Gio Lua (Boiled Lean Pork Pie)

Pork may be processed in various ways: pie, sausage, jambow, roast pork, etc. Giò lụa is a typically Vietnamese specialty.

Giò lụa is available in all corners of Viet Nam but the best may be that of Hà Nội made by the inhabitants of ước Lễ village (former Hà Đông province), Mr. Liu, a man reputed for his making of giò lụa, once told writer Nguyễn Tuân: “Not any pork can be used for giò lụa. Frozen pork can’t be pounded. Meat must be fresh.

Giò Lụa

When cutting the pork, you must be careful not to cut your finger. The pounding requires hard work. If meat is pounded in an irregular manner, it will be spoiled. In the past, there was no electric fan. When I pounded meat, my face, my body sweated but I continually pounded in spite of mosquito bites and other distractions.

When I was tired, I looked at my grandchildren who would pour a cup of alcohol into my mouth... It’s not necessary to pound with great strength but continuously and regularly’ When I hear the beating of giò, I can guess whether it is spoiled or not. I don’t know how long ago my ancestors taught us this trade but at the temple dedicated to the cult of our ancestors there are always two wooden pestles, red lacquered and gilded about lm long. To be frank, I think, if a man does not know how to pound meat regularly, he is like a builder not knowing how to pour concrete...”

Gỉò Lụa (Boiled Lean Pork Pie)

After the selection and pounding of the meat, it is necessary to have banana leaves for packing.
The outside cover is made of old banana leaves and the inside cover, young yellowish banana leaves. The flavor of giò lụa comes from those of properly pounded meat and of fresh banana leaves after they are boiled. Giò lụa can be eaten separately or with rice, vermicelli or used in the preparation of other foods.

Chả Cá (Grilled Chopped Fish)

Almost all foreigners who come to Hà Nội look for Cha Ca Street to taste this specialty. In the past, in this street were sold various types of Vietnamese lacquer, and it was known as Hàng Sơn (Lacquer) Street.

At the end of the 19th century, the Đoàn family residing at No. 14 came up with a new dish of grilled fish served with vermicelli and some spices. As the dish was liked by their friends, the family opened a shop to sell it. It was called chả cá Lã Vọng as at the door of the shop was placed the statue of La Vong (a famous Chinese figure) holding a fishing rod in one hand and a string of fish in the other.

This food was gradually accepted by Hanoians and its reputation spread all over the City. Later, the traditional street was re-named Cha Ca.

Chả Cá (Grilled Chopped Fish)

The shopkeeper places on the table in front of his customers a small earth stove with hot charcoal on which there is a small frying pan with boiling fat. Then the ingredients and spices are displayed: mắm tôm (shrimp paste), lemon, chili, roasted peanuts, bánh đa (a kind of cake made of ground rice), different kinds of herbs particularly fennel and spring onion.

Fish used to make this food can be bagarius, carnero, mussel but the best is dwarf catfish cut into pieces then mixed with lemongrass and pepper. When chả cá is brought to the table, the guest puts some spring onion and some fish pieces into the pan with boiling oil.

Chả Cá (Grilled Chopped Fish)

Then he takes bún (vermicelli), onion, coriander, fennel and roasted peanuts along with one or two pieces of chả cá and dip them into the shrimp paste with lemon juice, chili and sometime, some belostomatid essence.

Delicious! While tasting the specialty, take a glance over the dim room full of blue smoke spiraling upwards. The air is impregnated with good smells.

Bun Cha (Grilled Chopped Meat And Rice Vermicelli)

Thạch Lam wrote poetry-like prose to describe the attractiveness of baskets of bun cha in Ha Noi streets in the 1930’s: “When you are hungry and sitting down-wind, you smell the aromatic smoke of grilled chopped meat, you’ll be very much likely to become a poet.

Blue smoke spirals up like a misty veil on the mountain side; fat sizzles on burning coal and the bamboo fan gives the sounds like those coming from the moving branches of a tree.

The meat for making chả is of two types: for chả băm (grilled chopped meat), people use lean shoulder of pork and for chả miếng (grilled meat piece), they use belly pork. The meat is pressed between two bamboo slats, and then grilled on a small box of burning charcoal. The huckster slightly fans the flame with a small bamboo fan, just enough for the meat to be done to a turn without being burned and losing its flavor.

Bun Cha Hanoi

Bun in this dish is different from other kinds and it should be thin strands made into small rolls. The vermicelli is placed on a small tray covered with green banana leaves, in a corner of which there is some cabbage, lettuce, coriander, perilla ocymoides, cockscand mint, and particularly basil grown in Láng village. The sauce must be well-prepared with fish sauce, sugar, lemon, garlic, chili and pepper in such a manner that is neither too salty nor too sour.

Bun Cha Hanoi

The preparation of the sauce to be served with bun cha is in fact a culinary art. In the past, this specialty in Hà Nội was sold by hucksters in the streets or markets. Now it is sold everywhere, at many stalls. People no longer use bamboo slats but steel-grids and the vermicelli is not the same as in the past. Bún chả has partially lost part of its past charm.

Hà Nội's Specialties

Well-known Vietnamese writers of the 20th cen-tury such as Thạch Lam, Nguyễn Tuân and Vũ Bằng have written many articles praising Hà Nội specialties. “Hanoians take food daily but never pay atten-tion to it. 

However, if they go to other provinces for some time or even to Hải Phòng, Nam Định, they will realize how delicious Ha Noi foods is” (Thạch Lam). “Even the most delicious specialties are all available in Ha Noi Old Quarter” (Vũ Bằng).

In this booklet, we wish to review the most popular foods of Hanoians.

Phở (Noodle Soup)

In Paris, Geneva, Montreal, Sydney, and throughout the world wherever there is a Vietnamese community, there is phở. But only in Hà Nội can you fully taste its peculiar flavor. We don’t know when phở came into being but early in the 20th century the well-known phở restaurants in Hà Nội already appeared. The noodles, made from rice flour, are cut into thin and narrow strands. Before serving eaters, the seller would parboil them to make the noodles resistant but not breakable. At the request of clients, meat can be prepared separately or together with the noodles. 

Noodle Soup

Tái means thinly sliced fillets of beef, mixed with ground ginger, dipped into the boiling soup for a moment and served immediately. The fatty meat from the chest of the cow called gầu is favoured by young men. Nam means sinewy beef. Pho Ha Noi must be served with all the necessary spices: pepper, lemon, chili, onion, coriander. 

When having phở, we can feel the hotness of pepper and chili; taste the particular flavor of the other ingredients and that of tender fresh beef. All these spices are mixed and produce and particular taste of the delicious hot soup flavored with stewed beef bones, ginger and roasted onions.

That is phở served with stock. As for fried phở, the noodles must be fried until they turn yellow, mixed with fried beef and then served on a plate along with onions, spring onions, coriander, etc. Phở sốt vang is a kind of stew in which the beef, marinated in liquor, is stewed with ingredients such as anise, cinnamon, Tasaki, etc.

Noodle Soup

Beef noodle soup is traditional phở. In the early 1940’s in Hà Nội, chicken phở began to appear. In a number of phở stalls, beef was substituted with chicken. At first chicken phở was not popular. However, this food has gradually attracted the people with its peculiar taste. Some slices of lean chicken with yellowish skin are mixed with thin strands of fragrant lemon leaves, some green spring onion, coriander and red chili. “All the above ingredients are dipped into a very clear soup, giving the dish of phở a special flavor, as sweet as a Virgo, if beef phở is to be compared with a young man full of strength and spirit” (Vũ Bằng).

In Hà Nội, almost all quarters have phở restaurants but gourmets usually select a regular one for themselves. However, well-known stalls last for dozens of years only. Today in Nam Ngư Street (linking Lê Duẩn avenue to Phan Bội Châu Street), there are many phở stalls with different kinds of phở. And in Bat Dan Street, there is a “traditional Pho' stall which is favored by lots of gourmets.

Museum Of Revolution

In December 1954, two months after it took over Hà Nội from the French, the revolutionary Government decided to build the Museum of Revolution. Objects were collected throughout the North, and on 6th January 1959, Việt Nam’s Museum of Revolution was officially opened.

The museum used to be the Service of Trade whose front side is on Trần Quang Khải Street, and back side on Tông Đản Street. The former building was turned into 29 rooms for displaying over 40,000 objects. The first room is dedicated to a general introduction of the country and people of Việt Nam while the last room displays the evidence of the solidarity between Việt Nam and the world.

Vietnam Museum of Revolution

The rest of the museum is designed for displaying the objects related to the Vietnamese’s struggle against French colonialism, Japanese fascism, and American imperialism from the mid-19th century until 1975.

The collection includes the memorabilia on the revolutionary career of Uncle HỒ and other revolutionaries; the Communist Party’s magazines and newspapers, including the rare and valuable publications of the period between 1920 and 1945; the country’s different flags, including the Party’s flag in 1930, the red flag with a yellow star in 1941; weapons, including the knives used'by the Nghệ An Red Guard in 1930, the rifles used by the Bắc Sơn guerillas in 1941, the crossbows used by the people in Trà Bồng (Quảng Ngãi province) during their insurrection in 1958, and a rocket pad used to down US B52 bombers in Hà Nội in December 1972.

Hà Nội Past and Present Nguyen Vinh Phuc - The Gioi Publishers

Museum Of History

Situated at No.l Phạm Ngũ Lão Street, behind the Hà Nội Opera House, this museum was originally the museum of the école Française d’Extreme Orient, which was founded in 1932 by the French. At that time, the museum exhibited a collection of antiques collected throughout Southeast Asia.

In 1958, the French handed over this building to Việt Nam, and it became the National Museum of History. After many times of repair and up gradation, the museum has become an important cultural organ, a center for historical studies and exhibition of artifacts.

Museum Of History

Both floors of the museum are reserved for thou-sands of artifacts displayed in the order of antiquity. The Stone Age section contains stone tools and instruments for hunting and fighting, evidence of the presence of pre-historic people in Việt Nam. The stone hand axes chipped three to four hundred thousand years ago, which were unearthed at Đọ mountain in Thanh Hoá province, prove that Việt Nam is one of the ancient cradles of humans.

The Bronze Age section of the museum is famous for its bronze drums, the most notable of which is the majestic and beautiful Ngọc Lũ drum. Many studies have been made on its sculpture, use, and manufacturing technology, etc. Also on exhibit are bronze axes, javelin blades, daggers, spears, and other bronze weapons made during the Hùng Kings. The thin and thorny CỔ Loa bronze arrows displayed here used to frighten the northern invaders in the 2nd century BC so much that they were called magical arrows.

Over the past 2,000 years, Việt Nam has had a history of continuous struggle against foreign invaders. The museum’s many photographs of Việt Nam’s pagodas, temples, fortresses, grave sites, personages and famous generals, and many important documents, well known sayings, and original artifacts all attest to the indomitable spirit of the nation.

Visiting the Vietnam Museum of History, one can learn the history of national building and defence of the Vietnamese people.

President Hồ Chí Minh’s Mausoleum

The construction of this project was formally started on 2nd September 1973 and finished on 21st August 1978. The Mausoleum stands on the place of the former platform in the middle of the Ba Đình Square. It is the place at which, for decades, Uncle HỒ had chaired great meetings.

The Mausoleum is a three-storied structure with the total height of 21.6m. The lowest part, a three- tier structure, is designed for the Presidiums of meetings. The middle part, the center of the whole structure, is composed of a room where the

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

President’s body is kept, and corridors and stairs. Each of the four sides of the Mausoleum is decorated with a row of five square granite columns. It reminds us of the traditional five-compartment house of the Vietnamese people in the countryside. The top part is the Mausoleum’s roof which is also a three-tier structure.

On the front site, there are the words “Chủ Tịch Hồ Chí Minh” (President Ho Chi Minh) made of deep red ruby.

Entering the foyer, visitors can see on the front dark red granite wall the famous phrase of President Hổ Chí Minh “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom”. Below it is the author’s signature. One stair leads to the room where the glass coffin of the President is kept. There are, on the white stone wall, the Party’s and national flags. The entrances from three sides allow many people to pay homage to the President conveniently.

The Mausoleum manifests the boundless respect and gratitude of the Vietnamese people towards their great leader.

Hà Nội Past and Present Nguyen Vinh Phuc - The Gioi Publishers