Street Eats and Market Tour

 Today we did a street food and market tour in Hanoi.  We wanted to do this so that we would know what foods are vegetarian and what we liked.  We also thought it would be a fun way to get to know a new city.  From 8:30 am to 2:00 pm we walked around Hanoi trying food and seeing what was available in the market.

During the tour we saw some crazy things being sold and eaten.  The first thing we had was a noodle dish called Pho (pronounced fuh not foh).  It is normally made with beef or chicken soup that you dip noodles into but Mom and I had it without the soup.  One of my favorite things was when one of the people on our tour ate the back half of a steamed, three-inch long water beetle!


At the market, we saw the heads of live frogs being chopped off, chicken and pig feet, chicken testicles, banana flowers, dragon fruit, and many other odd things being sold.  For dessert we had a mixture of jello like substances combined with an assortment of beans, seeds, fruit, nuts, sticky rice, and coconut milk.  At first, all three of us were a little scared of it. I didn't like it but Mom and Dad did.


I was both interested and sad to learn that street food in Vietnam is definitely not vegetarian friendly. Even though they use a lot of vegetables in their cooking they put some meat or fish in almost everything.  The tour was a good way to learn these things because not everyone speaks English and it can be hard to communicate.
- Brook