Stickyrice

Czech Up Yours!

Stickyrice used to be a boozier blog. Beer was never far away in any given post. Many of my street food escapades are punctuated with beer full stops. I do still occasionally put a jug or two away but not with the same frequency. The gut's gotten bigger and the hangover's bite bigger. I'm basically avoiding the amber fluid except where protocol requires it or I'm a stick in the mud if I don't.

A Friday night not so long ago had me sampling a few at the huge Czech beerhouse, Gammebeer, on the dyke road by the Vietcombank building. This enormous green establishment had taken my eye on many a prior rideby. The big barrells out front leave nothing to the imagination. It's a beer lover's paradise, one where gluttony takes over, where a beer lover feels he has divine licence to drink as many huge tankards as possible in a race with his tablemates in as short a period of time as possible. It would be downright wrong not to! Nobody would expect less. No room for moderation at all.

Ugly!

Problem was that the atmosphere inside had a reverse effect on me. My consumption was seriously tempered by the decidedly pesky staff. No jolly beermaids delivering beer here. The Czech connection was manifesting itself in some kind of weird recoil to real communist times where the fun police were alive and well. It seems that at this beerhouse, under this waitress's watch, one is not permitted to move one's beer off the coaster, move one's soy sauce ramekin onto one's plate, clap or cheer too much at the conclusion of the rather karaoke-like entertainment or take too many photographs. Her superior arrived at the table to admonish me at one point. What kind of beerhouse was this?

We called for the bill.

Didn't even have the chance to get ugly!

The Bill

Four people had three beers each and some snacks - 530,000VND (USD$33.40, AUD$36.10)

Gammebeer
198 Tran Quang Khai St
Hanoi

Beach Brewhouse

I still have fond memories of my holiday a month ago. Many days were spent lolling about at the refurbished Louisiane Brewhouse on one of their beach chairs, sampling from their selection of beers which are brewed on the premises by an Australian brewer, Sean Symonds. This huge open-plan establishment is like a beach resort without the accommodation. Coconut palms, pool, thatched beach umbrellas, casual atmosphere, even protection from the local hawkers by a vigilant security guard.

It's all rather decadent for a bloke who's used to crawling around the Hanoi gutters shovelling street food into his gob.

I adapted fairly well.

The kitchen offers up a pretty reasonable array of seafood, Vina-cuisine and western comfort food, all of which is professionally served, smartly presented and palatable. I'm particularly enamoured of the beachside service. One only has to get off one's spreading behind to dip one's sweating body into Nha Trang Bay or relieve oneself of the copious quantities of beer that somehow gets forced down one's throat on holiday.

Or to have one's body massaged, one's hair plaited or have one's corns cut from one's heels! They have what they call a Relax Club for such services.

By the end of each day, my legs were rendered useless appendages.

They should employ a physiotherapist, too.

New Year's Quiz

I'm not shocked anymore at the things that turn up on my table when I dine with Vietnamese mates. I do get a slightly nervy rush, however, when I put these 'bits of stuff' to my lips. I say 'bits of stuff' because sometimes I'm not sure what I'm eating.

Lips? Grass? Belly-buttons? Eyes? Arseholes?

Let's have another quiz!

What are the ingredients on this plate, devoured not so long ago at a bia hoi restaurant?

A Quarter to Yard Arm

The recent holiday weekend in Vietnam was to commemorate the liberation of South Vietnam and May Day. I toasted with bia hoi and peanuts.

While summer's by no means in full tilt, an hour of Sunday morning sunshine on a ride about town to take in the holiday atmosphere had me sufficiently heated up and craving a beverage of some description. The breakfast was digesting, the coffee injection of an hour earlier causing hydration issues. Water would have been good.

But Beer would do.

Bia Hoi is draught beer served on the street, pulled direct from the keg, sometimes through a proper tap, sometimes enticed down a syphon by a quick suck of air from the beer-tender's lungs. To small operators, the kegs are delivered strapped on the back of motorcycles, picked up directly from the brewery door. All manner of old-fashioned ice-boxy refrigeration techniques are employed to keep the amber fluid cold. Shot up pieces of polystyrene box, sponge and ice blocks in grotty towels wedged on top and around the keg seem to do the trick at most bia hoi stops. As a general rule, the nearer to delivery time, the better the brew. If it's not cold, it's toxic in my book. Bloody awful!

It's delivered early and lots of blokes down beer first thing. Drinking in the morning has no stigma attached to it in Vietnam so it is not uncommon to see 7am beer swilling taking place around the capital or shots of rice wine being drunk with the morning pho for that matter.

Beer o'clock for me is at the other end of the day but the festive atmosphere has me pulling up roadside at a quarter to yard arm. This particular stretch of bitumen is lined with suburban pubs, just brewery umbrellas really, under which sit kegs sheathed in heavy green cloth, a beer-tender and used plastic water bottles for the drive-by take-away trade, which is swift. Blue and maroon furniture is strewn about.

The beer comes served in crude washed-up-on-the-beach-glass tumblers that, in all probability, sit in chic homeware shop windows in other parts of the world. It's cold and then it's gone. As it's a double-header holiday, I line up another along with the only beer snack on offer: a plate of boiled peanuts. Now, these sound weird but they eventually do work. The job of shelling them at least keeps me from getting completely plastered at lunchtime.

Cheers! 

Ba cop (three cups) and the nuts - 12,500VND (USD78c, AUD$1.01)

Bia Hoi is available all over town, from big halls with huge menus to one keg stools on the footpath.

Bullseye

Watch out for this one, it looks like it'll be a ripper. A new café, Aro Coffee. When we were there they were still in the process of getting fully up and running. It's a great space, upstairs is a long bright corner room, big low slung windows (all of which I managed to miss in my pic) overlooking Ma May with a great view and a relaxing feel.

At the moment they have a cool logo and the aforementioned space, but no actual menu. We could get coffee, orange juice, water or beer from a waitress with a wicked sense of humour over the situation. Recommended for a drink and street watching, will keep you posted on what else becomes available as they get it together.

The Bare Bones
1 Café Sua Da, 1 glass of water - 6000VND

Aro Coffee
63 Ma May (entrance around the corner)
The Old Quarter

Le Pub

Way back when in Sydney I loved a local. For way too many years to mention my local pub was the Cricketer’s Arms Hotel in Surry Hills, cold beer, cool music, friendly smiling staff. Le Pub has all these things, minus the spliff potential in the beer garden. This is the first in a series that is pretty much about places that I visit so often that I find it almost impossible to write anything about them. I have been trying to review this place since the beginning of Sticky Rice but have had difficulty getting past the eternal rewrite. So here goes. We'll just dive in and hope for the best.

Le Pub’s blood red walls grab your attention as soon as you walk through the entrance. The front area has traditional drums for tables and chairs with a couple of higher stool seats right at the front for the traditional Hanoi past time of people watching.

The beer is icy cold and the range impressive, from all the usual suspects in the local range to a fine array of imported ales. Cocktails are mixed to a standard that any fast shaking barman would be proud of, vivid in colour, complementing the artwork on the walls by local as well as expat artists, the exhibitions changing every now and again. There's also a selection of wine available, and the staff have recently been given tips by a travelling barista, on how to make the best espresso in town.

The crowd is made up of a mixture of tourists, backpackers and expats, although not many locals. The kitchen at Le Pub serves up food, both Vietnamese and western.

This place is slightly affiliated with KOTO, the training organization, and has a similar staff training ethic, in fact some KOTO graduates work here. The staff are fantastic, Matt the manager is ever friendly, what else can I say?

Drop in, have a drink, see for yourself.

Le Pub
25 Hang Be
Old Quarter, Hanoi

Easy Rider

As you walk in its right there in the centre of the room. A lovingly restored cream Czech CZ. Now I don’t know that much about motorbikes, but it is flashingly obvious that this one is cool. In fact looking around this slickly styled café I know that I am in a very cool place.

Moddish red and white vinyl high seats finished with chrome cluster around tall bar tables made from checkerplate. Long thickly cushioned seats, also red and white, lounge about closer to the surface of the earth around similarly checkerplated coffee tables. There is even an overhead loft area with cushioned floor seating around low slung tables.

Its fantastic to be inside a place where every aspect of it has been thoroughly thought through. The walls are red, the lamps have a modern shapely look, no space is closed off or pokey, no space is wasted. Its schmick all the way down the line.

Motorbikes have clearly been the inspiration for the café and there are three lovingly restored examples on display at the moment. Other than that however there are prints and photos on the walls of cool 60’s Vespas, black and white sidecar racers, even schematics for some old classics. The owner Hoa, one of the loveliest people you are ever likely to meet, owns one of the Vespas, a sharp black number, and her husband Greg has an obsession that belittles mania.

A step away from the bikes there is a corner of the café where you can buy from a good selection of new English language novels. There are plenty of the usual run of beverages and you can order in food if you feel peckish.

So this is the run down, settle in for a stint here by grabbing one of the many magazines lying around or buy a book and enjoy some comfortable moments reading, drinking and relaxing in one of the most stylish new cafes in Hanoi. At night this place serves as a semi bar so get those books knocked off before sunset then set yourself up to enjoy the rush of Hanoi's nascent motorcyle crowd when they roar in. I highly recommend this place.

By the way one of the motorcycles is owned by the owner's one year old son which considering the age of some of the riders I see blasting past me on the way to work seems about fair enough.

The Good Oil
2 Hot Chocolates, 1 Heineken - 60,000VND (USD$3.76, AUD$4.99)

Cafe Rider
18b Nguyen Bieu
Ba Dinh, Hanoi

Cafe Neo

This is a cool little cafe, overlooking the corner of Phan Boi Chau. Neo Indeed, this place is an extremely rare find in Hanoi. Ubercool, it would be a fantastic place to stop for a few pre dinner drinks or cocktail hour. Impressive.

As you step inside it feels modern, all the elegance and style of an extremely well designed bar. Upstairs, the room is floor to ceiling windows down two sides, a definite benefit of having a corner location and it's a great view out over the street too. The glass gives the illusion of spaciousness, the room has an airy and open feel. Various species of sub tropical plantlife are scattered around and the crowd inside seems to be Hanoi's young well heeled set, sipping on their blended juices and yoghurts, tapping on their mobile phones while adjusting their designer clothes.

We sink into the soft white vinyl lounges, a burnt orange cushion in the small of our backs. Looking up there are small lights set into the ceiling, in a swirling pattern, not one thing has been left to chance here. The lounges are grouped together in various comfortable arrangements and there's a small bar and bar stools lining one wall. One set of lounges is even gathered around an extremely authentic looking Turkish hubbly bubbly. Cone anyone?

Unfortunately it's just a bit too early for us to tuck into cocktails, we have just dropped in for a quick bite. Thai style Fried rice is the meal of choice and it is delivered to the table promptly, the rice deliciously moist and well tossed with small prawns, calamari, pineapple, spring onion and Vietnam's answer to the potato, the white onion. A couple of cokes complete the experience before we hit the road.

It's unfortunate that we weren't more hungry but we'll be back to try more things on the menu and could easily be persauded to slip back and have a drink or two in this smooth establishment. It's a great meeting place for an evening out,and would start off a night in style. Hanoi is moving on up and doing it at such a rapid pace that I'm getting dizzy.

The Measure
Thai style seafood fried rice, 2 cokes - 60,000VND (USD$3.77, AUD$5.13)

Neo Café
48 Phan boi Chau
Hanoi

Ahoy Bia Hoi

After a less than delicious meal at a Com Binh Dan, it was off to the Bia Hoi for a soothing lager to strip the grease from the back of our throats. Bia Hoi is a northern institution in Vietnam, and we now know that they are hard, even impossible, to find in Saigon (thanks nostarwhere). Not only is this outrageous, but it's hard for us to fathom in this Bia Hoi capital of Vietnam as they are ubiquitous on the streets round here. Bia Hoi beer is beer you buy by the glass, pulled from a keg and cheap as chips, from about 1500VND - 4000VND. In our enthusiasm for the Bia Hoi, we once did the sums and discovered that you could drink 66 beers for $10 Australian!

These places also serve food, but tonight we are here for the beer and snacks. Boiled peanuts in their shells are accompanied by delicious rice crackers, VN style. These are big rice pancakes that are then fried till they're crispy and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Just the thing to go alongside the beer. This place is always busy. It even has an upstairs verandah area. There's also real size furniture, which is always a hit after crouching on the kindy stools that most Vietnamese restaurants seem to have a penchant for. Downstairs is more action packed, with the hardcore beer swilling crowd kicking back and drinking till the buffalos come home. Bia Hoi is a true Viet experience. Fantastic and cheap, a beer lover's paradise.

Bia Hoi Bonanza
6 Beers, 2 rice crackers, boiled peanuts- 21,000VND (USD$1.32, AUD$1.71)

Bia Hoi
cnr Hoa Ma and Le Ngoc Han
Hanoi

I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so

Cafe Hoa Lac is upstairs on the upmarket street of Hang Trong. Fantastic Japanese ink paintings decorate the walls, painted by an Australian artist who spent a few years in Japan, and it is almost worth dropping by just to check these out. Not only that, it's a great place to sit on the balcony and partake in a favourite pastime of the sticky rice crew, watching the world go by.

We have whiled away hour upon hour, relaxing in the low slung chairs, sipping Halida beer and eating Banh Xeo. Banh Xeo is a delicious Vietnamese crepe/pancake, originally from the imperial city of Hue, that you often find filled with prawn, pork, bamboo shoots and other vegetables. Cafe Hoa Lac's take on this treat has no pork in it, but is filled with bamboo shoots and comes served with rice paper. Slice off a bit of pancake, whack in some of the fresh Vietnamese herbs, rau thom, and a couple of slices of cucumber and roll it all up in the delicate rice paper. Dip it in the peanuty sauce and you have a slightly different, yet brilliant, spring roll.

If you're looking for a sweeter treat, the banana chocolate pancakes are a particular fave amongst the crowd we know. The banana is sliced over the pancake and it is dripping and oozing warm chocolate sauce, all the way to your stomach!

Although this place is advertised as a Japanese Cafe, the food jumps through Asia, visiting Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Lots of sweets are on the menu too, even a Crepe Suzette, though admittedly, more often than not we are there for the beer and the people watching. Slip in a Banh Xeo to soak up the booze and you're all set. They have a happy hour from 5-7, large Halida beers only 10 000 VND. Bargain!

The Buzz
2 Banh Xeo, 6 Halidas, 1 Fresh Spring Rolls, 2 Sprite
115,000 VND (USD$7.24, AUD$9.45)

Cafe Hoa Lac
2nd floor, 98 Hang Trong
Hanoi