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.

Lenin Park

This park lies between four streets namely Trần Nhân Tông, Lê Duẩn, Đại Cồ Việt and Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, and occupies an area of more than fifty hectares.

Lenin Park

Before 1958, the Ha Noi People Committee decided to transform the dump into a recreational park. At the time, all Hanoians were mobilized to voluntarily work for this project which was completed in 1960. On 11th January 1960, President Ho Chi Minh planted a memorial banyan tree in the park.

Lenin Park

As the country was then not unified yet, the park was called Thống Nhất (Unification) to show the affection of the apital’s people for their southern compatriots.

In 1975 the country was reunified. On 19th April 1980, the Ha Noi People’s Committee renamed the park after Lenin in commemoration of his 110th birth anniversary.

The park has two big gates on Trần Nhân Tông and Lê Duẩn Streets and two smaller gates on Đại Cồ Việt and Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Streets. In the park, there are many trees and flowerbeds, a large lake, tree-covered islands, recreational areas for children and quiet places for the elderly. Early in the morning, people, who live around the park, come here to do their physical exercises and to enjoy fresh air.

Every year, a “Spring Flower Festival” is held here, attracting lots of people with a wide variety of flowers and ornamental plants.

Bach Thao Park

Bách Thảo Park is located right at the back of President Hồ Chí Minh’s Mausoleum and the Presidential Palace. It covers an area of twenty hectares of land which originally belonged to Khán Xuân ward. In 1890, the French displaced the people of this ward to build a large garden for planting trees and raising animals. The garden was called Jardin botanique but Hanoians used to call it Trại Hàng Hoa (Flower Garden) or Bách Thú Garden (Zoo).

During World War II (1939-1945) the animals grown there gradually died because of lack of care. Finally, the French administration moved the remaining animals to Saigon Zoo.

Bach Thao Park

After the liberation of Hà Nội on the 10th October 1954, the State rebuilt this area and renamed it Bach Thao (Botanical) Park. At the park’s northwest corner, there is an earth mound which is usually called Khán mound or Nùng mound. It is, in fact, Sưa mound because Khán and Nùng mounds no longer exist today. Sưa is a type of hardwood, similar to iron wood.

In the past, sưa trees grew in abundance on this mound. Also on this mound, there is an ancient temple dedicated to Huyền Thiên Hắc Đế, a boy who, according to legend, helped a King of the Lý Dynasty defeat foreign invaders.

Ho Chi Minh Museum

It is located to the right of Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum with its main gate on Chùa Một Cột Street off Hùng Vương Street. According to the museum’s designers, the building evokes a lotus flower symbolizing the lofty morality of President Hồ Chí Minh. The building, 20.5m high, has a basement for equipment, and several floors with a technical section, a study section, a library, and conference halls, etc.

Ho Chi Minh Museum

One main floor of the museum is the museum area and another floor is for provisional exhibitions. The 13,000 m2 museum floor is the central part of the construction. In the ceremonial room in the floor’s center, there is a statue of Hồ Chí Minh. Many documents, art photographs and objects trace the important events in the life of Hồ Chí Minh. The outer part of this floor focuses on the theme “Việt Nam’s revolution linking to the world”. Everything in this museum is displayed in a modem and scientific way.

The museum started to be constructed on 31st August 1985, and it was officially opened on 19th May 1990, on the 100th birth anniversary of Hồ Chí Minh.

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