Apparently there is a strong “food” theme in my posts. Let’s continue that, shall we?

I had walked past Fanny’s Ice Cream Parlour almost every day on my way to work in Saigon and had always managed to engage my willpower to continue walking past its doors. Price was also a factor – it labels itself as “gourmet ice cream” and prices it as such. If I needed my fix, I’d cheap out and go get a delicious Black Forest Cornetto for $0.75 instead.

Jen and I were in Hanoi, lamenting on the fact that we were back in the traffic and noise of the city after weeks of relative quiet and solitude. We had spent a few hours walking through the French Quarter, where I had hoped to find a giant block of cheese to gorge on. Turns out the French Quarter isn’t as French as I thought it would be and we were headed back to the Old Quarter empty-handed when we passed a Fanny’s Parlour. I noticed a sign outside that announced a relatively new promotion: on the first Friday on each month they do an “all-you-can-eat” ice cream buffet for $4.  ”What day is it?” I demanded of Jen. “Friday” was her reply. “WHAT’S THE DATE?” I shouted, my voice betraying the excitement I felt. “The fifth”, she said, as the realization dawned in her eyes.

Oh, happy day. We decided to forego dinner and consume as much ice cream as humanly possible. It was glorious. It’s actually a really social event, frequented mostly by young Vietnamese folks. Everyone mills about the room, glass dish or cone in hand and chats, giving it the atmosphere of a bar. They have over 30 flavours including chocolate chili, banana and young rice, as well all the regular classics.

In the end, Jen ate 21 scoops of ice cream and claimed that she was close to vomiting. The competitive streak in me came out, bringing my total to 21 scoops plus a scoop in a cone for the walk home. Oh yeah, plus the crepes and the fruit dipped in the chocolate fountain. It caused the tummy to hurt but made us so, so happy.

We’ve posted about eating dog before. We went to a local restaurant in Saigon a couple months back that specializes in dog meat (or “doggie” as they call it here). Serene ate it by accident that night and was pretty upset. I tried it at a dinner party and I have to say, it was quite delicious. It’s not something I’m planning on eating on a regular basis, but I’ll try anything once. But in Northern Vietnam, it’s a lot easier to find on the menu…

I first noticed the difference from south to north when I saw “thit cho” on a lot of the signs. My Vietnamese is practically non-existent but I do know that this is the phrase for dog. Once I had seen it a couple times, I started looking for it and I realized that it’s found all over the place up here. In Hanoi, there’s a 1km-long district of dog meat joints. There’s definitely a stronger prevalence for dog-eating in the north.

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One of the biggest differences from Southern Vietnam to Northern Vietnam has been the food. Some things, like phở’, are a bit different – in the north there’s never hoisin available and you don’t always get all the usual herbs and sprouts. Without even realizing it, somewhere along the way I became really, really picky about my phở’. And some things aren’t anywhere to be found on the menu – one of my go-to items in Saigon was bún thịt nướng, a grilled pork and vermicelli salad, which I haven’t seen in weeks. However, there are a few gems that are new to the palate…

One of these is roasted sweet potatoes. You can find various roasted food throughout Vietnam like corn, but only in the north have I seen sweet potatoes. They cost about $0.25 each, are filling and totally delicious!

“Don’t eat at the food stalls! You’ll get sick!”

A common refrain heard from well-meaning folks back home. The reality is that you can get ill from eating anywhere here. Sure, you don’t help your chances when the meat they slice for your bánh mì has been sitting in the sun all afternoon. But quite often you will find delicious Vietnamese specialities at the food stalls at an absolute screaming deal. As part of Jet Set Zero, this is an important factor when making dining choices. And there’s something to be said for passing by the Western restaurants and sitting down at a local food stall to watch your food being made and sampling some amazing local fare. It hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

A typical food stall in Hội An selling cao lầu, a regional speciality which includes doughy noodles, bean sprouts, fresh herbs, fried croutons and grilled pork.

There’s not much I love more in this world than rice. I’m totally serious. I frigging adore the stuff – jasmine, basmati, wild, brown, sticky – you name it, I’ll eat it, and with pleasure. At home, I have been known in my lazier moments to simply dump some soya sauce on some cooked rice and eat it all by itself. As you can imagine, I’ve hit the jackpot in Vietnam.

It’s difficult to order a meal that doesn’t include rice (in Vietnamese, it’s called “com”). It’s widely debated how many varieties there actually are out there – the numbers range from 4,000-120,000 different types. This staple has been cultivated in Asia for over 10,000 years, and there’s no sign of stopping any time soon! And that thought makes me so, so happy.

First, there’s phở, which is Vietnam’s most popular dish, eaten at least once a day by the majority of locals (usually for breakfast). It’s made from rice noodles and meat (beef is standard) and the customer gets to add basil, lime, bean spouts and chilis as they see fit. Man, do I love this soup!

And then there’s everything else in between. There are rice stands everywhere, where you point to your choice of meat or seafood and they load it on top of steamed veggies and rice. The Vietnamese also make awesome spring rolls, where the ingredients inside are rolled in a paper made of – you guessed it! – rice! We recently found a lunch buffet that specializes in these little gems:

I suppose I’ll have to find some extra room in the backpack when the time comes to leave. There will certainly be a serious withdrawal period, but luckily I love a food that’s is found pretty much anywhere.

(Version française plus bas)

While we peel, crush and slice vegetables, meat and shrimps, Miss Pham prepares the seasoning with noc mam (a popular Vietnamese fish sauce), soy sauce and homemade vinegar (made with wine, banana alcohol and mineral water).
Lam crushes peanuts for the salad garnish.
A few hours later, here we are, enjoying a fabulous hearty meal along with some fruit wine. Nobody knows which fruit(s) this wine is made of, but it’s very good. Only 4% Vol. of alcohol.

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