In Hanoi, shopping is different, whether it be for food or not. There is the bargaining, for starters. After five years, the novelty value of that has diminished somewhat - to zero. What remains intriguing, though, is the phenomena of products being synonymous with certain locations or streets in the city. If it's toys, go to Luong Van Can Street. If it's lau (hot pot), go to Phung Hung Street. Bamboo ladders, Hang Vai Street. A balloon and a condom, interestingly, can be purchased in the same location, near the intersection of Dong Xuan and Hang Chieu .
Along Ba Trieu street, apart from the number two installment in Hanoi's KFC story and the city's closest semblance to a shopping mall, the glitzy Vincom Towers, there are a number of nuthouses. If peanuts are the product, Ba Trieu is the street. Bought raw, the nuts are roasted in a large wok, using a technique requiring sand-like powder and a sieve.
The nuts come in their shells, the monotonous task of denuding them taking place first. A crude cracking device does the trick. In their skins, they are flung into the hot wok with the powder (known as hung luu - consisting of five ingredients including cinnamon, star-anise and basil seeds ) and, after a while, kept on the swirl with a gloved hand and a spatula. Later, through the sieve the powder goes, leaving the nuts for cooling and packaging.
Apparently a Chinese technique, the roasting of the nuts produces a sweet finished product. I'm not actually sure if sugar is one of the ingredients in the mix. It's a unique sweetness, some complaining the nuts end up soapy.
Still warm, I had no trouble knocking off a bag of them.
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Posted by: home cook | 26 November 2006 at 03:13 PM
Fantastic! Thankyou.
Posted by: Sticky | 27 November 2006 at 08:08 PM
toi kiem so 32 pho ba trieu,ban toi ten la HAI.lam o ngan hang.ban co the giup toi kg?
Posted by: keeem | 13 February 2009 at 10:16 PM