Sea snails
Just one of the more intriguing street side vendors… cooked on the street corner with lemon grass and spring onions and served with a spicy chili sauce. Utensil used for spearing the snail and extraction, are small metal pointers that look like arrow heads.
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| On the left, some kind of clam shells and on the right, sea snails. |
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| Ben enjoying the Vietnamese equivalent of French “bigornot” – in the family of sea snails |
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| A “longon berry” lady measures out her fruit by the kilo. 50.000 duong = $2 |
Hanoi desert specialty – Thach che
We kept walking past glass stalls of strange gelatinous looking colored balls and squares. They did not look particularly appealing, but eventually we decided to give this desert a try in case we were missing something good.
We selected a mixed glass of grapefruit compote, beans, preserved longon berries, lotus beans, mochi type balls all covered by a liquidy coconut milk yogurt topped with shaved ice. Very interesting, especially texture wise, and suprisingly tasty and refreshing.
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| Point to what you want and it gets put in the glass, or just allow the server to come up with her selected combination. |
Juices everywhere
So far, best of class is the sugar cane juice which is sold directly on the street, as is coconut water. Other kinds of juices, can be had in juice “bars”. Two we really like are grapefruit and white pomegranate juice.
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| Raw sugarcane being put through the presser to extract it’s juice. |
Latest Market finds…
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| A box of beautifully colored quail eggs |
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Eeeewww….. eels don’t look so appetizing alive
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So far I am familiar with the snails which I love (with butter garlic sauce…)
Are the eels as good as the one they sell in the streets of Amsterdam???
Quail eggs …with caviar….Miam miam !!!!!!!!!
The only eel we have had so far was served with noodles, egg, bean sprouts, crunchy shallots on the street. Nothing compares with Amsterdam eel. Ton fils wants to go to Snake town near Hanoi where they serve snake ten different ways! (Yuck!)
See the video in the last foodie update (fish, snails, crab) which shows the eel being prepared), if you missed it.
Wow, so jealous! Great pics, keep the food updates coming!
We think of you ALL the time … !! Gastronomy heaven. You will love it!