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This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
When the Michelin Guide announced its first foray into Hanoi, many food-lovers were sceptical. How might the authority on highbrow dining approach a city famed for its unpretentious street food? The final list, which grouped together street kitchens with fine dining restaurants, caused quite a stir by apparently over-representing traditional pho and overlooking many speciality dishes. Nevertheless, the guide still managed to capture the capital’s complicated culinary scene: a landscape that balances time-honoured and unyielding recipes with cutting-edge and evolving innovations.
1. Tung Dining: the carabinero
The seasonal menus at TUNG Dining are meticulously crafted journeys. Chef Hoang Tung combines Vietnamese flavours with contemporary culinary techniques he picked up working at Michelin-starred restaurants in Finland, Denmark and Estonia. The Carabinero reflects Vietnam’s affection for seafood, in this case, prawn cured in sugar and salt, topped with smoked scallop mousse. The charcoaled prawn head served alongside is stuffed with smoked trout roe and accompanied by fermented cabbage crackers.
2. Bancong: coconut coffee
Vietnam is Southeast Asia’s coffee capital and Hanoi is home to an eclectic spread of cafes. While ca phe sua đa (iced milk coffee) and ca phe trung (egg coffee) are already legendary, a more recent addition to the pantheon is coconut coffee. More of a dessert than a drink, a brew of finely ground robusta beans is mixed with sweetened condensed milk and iced coconut cream, with a topping of roasted coconut flakes adding some crunch. Coconut coffee renditions appear on cafe menus across the city, but Bancong, with balconies that overlook the Old Quarter below, offers a view to accompany the iced pick-me-up. banconghanoi.com
3. Tanh Tach: scallop tart
The restaurant’s onomatopoeic name, Tanh Tach, is Vietnamese for the clickity sound apparently made by freshly caught seafood. Chef Bernard Nguyen’s menu is a celebration of these gifts from the sea, and the diverse and zesty flavours of the mon an nhe (light snacks akin to Basque pintxos) are practically a meal in themselves. The headliner is the banh tart so diep, or scallop tart, featuring velvety but sharp calamansi curd and pop-in-the-mouth red caviar. The restaurant sits within Hanoi’s picturesque French Quarter, occupying a colonial villa adorned with local art.
4. Chapter grill: sweet tooth
Squeeze past the kitchen team on the ground floor at Chapter before making your way up to the restaurant’s dining room. Vietnam’s northern mountains inspired the 13-dish summer tasting menu, which ranges from cured pork with foraged greens to black chicken with mustard leaves. The standout, however, is Patagonian toothfish with fermented soybean paste stewed in a clay pot. Chef Quang Dung learnt traditional clay-pot cooking from his grandmother, but he’s added international touches here, including a soy glaze, braised green banana and guanciale (Italian cured pork).
5. Cha Ca Thang Long: cha ca
At Cha Ca Thang Long, turmeric-spiced freshwater fish is stir-fried with spring onion and dill to make the restaurant’s eponymous dish, cha ca. Staff do the cooking, but you can assemble your own bowl by adding vermicelli noodles and garnishes including roasted peanuts and fresh herbs. Once limited to just a handful of traditional establishments, cha ca has experienced a boom in popularity over recent years, with a slew of competing chain outlets opening up. But the decades-old restaurants, like this Old Quarter spot, still do it best.
6. Luk Lak: banana blossom bread
With crunchy vegetables, flavours of fresh herbs and just a few morsels of meat, Vietnamese salads are all about texture. Banana blossom salad features the pink and purple tear-shaped banana flower, shredded into a curly tangle and combined with pieces of chicken breast and other seasonal herbs and vegetables. A sprinkle of red chilli slices and a sweet and sour dressing give it a kick. Chef Binh serves the salad alongside other dishes from far-flung corners of rural Vietnam, such as smoked pork belly and fried rice with lotus seed, in a casually furnished dining room informed by Indochinese design.
Published in Issue 24 (summer 2024) of Food by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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