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Eating Hanoi – Green Tangerine

Jun05

Restaurant: Green Tangerine

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 30, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: A tad too experimental

Our final meal in Vietnam. Cry.

Green Tangerine serves what its website calls “French food with a Vietnamese twist.”

The usual big menu.

Shrimp salad.

Duck pastry mixed with eggplants, tomatoes, curcuma, onions on a red berries sauce.

Sliced beef cooked in oven topped with 2 kinds of chutneys: red pepper and pineapple in curry, served with homemade pastas and Gouda cheese.

Fish in saffron rolled with bacon served with rice noodle: “Cha ca” style, Green Tangerine way.

Chicken in mango, rum and cardamon sauce served with a tart of spinach enhanced with mango slices.

Lasagna of fishes cooked in white wine served with vegetables and a trio of mousses: red fruits, parmesan cheese, and basil leaves.

Mango stir fried with passion fruits sauce, in crumble served with vanilla ice cream.

Only some of the dishes here “worked.” They all looked pretty, but a few of them had weird flavor combinations that just didn’t quite get off the ground. They weren’t bad, just the truth is, none had the intensity and liveliness of good straight-up Vietnamese. Sometimes you can get too experimental — or perhaps lack the skill to pull it off.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating-vietnam, French Cuisine, Green Tangerine, hanoi, Mango, Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine

Eating Hanoi – Madame Hien

Jun03

Restaurant: Madame Hien

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 29, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian

For our final dinner in Vietnam we head out to another “high end street food” restaurant, this time part of a group of establishments run by Didier Corlou a French chef who married a Vietnamese woman.

The chef says:

This restaurant is a dedication to my wife’s grandmother and to all Vietnamese women of the past and the present. It is also a tribute to their way of cooking, their ancestral culture and the artisanal and regional knowledge of over one thousand years. The rich diversity of Vietnam, found in its two deltas, fifty four minorities, three thousand kilometers of coastline and many natural resources (rivers, forests, mountains and oceans) is reflected in its cuisine.

The location is in a lovely colonial courtyard.

Fresh spring rolls.

Banana flower salad. These salads are amazing. I think this one had chicken and believe it or not, mortadella!

Pupu platter. Well, for lack of a better name this appetizer sampler comes with all sorts of good stuff. Fried spring rolls, fresh ones, pickles, softshell crab, omelet.

More spring rolls, tofu sticks.

This is a fried softshell crab and crab salad.

And steamed Chinese broccoli with garlic.

Duck breast.

Sliced lamb, I think. Like most Vietnamese meats, scrumptious.

Overall, this was the tastiest meal we had in Hanoi, and probably in the top three of our trip. The chef had a great palette and the execution was very sharp.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating-vietnam, French Cuisine, hanoi, Madame Hien, Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine

Eating Hanoi – Club Opera

May28

Restaurant: Club Opera

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 28, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Upscale take

Our second night in Hanoi brought us (accidentally) to an even more upscale take on Vietnamese cuisine. Of course, it still had the giant menu.

And fresh spring rolls. Just here, you get an individual sauce on a spoon!

Or these Friend Spring Rolls Hue Imperial Style impaled on a coconut.

Or these other fried spring rolls.

Mango Salad with Grilled Australian Beef. These are always great.

This was a kind of rice ravioli. It was a little bland.

Seafood rice noodle. There are glass noodles in there and all sorts of seafood including fish, shrimp, and squid.

Grilled Australian Beef tenderloin with lemongrass and chili.

Grilled pork ribs with Mandarin sauce. Apparently, like Mandarin oranges, Mandarin sauce is well… orange (and sweet).

Grilled Duck in Tamarind Sauce. Yum.

Grilled prawn with lemongrass.

Steamed prawn in passion fruit sauce. Great over rice.

Overall, things were quite tasty here, but the level of formality and “rigidity” of the place didn’t really fit the vibe we had grown accustomed to in Vietnam. It also wasn’t actually “better” than the good casual places. Sure, presentation was a little more elaborate — and it was still an on point kitchen — but I don’t think it was worth the price hike.

Another mysterious observation. Having grown a bit sick of beer, I went to the wine list. It was mostly French, but there were no German or Alsatian wines. And very few whites, maybe a Sancere or two. Nothing that really goes with this cuisine (I was looking for a dry or slightly off dry Riesling). Lots of Bordeaux, which the Vietnamese seem to like but which I think clashes terribly with the complex and slightly sweet flavors of the food.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating-vietnam, hanoi, spring roll, Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine

Seasons of Hanoi

May26

Restaurant: Seasons of Hanoi

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 28, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Lovely

Hanoi has very good food. Our guide the first day took us to this upscale location.

Hanoi is filled with lovely colonial buildings and many of the city’s better restaurants seem to have taken them over as idyllic settings. From a glance, you can see this isn’t a local joint, which is more a plastic stools on the sidewalk kinda thing.

I was too hot and exhausted to photograph the 15 page menu.

Seafood salad. One of those delicious Vietnamese “fresh” dishes consisting of some protein, various vegetables, usually peanuts, and a slightly sweet, sour, sauce that really makes the dish.

Shrimp salad. This one probably also has some kind of plant material “filler” like papaya, bamboo, or the like.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls. The classic shrimp, pork, and noodle rolls.

Caramel Shrimp. Like Vietnamese gambas pil pil. But no garlic, shrimp boiled in a stick-sweet sauce. Delicious.

Particularly over rice!

Fried eel. With a peanut base sauce. Also delicious.

Overall, this was one of our more “modest” (in terms of dish count) meals, but it was super tasty. I would have liked a more epic sampling of their cuisine.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating-vietnam, hanoi, Seasons of Hanoi, Vietnamese cuisine

Wake up Hanoi

May13

Restaurant: Hanoi Metrolpole

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 28, 2014

Cuisine: International

Rating: Much better than at the Hilton

Moving north through the DMV into Hanoi we come to rest at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi.

This is a seriously nice hotel. It’s up there with some of the best city hotels I’ve stayed in like the Tokyo Park Hyatt and the Four Seasons Istanbul.

Plus there’s that lovely colonial vibe. Back when labor was EVEN cheaper (read even more exploited) they really knew how to build.

The breakfast buffet is pretty impressive.

Juices. I’m partial to the mango which is like a mango lassi.

No place in Vietnam would be complete without pastries.

Lots of them!

And lots.

And more lots.

Or exotic fruits.

Yogurts and yogurts with fruit.

Or even a milk bar (sorry, no Droogs).

Cereal.

And a pretty good looking cold cut spread.

I don’t know who wants salad with their coffee, but I guess some do.

Cheese.

A cool “live” honeycomb.

Notice the giant vat of Nutella — and mysteriously, the Vegemite. Those Australians.

Now we get into the Asian section. Tofu, grilled fish, various Asian condiments.

The elaborate Miso and Congee station.

Some dimsum and sauces.

Like these pork shu mai.

Or steamed buns without any filling.

And the omelet bar plus others.

Veggies.

More veggies.

Fried rice.

Odd gelatinous rice “tamales.”

Pork stuffed sticky rice.

You can see one of the cooks unwrapping and cutting it here. Lotus leaf or banana leaf?

The all important Pho station.

Surprisingly, Pho works for breakfast.

And the jump start is rather necessary.

So decadent was their service that someone brought this tray around periodically to tempt you. Ho Chi Minh must be rolling in his grave. Wait, I checked out his grave and he was just lying there looking at the ceiling.

Yum flan.

And last but not least, bread pudding with creme Anglais!

All in all a great breakfast. More offerings, but the food perhaps wasn’t QUITE as on point as the Saigon breakfast. Close though, real close.

For more Vietnam dining reviews, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating-vietnam, hanoi, Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, Vietnamese cuisine

Oxymoron? – Upscale Street Food

Apr25

Restaurant: Nha Hang Ngon

Location: Hanoi

Date: March 27, 2014

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Great Upscale Street Food

Our third city in Vietnam is bustling Hanoi — and I mean bustling. This city has the pounding pulse of a jack rabbit on speed.

Our investigations brought us to Nha Hang Ngon which is a small chain of upscale street food (again!).

The setting is a cool old colonial courtyard house.

If anything, this menu is even bigger than some of the others!

Crispy pork and shrimp spring rolls. These were the best fried rolls I had on the trip. Fabulous.

A fresh spring roll variant, I think with roast pork and crab. Also great.

Fried pork wontons. Delicious, but tasted of fry (big surprise!)

Egg pancake stuffed with shrimp. This was rolled with vegetables in rice paper too.

An accidental order was this duck soup, which was a sort of egg drop.

Beef Pho. A more classic beef pho with noodles, beef, herbs, etc.

Green papaya salad. These fresh Vietnamese salads are incredibly delicious.

Salad with shrimp and fiddler crab.

Green salad. Sort of a western version. No dressing was apparent.

Coconut and shrimp salad. Somehow that shaved stuff is from the coconut tree. I don’t know what part.

Vietnamese BBQ Beef (Nha Trang Style). This apparently is a classic. The beef was tender and tasty. There is an incredibly salty fish salt and optional french bread to put it on.

Steak frites. I thought this was a Banh Mi, but it ended up being a pan fried filet mignon and fries. Not bad though.

And it came with bread, and various dipping sauces. The orange one was hot (and good).

Grilled sea-bass in banana leaf. A nice grilled fish.

Fried squid. What passes for calamari here. Pretty good though.

Shrimp. I don’t remember what kind but they were extremely tasty.

Vermicelli with shrimp. Delicious, as most Vietnamese noodle dishes are.

Wide rice noodles with beef.

Pad Vietnam. I made up the name, but this dish is essentially Pad Thai. It was delicious. You still the ingredients together. We ordered it twice.

Taro Sticky Sweet Soup with coconut milk. The concept is weird, but it was pretty delicious.

Jelly, water chestnut-tapioca pearls and coconut milk. A bit strange, but pleasant enough.

Fresh persimmon? Very interesting complex flavor, like an apple pie.

bundles of noodles

This place was great and we had a fun time. The food wasn’t quite as on point as at the other two upscale street food restaurants we found, but they have a monster menu and it was super tasty.