Discover Hanoi through the eyes of Japanese tourists

Cuisine, culture, history and people of Hanoi through the perspective of tourist Zinara Rathnayake, shared by her in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei Asia.

It’s 6am on a chilly December morning, but Hanoi is alive and bustling. Women peddle flowers on bicycles, selling chrysanthemums and other colorful native flowers. Older women dance to lively music around Hoan Kiem Lake, one of the city’s natural freshwater lakes. Nearby, groups of office workers in suits sit on plastic stools on the sidewalk, chatting over steaming bowls of pho.

Vietnam’s capital has changed a lot since the war ended in 1975. The city is now filled with specialty cafes, convenience stores, restaurants and artisan workshops. Hanoi welcomes more than 4 million foreign visitors each year, many of whom sleep on the 36 crowded streets of the city’s vibrant Old Quarter.

Hanoi's Old Quarter is a vibrant historical and cultural center and a popular destination for tourists.

PHOTO: Zinara Rathnayake

Many of the shops here once produced goods for Vietnam’s kings, the last of whom abdicated in 1945. On Hang Bac Street, goldsmiths still make carved jewellery, while Hang Ma Street is famous for its votive offerings and stationery. The street also becomes a wonderland at Christmas, with shops displaying festive red and white decorations.

This is where I met my guide Hoan Nguyen, who was eager to show me the city’s best food spots. For the next few hours, Hoan led me through the alleys of the Old Quarter as we navigated the streets of motorbikes. Hanoi is making efforts to curb this popular mode of transport, partly to combat worsening air pollution. But the city still has 7 million motorbikes.

Street food in the old town

“In Hanoi, you get a strong sense of local culture,” Hoan says. She says most people eat out in the morning and hit up small stalls at lunchtime, so there are plenty of places to get a good bite to eat in the capital.

Our first stop was a small family-run restaurant selling banh xeo. A popular dish in the south, banh xeo is wrapped in rice paper with lettuce and cilantro, and dipped in a sweet and spicy sauce. Like many other parts of Asia, rice is the base of Vietnamese cuisine, often combined with ingredients like fish sauce and fresh herbs. The meal is balanced with sweet, salty, bitter, sour and spicy flavors.

Crispy pancakes topped with bean sprouts and meat. Guide Hoan Nguyen runs a street food tour introducing visitors to popular local dishes.

PHOTO: Zinara Rathnayake

As we walked down narrow alleys past dozens of small food stalls, Hoan said that complex dishes like pho are rarely made at home because of the many ingredients and time and effort required to prepare them. While Vietnamese cuisine is multi-layered, with rice noodles, broths and meats from different regions, Hoan told me that many tourists limit themselves to banh mi or pho. “That’s one of the reasons I started this food tour,” she said, “to introduce tourists to Vietnamese cuisine.”

We stopped for cha ca lang, a Hanoi delicacy of fish marinated in turmeric and galangal and grilled over charcoal. I watched Hoan stir-fry grilled fish with spring onions and dill in a wok of oil on the stove. We paired the fish and herbs with soft rice noodles, peanuts and a deliciously spicy shrimp sauce.

The restaurant next door sells bun cha, a Hanoi dish believed to have originated in the Old Quarter, combining grilled pork in a sweet and sour sauce with rice noodles and herbs. Bun cha has become popular with Western tourists since former President Barack Obama and American chef Anthony Bourdain dined at bun cha Huong Lien, a Hanoi restaurant specializing in the dish, in 2016. Bun cha Huong Lien now boasts photos of Obama and Bourdain (who died in 2018) on the wall and is mentioned in the Michelin guide to Hanoi.

Fruit and vegetable stalls line the streets of the old town.

PHOTO: Zinara Rathnayake

However, Hoan says the best food in the capital comes from small roadside eateries. “Most locals only go to sit-down restaurants on weekends for family dinners, dates or special parties,” she says as we sit on small plastic stools to sample banh khuc – steamed rice rolls wrapped in banana leaves with morning glory, pork and mung beans. “It reminds me of my hometown every time I eat it,” she says.

Coffee culture

Coffee runs in the blood of the Vietnamese. But it wasn’t a part of local life until the French arrived in 1857. Robusta coffee plants, which are high in caffeine, thrive in the country’s central highlands, and when the country opened up to international trade in 1987, coffee became popular around the world. Vietnam is now the world’s second-largest coffee exporter, accounting for more than 40% of the world’s Robusta beans, according to the World Economic Forum. Vietnam’s annual coffee exports topped $5 billion for the first time in the year to September 2024, according to the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association.

In Hanoi, coffee is ubiquitous, served at street stalls and “third wave” establishments that focus on single-origin beans. Beans are traditionally roasted dark and brewed slowly with a filter. When fresh milk was scarce and expensive during the French colonial period, condensed milk became a viable alternative, in part because it lasts longer in the hot, humid climate.

A coffee shop in Hanoi's Old Quarter

PHOTO: Zinara Rathnayake

Egg coffee is a must-try, Hoan said as we walked down a narrow, crowded alley to Cafe Giang, a legendary spot that many visitors to Hanoi must visit. Here, egg yolks are beaten with sugar and condensed milk to create a smooth texture and mixed with black coffee. There are other variations, including salted coffee, made with salted cream, and coconut coffee, made with coconut milk. Many other cafes serve specialty drinks, including Ta Ca Phe, a roastery that uses six different blends and offers unique drinks like yogurt coffee.

History and culture of Hanoi

While Hanoians have moved on from the dark days of war, Vietnam's turbulent past remains vivid in places like the Hoa Lo Prison Museum...

Tourists can easily see flower carts on the streets of Hanoi.

PHOTO: Zinara Rathnayake

In 1985, Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world, with 75% of its population living in poverty, according to the World Bank. Today, it is one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia.

At the end of the tour, we visited one of Hanoi’s two train streets – narrow streets with single tracks where trains pass just inches from shops and pedestrians. This area was damaged during the war, in December 1972, with many houses flattened by bombs around Kham Thien Street, a busy shopping area today…

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/kham-pha-ha-noi-qua-goc-nhin-cua-du-khach-nhat-ban-185250317145914674.htm