Hanoi - Part 2

July 13, 2016

We were back for one day in Hanoi before our Ha Long Bay cruise.  

We walked around the old quarter for a bit went for egg coffee at Giang Cafe...soo delicious.

Giang Café is humbly hidden on a small lane on Nguyen Huu Huan Street in the city’s old quarter. We actually walked right past it on our first day in Hanoi and we were so happy that we found it on our second time around. It is well hidden at the end of a dark narrow corridor.

It continues to be hugely popular among Hanoi’s coffee addicts with its special ca phe trung, or egg coffee.

Giang Café was founded by Mr. Nguyen Giang in 1946, when he was working as a bartender for the famous five-star Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel. Although the café has been relocated twice, its egg coffee recipe is almost the same as in its early days, with its chief ingredients being chicken egg yolk, Vietnamese coffee powder, sweetened condensed milk, butter and cheese.

The coffee is brewed in a small cup with a filter before the addition of a well-whisked mixture of the yolk and other ingredients. The cup is placed in a bowl of hot water to keep its temperature.

Giang developed the recipe in days when milk was scarce in Vietnam. He used egg yolks to replace milk.

Clockwise from top left:  egg coffee (hot), egg with chocolate (hot), egg with green beans (ice)

Yes...we have a slight obsession with everything egg...so delicious.

As per David's request we visited Hoa Lo prison.

Hỏa Lò Prison was a prison used by the French colonists in Vietnam for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for U.S. Prisoners of War during the Vietnam War. During this later period it was sarcastically known to American POWs as the Hanoi Hilton. The prison was demolished during the 1990s, though the gatehouse remains as a museum.

David wanted to visit this museum especially to see the guillotine.  It had been used by the French on Vietnamese prisoners.

Pineapple, the perfect snack.

Evening view from our hotel.

In the evening we met with Ngoc (a former BCIS teacher) and her friend for ice cream and dinner. It was so nice to catch up and chat about life and experiences. The best way to experience any place is with the locals. We went to a small restaurant serving a local specialty - Banh Cuon Nong. Discovering Vietnamese cuisine in the different regions has been an adventure...a delicious one.

Dinner being made right in front of the shop.  For 240,000 vnd, all eight of us were stuffed and couldn't eat another bite.