Food Tour and Overnight Train

Once we were back in Hanoi, we were deposited at our hotel and had about an hour before our food tour began. Most of our GAdventures group has decided to do the tour, which was nice. Our guide, Minh, took us to a small restaurant where two small girls served their mom’s bean sprout pancakes to us. We wrap them in lettuce and leaves that smelled of lemon and then wrapped that in rice paper. We also had deep fried rice flour fritters, which were dipped in fish sauce.

Our next stop was a pho restaurant; however, since it’s summer, they do a pho noodle dish with all the regular flavours just without the broth. It was so good that I wouldn’t be sad if I ate it daily!

Then, we stopped on the street of beer to try locally brewed beer. This was a group favourite as our one sample turned into many samples! It was also much cooler in the place than outside! After a few brews, we walked to get sticky rice with ice cream and fresh coconut. It sounds odd, but it was actually quite delicious, especially the fresh coconut!

Our final stop was the craziest one of all. We went down a small alley and then up a tiny back staircase to get into a coffee shop. This family specialized in egg cream coffees, which had been invented by their grandfather. It consists of coffee and whipped egg yolks and sugar. It is sweet, thick and creamy. You could definitely only drink one, but I would have another in a second!

Our guide walked us back to our hotel and we waited for our bus to arrive. The bus whisked us off to the train station to catch our overnight train to Hue. Currently, I’m sitting on the top bunk of our four bed car. This certainly isn’t a European train, so I’m hopeful that we can all get some sleep but…Read more