We had a great day - another awesome excursion. I found Hidden Hanoi once again in Trip Advisor. The ratings were true to form - great people, awesome food, and another great opportunity to get to know the true Vietnamese culture.
One of the coolest thing was an add on we did to visit the "wet" market (the nomenclature carried forward from Hong Kong meaning fresh produce, fruit, fish and meat market). Our guide talked about the moving markets (women on foot or bike carrying various things for sale) and the "frog" markets - a collection of lone or several women in front of their houses or in alleys that operate makeshift illegal markets that need to "jump" if police come, or pay a small bribe.
What we are noticing here more than anywhere else is that the food is very local and very fresh. Everything is locally grown, recently butchered and bought and cooked quickly. Typically, women visit the market at 7am for their food for lunch, then again in the early afternoon for their dinner. Beth and I have been fascinated by the meat you see sitting out everywhere and wondering how/why it "works". The answer is clearly that it is fresh. For meat bought at 7am from a local wet market for example, the pigs would be bought (live) at a wholesale market at 3 or 4am, driven (live!) on the back of a scooter to the wet market, slaughtered and butchered and sold from 7am to 11am. Large restaurants go to wholesale markets first, and smaller restaurants sometimes go to wet markets and scoop up the meat at the end of a buying period (ie 11am) so it's cheaper. Then everything starts again for the second go around in the afternoon. Compared to our system of highly processed, high need for refrigeration due to long transport and supply line timelines, it seems like a healthier, much more environmentally friendly way to feed the population.
The food was so good. Period end of story.
We walked over to a nearby "famous" Buddhist pagoda which was on a large lake. Hanoi has quite a few lakes like this as well as the huge Red River that runs right through the East side, but it's pretty far from the sea so there's not s lot of seafood in the food here.
The girls elected to do a spa...this time a paid professional mani/pedi/hair wash. The 3 of them were in there most of the afternoon and it cost them about $10 each! I can see this being a recurring theme! I enjoyed a nice Bia Ha Noi - the local beer here which is delicious (a freezing cold bottle is about $.80 - there's a period there people... 80 cents!).
Our dinner was another treat. We asked our hotel guy Chris for a recommendation for local food, and he directed us to a kind of indoor/outdoor "Le Marche" but with service at your table. The waiter was great as he walked us through how to eat the various dishes we experimented with.
Walking home I am still amazed at the scooters and all the energy of the streets. The people are so chill and it's like the streets and sidewalks are a part of one giant community that just "gets along".
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