin and almond, mafi, mangosteen sorbet and paradise tea

I dislike the appleisation of names as a rule but not iberry. I find the name of this Thai ice creamery as charming as its quirkily designed spaces and novel flavours. There are iberry outlets dotted around Bangkok from counters in food courts to cafes, but unfortunately the area I stayed in was devoid of delicious ice cream treats or else I would have visited daily.

What is so good about iberry homemade? A huge and ever changing selection of well made sorbets and ice creams in creative, unusual and stunningly bright flavours. My first taste was two small scoops, a marbled creamy green tea and red bean mix earthy and dense, as well as a scoop of coconut with mixed fruits. The coconut was tamed by the delicious salty sweet crunch of corn kernels and what appeared to be pandan noodles. These little tastes are texturally interesting, not too sweet and sing with wonderful asian flavours. But some varieties simply don’t mesh with my western palate, for example salted plum or spicy green mango which is the asian snack of slivered green mango dipped in a mixture of salt, sugar and chilli powder translated into a sorbet. Salty, spicy and a just plain strange tasting dessert.

But there is one very unusual flavour that was surprisingly moreish was Mafi sorbet. Does anyone know what this is? My questions were answered with giggles and “its a Thai food”, well thanks for straightening that out. It was sweet, salty, with some citrus notes and an underlying peanuttyness, refreshing and engaging. We order it as a part of our little tastes but could easily enjoy a full scoop of this savoury sweet.

A wonderfully dense taro is the best I’ve ever tasted and the paradise tea flavour manages to be strong without overpowering its spiced subtlety. The pumpkin and almond enhances the sweetness of the vegetable and turns it into something more than the usual cinnamon accented ‘pumpkin pie’. My vote for delicious green tea is overruled as we already have a tea flavour, this version is better than passionflower’s by a mile. The unadorned fruit sorbets are fresh, light and bright and on all my visits I never encountered the quotidian choices of chocolate, vanilla or pistachio. Different outlets stock diverse and every changing varieties. This is the kind of ice cream shop I wished for when I worked in an ice cream shop, and it was what I wished Passionflower was every time I visited. A smart, quirky shop making delicious, interesting and unique flavour combinations, I just want to know when they’re going to open in Hanoi.

iberry homemade,
locations around Bangkok.

I visited them on the ground floor of Siam Paragon, and on soi 2 Siam Square (every chance I got).

“Have you been to chicken street yet?”. Had I been to chicken street? No, I never even knew that Chicken Street existed. I’d been to tin street, coffin street and christmas decoration corner, but I had never heard those two words placed side by side in a sentence and they sounded delicious together.

First you have to find Pho Ly Van Phuc, it is off the tourist drag but the piles of skewered chicken bits grilling and delicious scents wafting will drag you right in. Pass by the touts trying to herd you in to near empty eateries at the head of the road and make your way down to the last and largest open air eatery. Rows of miniature blue chairs and tables straddle the road, flanked on one end by the makeshift kitchen. Ladies prowl the dining area carrying chicken pieces impaled on long bamboo skewers. Chicken bones picked clean litter the ground, a good sign.

The menu here is short, in Vietnamese and stuck up on a wall. Grilled chicken, bread and sweet potato are the staples and the reason to come here. As soon as you sit down you these pickles (pictured above) land. Lightly pickled cucumber and water spinach stems refreshed by sweet vinegar, still retains its crunch and are incredibly moreish. The bread rolls are flattened, hot and crisp from the grill and unexpectedly sweet. They are glazed with a sugar syrup and are best when dipped in the mild but complex chilli sauce. Service here is a two part affair. One waitress drops the skewered item on your plate then another lady with a set of enormous shears unceremoniously dissects your food.

The smoky, sticky chicken is just delicious. Wings are succulent and the tender legs are enveloped by skin grilled crisp. Chunks of grilled yam, basted with a sweet sauce are hit and miss, sometimes unpleasantly fibrous but other times they are perfectly softened with a chewy exterior. This is a messy, relaxed, eat with your hands meal, dipping morsels into the chilli sauce in between sips of cold bia Ha Noi. Sweet, salty, spicy and sour, Chicken Street has it all and I’m so glad that I know about now.

Chicken Street.
Ly Van Phuc, Hanoi.

Ask for:
cánh gà – chicken wing
khoai – sweet potato
bánh mì – bread