Dinner Diary - Hanoi Mystery sweet

 

Vietnam is a good place to be if you like sweet things. Kem Flan, Ca phe sua de, and the is mystery food. It was possibly the cheapest thing i got in Vietnam, costing around 5000 Dong in back alley of Hanoi.

It was essentially like cornmeal porridge on a rice cracker with sugar sprinkled on top. Sounds basic but it was awesome, and extremely sweet.

Dinner Diary - 粑粑 (Baba)

Yum, bread. It's like it's been the theme of my time in South East Asia. the place i had always sworn that you could not get decent bread.

Baba apparently comes comes from the Naxi minority people in Yunnan province, China. Sometimes it's filled, sometimes it's just plain. The joy is in the discovery. I've had at least 4 different types of Baba in the same town. One with Red bean filling, one with a sweet jam like filling, a plain one, and a baked (rather than fried) version.

Baba on the streets on 大理 ranges from 2 yuan all the way to a mind shattering 5 yuan (daylight robbery if you ask me).

Dinner Diary - Dali Noodle Surprise

 

It seems to be almost customary now that i try random things in random countries. The above dish is one such example. It consisted of Rice noodles (米线), strips of pork, and the shop had a series of veggies and spices that you could add to it. I just threw in handful  of spring onions.

This dishy dish came in at 6 yuan (£0.60p).

I Took a Picture [Tibetan Edition]

Meli Snow Mountain, Tibet. Taken From Feilai Temple, Deqin, Yunnan

Dinner Dairy - Bo Bit Tet

Since i've been in Vietnam, i've eaten a lot of food. But i think with Bo Bit Tet, i've found one of my favourites. This is especially unusual as there is very little Vietnamese about it. The dish is made of a salad, chips/ french fries, a bread roll and "steak". Beef in South East Asia is a far cry from the meat in Europe & the americas.

What makes this dish so good is the gravy/ sauce. Oh the sauce! It was so good i had to purchase another Banh mi (bread roll) to sop up all the sauce.

The Bo Bit Tet cost 60 000 Dong (US$3/£2) on the rainy, cold streets of Hanoi. Incase your interested the additional bread roll cost 3000 Dong (£0.10p).

Dinner Diary - Bun Cha

Today's dish was Bun Cha. Unlike a couple of the recent postings i actually knew what i was getting into with this one. Having seen the signs up on the streets of Hanoi, i had done a small amount of research and knew what to expect. The soup is slightly sweet, and together with the noodles and veggies makes a great combination. Floating around in the soup are bits of BBQ pork wrapped in various leafs of one form or another. It's usually eaten by popping some noodles and veggies into your soup, and letting them soak up a little of the flavour, before popping the whole deal in your "pie hole". On the streets of Hanoi's Old Quarter, it cost 30000 Dong (US$1.50/£1)