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.

Bánh Cuốn (Rolled Cake)

In Ha Noi, bánh cuốn was first made in Thanh Trì, a suburban village. Thanh Trì lies to the south-east of Hà Nội on the bank of the Red River. The inhabitants here are skilled in making the original rolled cake, as thin as paper, as clear as porcelain glaze and having a nice flavor. The flour is soft and elastic. In the past, every morning, Thanh Trì girls brought bánh cuốn to the inner area and sold it in the streets.

They carried a bamboo basket covered with a flat basket on their heads and when customers called them, they would put it down. In it there were a bottle of fish sauce, vinegar, chili, some bowls, and dishes, a dozen or so pairs of chopsticks and layers of bánh cuốn arranged over one another. Each layer of bánh cuốn had been covered with a little fat and fried pieces of onion.

Bánh Cuốn (Rolled Cake)

The huckster slowly took out each layer, rolled it and placed it on a dish to serve her customer. Banh cuon taken with hot sour sauce is really a delicious and popular food. When urban people have more sophisticated tastes, they take bánh cuốn together with giò bò (beef paste), giò lụa (lean pork pie) or chả lợn (fried pork pie). In each way, they can enjoy a special flavor. Though there are now new types of bánh cuốn, that made in Thanh Trì is still flavored by many Hanoians.

Half a century ago, a number of improved bánh cuốn stalls came into being on Ha Noi streets. They still used Thanh Trì bánh cuốn but added fillings of half-lean-half-fat port and fresh chopped shelled shrimp, fragrant mushrooms, and jelly fungus soaked in warm water and cut into small pieces with onions, fish sauce and pepper. All those ingredients are fried then put into the rolled cake which will be steamed before being .served to the customer. In the bowl of prepared fish sauce, some drops of belostomatid essence are added to give the food a flavor.

Today, at bánh cuốn stalls in Ha Noi Old Quarter, the cake. And the fillings inside the cake are made at the same time. Customers have to wait for each dish of cake and enjoy the warm and fragrant smoke, particularly on cold days. Unfortunately, belostomatid species have gradually been subjected to extinction and almost all stalls use chemical belostomatid essence. Nevertheless, the bánh cuốn stall at No. 17 Cha Ca Street still serves customers with the real belostomatid essence.

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.

Thủ Lệ Park

Thu Le Park was inaugurated in 1977. Situated on the western side of inner Hà Nội, it covers an area of 29 ha. The park owes its attractiveness primarily to the beautiful landscape with Linh Lang Lake of 80,000 m2, BÒ earth mound and a natural earthen surrounding dyke that looks like some snakes playing with one another by the lake. 

Thủ Lệ Temple (or Voi Phuc Temple) was constructed in the Lý Dynasty amongst luxuriant ficus trees (see Thủ Lệ Temple).

Tiger in Thu Le Park

Thu Le Park is also a zoo which is divided into various sections. Reptiles are grown by the lake where there are suitable caves for them. The section for birds runs along the entrance to Voi Phục Temple, with peacocks, pheasants, mandarin ducks, flamingoes, cranes, storks, and singing birds. 

There are sections for animals such as tigers, panthers, bears, lions, monkeys, elephants, dear, weasels, civets, etc. Besides these sections, there are plenty of grassed areas, recreational areas and open platforms for dancing.

The park is called Thủ Lệ because it lies in the land of Thu Le village, an ancient village that dates back at least to the Lý Dynasty (11th century). The village’s history is closely linked to that of Linh Lang to whom Voi Phuc Temple is dedicated.

Chi Lăng Park

Bordered by three roads, Trần Phú, Hoàng Diệu and Điện Biên Phủ, this nice park is named after the Chi Lăng victory over the Ming invaders on 10th October 1427. At Chi Lăng, now in Lạng Sơn province, the Vietnamese army defeated the reserve troops commanded by Liễu Thăng, leading to the liberation of Đông Đô (Hà Nội) two months later.

Chi Lang Park

Chi Lăng Park was originally a lake inside the Ha Noi Citadel (Trần Phú Road was the Citadel’s southern wall). This hike was where soldiers bathed and was called Elephant Lake. Under French domination, the Ha Noi Citadel was destroyed (1894-1897), and Hà Nội was subjected to re-planning. The lake was filled and this park was built. In the comer of the park on Hoàng Diệu Road there was a group of statues.

On the pedestal, two French soldiers were depicted, one pointing his rifle at the flag tower, the other throwing a hand-grenade. At four sides of the pedestal were representatives of the four classes of local society: man-darins, peasants, craftsmen and traders. At the front side was a peasant carrying a plough. For this reason, the park was commonly called “Farming Park”.

In 1985, a 5.2m high statue of Lenin was set up here on a 2.7m granite pedestal.

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.