Sugar cane juice (mia da, nuoc mia) is the summer suck of choice in a heated up Hanoi.
Mangled through a metal contraption that would bring tears to most health and safety inspectors' eyeballs, sticky sugar cane rods (and lime halves) produce a stunning light green bevie that momentarily halts the human melt. Served on half a tumbler of crushed ice, this juice is a dentist's dream: really sweet but subtly edged with lime.
Sugar cane can also be bought cubed, like little blocks of wood, and gnawed on as a sugar hit with the woody afterchew being spat out - a fine aerobic workout for the jaw and, get this, apparently good for your fangs! Removes plaque or some such thing. Still awaiting orthodontic verification on that theory!
The crunching amputator-juicer contraption extracts every last drop of liquid from the big sugar sticks as each one is folded and passed through again and again. When all that is left is sticky kindling, it is piled up in front of the machine and sold as....sticky kindling, used by some to start their coal burners for cooking.
Mia da should be bright green and drunk fresh. The darker it is, the further away it is from fresh. The sugar cane shed we patronise goes through hundreds of metres of sticks a day. Ride by take-aways can be had in plastic bags sealed with rubber bands but, for the environment's sake, pull up and sip it from glass.
One shout
Two glasses - 4000VND (USD25c, AUD32c)
Mia Da
77 Hang Dieu Street
(a few doors up from Bun Bo Nam Bo)
Do you have to post all the things I happen to be craving!? Okay, apart fom the dog and mystery meats. I used to have a mia da shop right next to my house when I first moved to Hanoi. Mmmm...can't wait to have some again.
Posted by: Preya | 10 September 2005 at 04:40 AM
It's a fine drop, alright. On stinking hot days, I gulp two in a row!
Posted by: Sticky | 10 September 2005 at 09:42 PM
Mmmm I love sugarcane juice but can't get it in Melbourne. Actually, I lie - there was a stall selling it for a Vietnamese Chinese New Year Festival earlier in the year. Can't wait to visit Vietnam but meanwhile, I'll keep reading your posts on all the food I can try when I get there!
Posted by: Cin | 11 September 2005 at 07:32 PM
You know Cin, since I saw sugar cane juice when I first arrived in Vietnam, it reminded my of driving to QLD for hols as a kid and seeing the sugar cane fields up there. I wonder if they do the juice up there???
Posted by: Sticky | 11 September 2005 at 08:32 PM