Hanoi
In Hanoi, staff of the Hotel Metropole greeted us each day with “Bonjour Madame Lisa! Bonjour, Monsieur Bill!” The French Colonial influence was more visible in this city, compared with larger, more cosmopolitan Saigon.
Shortly after our arrival, we hopped aboard vintage Vespa scooters for an evening food crawl. First we enjoyed some phở cuốn — strips of beef, lettuce and herbs wrapped in a fresh rice-noodle crepe and dipped in pungent nước chấm (vinegar, fish sauce, chili, and sugar) with radish and lime juice.
We also stopped at Bún Chả Hương Liên, AKA Bún Chả Obama since the President dined here with Anthony Bourdain in 2016. (This episode of Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, the Season 8 premiere, is a heartfelt introduction to Vietnam and its cuisine.)
Bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, is small grilled pork patties served in a bowl of rice noodles. We also tasted some crispy fried seafood rolls and washed it down with Bia Hà Nội, a local lager.
We started a second day of touring on the back of some vintage Minsks, Russian military motorcycles. Our route wound through the city’s Old Quarter, a maze of narrow passageways and stalls selling everything from Christmas decorations to electrical supplies.
We rode through banana and vegetable farms and took a ferry across the Red River. On the other bank was the village of Bat Trang, known for its ceramics. We watched artisans at work and met Mr. Tu, an architect/artist and the fourth generation of his family to live in this Bat Trang home. He offered us tiny cups of his homemade ginger-infused liquor. (The murky contents of the big glass jar looked dubious, but it was quite pleasant-tasting.)
