Skip to main content

GQNPC Road Trip Leg 4: Who likes pho?

I do! 

I had pho ga for breakfast on Days 2, 3, and 4 of our Hanoi adventure at the Royal Gate Hotel. It's a rice noodle soup with chicken, basil, mungbean sprouts, lime, and peppers. What a healthy and filling yet light way to start the day! With local cuisine available to me at the hotel's restaurant, I didn't even notice the continental breakfast served for the less vegetable-friendly consumers. At Hoan Kiem district, I was determined to try out the pho ga found in the street stalls. Five adventurous souls, Tita Dory, Tita Ruby, Fe, Dara, and Priscila (from IMBRAPA, Brazil) all ordered pho too, but we had different variants. Just the same, we all enjoyed the food and the hospitality extended to us by the shop owner (who spoke very little English).

However, Vietnam is known not only for its noodle soup. Our first group dinner was at the Nha Hang ABC in the Ba Dinh District. I wasn't able to catch the Vietnamese names of the food I ate, but they all have lots and lots of sauteed vegetables. Once again, I was worried about eating seafood; Tran was very helpful in translating the names of the food into English for me. I ended up with spaghetti with carrots, celery, onions, and cabbage.

For the less adventurous but still want to be amid the busy streets of the Old Quarter, Hanoi has a branch of ThaiExpress in the Hoan Kiem District. This restaurant is a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi's Old Quarter. Inside, it felt no different from a western restaurant, except of course that the food is Thai and the menus are printed in Vietnamese (with English subtitles). The haggard foreigner can rest easy here as the staff are conversant in English. Once again, a scrumptious dinner for me because I got olive rice with chicken.

Khai's Brothers, Ba Dinh District ... now this is classy dining, where the ambiance is similar to Kanin Club and Crisostomo's. I ate at Khai's Brothers with the International Network for Quality Rice participants. Still a buffet set-up, but the food is prepared right in front of the customer. My top picks (because I came back for more) were the pork and vegetable rolls in rice paper, what looked like noodle soup with mushrooms, and baked oysters. There were other viands as well, but many of them had shrimp, so I couldn't try them out (not even the mango salad I was ogling over... it looked like it had shrimp paste!)

 Ngon!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
5 comments
Read more

How MALDI-TOF-MS makes mycobacterium diagnosis faster and more accurate

The laboratory I work in has plenty of instruments that help us characterise and identify microorganisms causing diseases in patients. One of my current projects is to validate an instrument called "matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometer" (MALDI-TOF-MS) in identifying members of the Mycobacterium  species. Many of these organisms are opportunistic, meaning they only cause illnesses in people whose immune systems are not strong enough to fight infections. Mycobacterium leprae  is known for causing leprosy, but we cannot grow this bacterium in culture media, so we cannot isolate it. Mycobacterium tuberculosis  complex, on the other hand, is a group of several species of Mycobacterium  that causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a disease that killed 1.6 million people in 2021 alone. It is a leading cause of death globally, second only to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Identifying the Mycobacterium species that has infected a patient is
Post a Comment
Read more

a crash course on traditional Filipino houses

On Dr Jose Rizal's birthday this year, I was back in historic Manila with Ate Bing, Ate Mary , and Manuel . But instead of visiting him, we opted to soak up on Philippine culture. Our first stop: the Cultural Center of the Philippines ' (CCP) Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino .  Aside from the musical instruments, I noticed the dioramas about Filipino homes. Filipinos living by the sea (the 'sea gypsies', Sama Dilaut or Badjao ) have boathouses; those who live in the mountains, like the Bagobos , have developed interconnected houses in the trees; Filipinos who live along the path of the strongest typhoon winds, such as the Ivatans , have developed houses of thick limestone walls; and people who live in calmer conditions used bamboo and nipa to construct their houses, like the lowlanders and the Agtas . Sama Dilaut 'lepa' and houses on stilts (in the background) Ivatan limestone house nipa hut Ifugao 'fale' Maranao '
Post a Comment
Read more