Stickyrice

West Lake Italian

I dragged myself away from my rice-noodle-chopstick existence for a meal in another world last weekend. Out near West Lake, a green building housing a new Italian restaurant has sprouted. I'm not sure who's behind it though I must say there hasn't been an Italian in sight on my two visits so far. Not that that means anything. Or maybe it does.

A distinct lack of Italian passion for food and the dining experience is the pre-dominant atmosphere at Cielo (Heaven). To be fair, the food is palatable and pleasant enough on the eye. Sixteen pizza choices, Italian in style with minimalist ingredients, include proscuitto e funghi, tonno e cipolla and quattro formaggio. Gnocchi, tagliatelle, ravioli, tortellini, pappardelle and lasagne feature in the homemade pasta section of the menu. An odd addendum at the back lists a page of Vietnamese Western standards like spring rolls, fried noodles with beef and mixed fried rice. Not sure what that's all about.

Even for the not so discerning diner (i.e. me), certain aspects are letting down the Italian side here. Calling on Antonio Carluccio and Stefano de Pieri both. In their absence, some simple advice from a gutter-grovelling Hanoi street-food muncher: get the white wine chilled before the customers arrive, dress the salad in the kitchen rather than sending cheap olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper on a fancy stand to the table and go easy with the salt in the pasta sauces. One more thing - the entire staff sitting on their Khyber Passes is not a good look!

A bit of sorting out on all fronts and Cielo deserves another go by my reckoning.

The Rundown

Starters 10,000 - 50,000VND (USD62c-$3.10, AUD75c-$3.80), Pastas 45,000 - 70,000VND (USD$2.80-$4.40, AUD$3.40-$5.30), Pizzas 45,000 - 80,000VND (USD$2.80-$5, AUD$3.40-$6.05), Wine 190,000 - 450,000VND (USD$11.85-$28.05, AUD$14.35-$34)

Cielo
172 Xuan Dieu
Tay Ho District
Hanoi

No Frills Thai

Apart from my recent foray into neighbouring Laos, I'm pretty 'Vina-centric' here at SR headquarters in Hanoi. I don't much delve into other cuisines, except in the kitchen, and I tend not to document what goes on there. So many others do that so well it hardly seems necessary for me to pornofy proceedings in my blogspace, too. Besides, I don't have the requisite range of tableware and crockery for real food pornofication. The long and the short of it is, I can cook but the presentation would be dead flaccid and dull.

So, with APEC upon us and Vietnam now a member of the WTO, the least I could do was get my multi-cultural self down to a foreign eatery to celebrate and globalise.

This little gem is known as the Thai Food Shop. An occasional haunt of mine, it churns out Thai standards at almost street food prices on little blue plastic tables and chairs. I feel right at home! The unique and pleasant part of sitting kerbside here is that it is in a pocket of Hanoi strangely lacking excessive noise. Traffic is light and there is no construction work within earshot, practically unheard of in a city where the local people's tolerance of noise is mind-boggling. It actually stupefies me but don't get me started.

Now, where were we?

At the quiet street-side Thai, enjoying the sharp clean flavours of this chicken salad, a red beef curry, more chicken in the form of laap and sticky rice to fill the gaps. I can't comment on the authenticity of the flavours or the ingredients, but I went away curiously calm and ready to take on whatever banging clamor Hanoi could bark at me.

Quiet Reckoning

Chicken salad, chicken laap, beef curry, a coke and a soda water - 150,000VND (USD$9.30, AUD$12.20)

Thai Food Shop
84 Ly Thuong Kiet St
Hanoi

For authentic commentary on real Thai cuisine, check this bloke out.

A Last Word on Oz

I just have to say that once in a while a truly magical experience makes you fall in love with your own country again. Except, I'm no patriot. In fact, I couldn't contribute one under-the-breath OY! to an AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE!

But I diverge.

It's good to get off the track when you're round the back of a seaside resort town on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, and you strike this art park amongst the gum trees, haunting sculptures scary in the winter morning light, bellbirds calling in an apocalyptic moment of perfect acoustics and the light's on in the bush cafe.

And you can drink the local wine.

And look at the paintings.

Order a snack.

Stay in a treehouse.

More here.

Suburban Thai

To stomp around a city like Melbourne and only sample Vietnamese eats would be narrow-minded insanity - like a sin on a Sunday, a serious crime, a middle finger up the gastro-reputation of my hometown. It's an embarrassment of riches. During the week, my sisters and I spent two days comparing past dining experiences, poring over books, magazines and websites in order to simply choose a restaurant for a birthday dinner. A similar half-hour episode took place for the regulation 'Friday night eat out' a couple of nights ago.

Suburban Thai got the mutual go-ahead, trumping all manner of taverna, tandoor oven, bistro, trattoria, teppanyaki, barbeque, charcoal grill, cantina, tapas bar, call them what you will. Back in the 60's, the outer suburbs of Melbourne were devoid of all but the local Chinese take-away, the pub counter meal, the odd Italian restaurant and the fish'n'chip shop. In short, outer-suburban Melbourne was a cuisine wasteland.

Now, the current edition of the Yellow Pages has fifteen pages of listings for restaurants by suburb, which probably only represent a small percentage of the real number, as listing here is by no means compulsory. While this abundance stops short of the Hanoi clutter of crack in the wall, doorway and pavement eateries, in certain suburbs and shop strips the restaurants are pretty much wall-to-wall.

This little Thai place in East Bentleigh was doing brisk trade, a third sitting of late diners entering as we departed just prior to ten. We went for the standards on the menu: tom yum soup with prawn all round, followed by a green chicken curry, pad thai with beef and tofu and vegetables in oyster sauce. I'm no expert on Thai cuisine but the flavours of the curry seemed to be balanced quite well, neither chili, palm sugar nor fish sauce dominating.

All in all, not a bad choice for the Friday night chow down. Extra points for the traditionally attired waitresses and a nice touch with the candlelight.

The Rundown

Three serves of tom yum soup, one chicken curry, one pad thai, one vegetable dish, steamed rice, three desserts (sticky rice, banana and coconut ice-cream), a couple of glasses of house white and a soft drink - AUD$82 (1,010,000VND, USD$63.40)

Saeng Thian Thai
713 Centre Rd
East Bentleigh

It's BYO and licensed.

Rhythm of the Salsa

La Salsa sits on Nha Tho Street, arguably one of the most expensive streets in Hanoi. This strip is all home furnishings, handbags and hot coffee and has been on the high end ever since the French occupation. A beautiful French Catholic Church still stands at one end and amazingly this Church managed to avoid any damage from the heavy bombing in Hanoi at the time of the American War. It still majestically overlooks all the present-day action on the avenue. The main attraction to this restaurant is the balcony that allows you to peek out at the street and we’re looking for a tasty relaxed brunch.

Upstairs this place is mustard and stucco red walls, solid wood tables and wrought iron chairs. A huge tree taps at the edge of the balcony and a hum rises from the street below- ok so it’s a little bit more than a hum, I’m immune to traffic noise now, or deaf. Today we are on a Tapas mission and first up is Chorizo sautéed with onion. Now this ain’t no showstopper. The chorizo is mild, spell that b-l-a-h, there shouldn’t really be any mule in a chorizo but it sure should kick like one, and this one kicks like a slug. We move on to the Patatas Bravas and things get better. Good little cubes of spud, golden brown and smothered in a tasty mayonnaise. The mushroom dish is served cold which is a little surprising but it works as the oil and chilli spiced marinade blends well with the firm mushrooms. The clams come steamed in a white wine and parsley broth and are cooked tender as a Juliet’s heart. The free bread plays Romeo to this Juliet, a dark sultry figure who soaks up the broth well as the clams are slurped down. The calamari unfortunately blows the show, the battered bits of octopus are a little disappointing and it is already luke warm when it is given to us, the Hanoi winter rapidly assists it in becoming cold.

Meatballs that turn out to be pretty tasty save the meal. They’re succulent, they’re juicy, just right in fact. The sauce is a rich mix of tomato, onion and herb sauce, really it is just one hell of a meatball. Looks like Cinderella is going to the ball after all. We've ordered some Sangria and it is filled with flavour, just not filled with fruit. In fact there is no fruit at all which seems kind of crazy in a city so chockablock with fruit. This restaurant must have people walking past at least fifty times a day selling fruit so I guess the lack of it is a conscious decision but it’s hard to fathom nonetheless.

The lamb stew is ordered from a specials board by one of us who is a bit under the weather and not up for the tapas. This is truly a let down as it comes as more of a soup than a stew and is in actual fact mutton dressed up as lamb, just like the expression. Not good, and not worth the money. So that’s it really. Did we catch them on a bad day? Are restaurants that charge these prices allowed to have a bad day? There is a continual argument amongst some that street food is the only way you should eat in Vietnam because the food tastes better, but I think that’s crap. There are loads of fantastic, delicious tasty restaurants in Hanoi and there are loads of bad ones just like everywhere else. Then there are restaurants that are comparatively expensive with food that’s just a little dull- all very well and nice, but just no cigar. Maybe La Salsa should have given us a cigar.

The Rub
All of the above and two Halida Beers, two lemon juices - 588,000VND (USD$37.15, AUD$52.25)

La Salsa
Nha Tho Street
Hanoi

Green Mango

Great atmosphere, been here three times already and thought it too embarrassing to go back yet again, until we got lost on a kayak in the islands in deep impenetrable fog and had to be rescued. Coming back again to this restaurant on Cat Ba Island somehow now doesn’t seem so embarrassing. In fact we were rescued after being stranded for 3 hours by a boat full of well meaning Chinese tourists who offered nothing but comfort and solace for our ordeal. It was however only a delivery of degrees. It turned out that the only reason they had found us was that they were lost as well.

We finally made it back to dry land after another hour or so of drifting about fog bound between shoals of rocky islets guided in by some fishing boats. Anyone who has been to Ha Long Bay knows how congested with islands this place is. And anyone who has been rescued from their own stupidity knows that you also lose something in the process. It’s called dignity. The thing we gained however is called hunger.

So Green Mango it was.

We had to sit inside due to the dense fog. Although it meant missing out on the great view of the harbour, the interior of Green Mango is pleasantly ambient with booth seats, tables, low cushion seating and lounges to choose from, all filling up the large open space of the restaurant. Claret walls surround us, running behind a well stocked bar on one side which tonight we are very happy to see.

Cuban Black Bean soup and it's the colour of chocolate brown. A welcoming soup, rich in flavour, smooth in consistency with deep bean taste. An earthy appeal for the failed sailors and served with 2 slices of fantastic bread. This restaurant bakes its own. The bean flavour is rich and deep and coats the bread literally like water for chocolate and my companion loves it.

When you have 1 watermelon and a pack of half eaten tic tacs to look forward to for dinner it spurs the appetite. The clams we ate next were soft and succulent, delicately infused with the flavour of the lemongrass broth good enough to drink by the cupful. More of the bread, from the same family as brioche this time but not so sweet. It’s sliced as finely as a Venetian blind and does a commendable job soaking up the broth, which on closer inspection has been dressed with coriander and diced tomato.

We eat one Vietnamese standard, prawn on sugar cane, which have a smoky BBQ prawn flavour with that lovely burst of sugar cane as you bite down. Served with a mild chilli dipping sauce, this is of a good standard but not to exceptional degrees.

We move on up with the beer battered fish and chips, which were extremely good. Just why this is so hard to find done well I don’t know, but here they have mastered it. They also seem to have mastered calamari, as this is an instant hit with both of us. They were both fried to a perfect golden hue without being oily. The calamari was fresh enough to hold a conversation and they just melted in the mouth. No rubber bands here, this is the dish you serve to convert the unbelievers. These were served with tartare for the fish and chips and a magnificent tamarind sauce for the Calamari. Now if I could only remember where I left my superlatives I could describe them adequately.

Now before I run out of steam I will tell you that we ended the debauchery with a chocolate pudding filled with dark chocolate sauce on a crème anglaise and raspberry coulis stoked plate. It sounds more decadent than you think it could be but I assure you it wasn’t. When it came in the room itself got sweeter.

It was over, or so we thought, then with the bill came a small chocolate pancake wrapped around a dollop of chocolate mouse sprinkled with icing sugar. They say that saying it and doing it are two different things but don’t you think this page just adds up to too much for one correspondent. I get giddy again just rereading it, or maybe that's just the booze kicking back in.

Anchors Away
From tapas menu - buy 2 one free from 5-8pm - 1 Prawn with Sugar Cane, 1 Wok Fried Clams in Broth, 1 Calamari. From main menu - 1 Cuban Black Bean Soup, 1 Beer Battered Fish and Chips, 1 Chocolate Pudding. From drinks menu - 2 Anchor Beers, 1 Kahlua, 1 Stolichnaya, 1 White Wine, 1 Baileys, 2 Heineken - 420,000VND (US$27.63, AUD$37.04)

Green Mango
19 Group, 4 Block, 1-4 Street
Cat Ba Town, Cat Ba Island
(the main drag)

Pukka Puku

Puku is a little home away from home for a lot of expats living here in Hanoi. Originally started by a kiwi (hence the peculiar name which my illustrious kiwi friends tell me is the maori word for stomach) the food here is real western café fare. All day breakfasts, grilled goodies on toast, salads, pita wraps and pastas fill out a menu board mounted on the wall behind the open kitchen, that itself adds a note of warm ambience to the place.

The main part of the café has tables and chairs as well as a big comfy sofa to stretch out on. The bread here is fantastic, thick slices of light fluffy, crusty loaf toasted like a charm. You can even get vegemite and marmite to supplement your intake of necessary black gloop. Being a vegemite kid from way back when, I am whoop di doo about it.

The all day breakfast, supercharged with cholesterol in the true spirit of a classic fry up, is rammed with mashed potato, greens, sausages, bacon, grilled tomato and eggs in your preferred style all stacked on perfectly toasted slices of the aforementioned bread.

Stuck out on the landing beside the main room they have an old white oven, a rare thing in cafes in Hanoi. It pumps out meat pies, quiches, lasagnas (both carne and vege) as well as the sweeter treats like muffins and cookies. It may not sit on the prettiest spot for an oven but I’m sure Martha Stewart would give her own oven mitts up for a chance at it given her current location.

In fact there are other locations in the café if you don’t fancy sitting in the thick of it on the first level. Up on the roof you can relax at communal tables surrounded by inertia inducing sofas and chairs. Many of the recidivist types are known to come back over and over again to while away their time up here, sipping juices, lattes and bottled cola, pondering the ebb of time- even more so now that Puku has Wifi.

The salads are freshly prepared – chickpea or Caesar being great choices and the mezze plate gives you a welcome taste of the Mediterranean, homous, tzatziki, and babaganoush all put in an appearance on this plate. Lunch here is always busy but it’s not unusual to have the place to yourself if you drop in at another time, morning or afternoon. With great staff, good food and a nice comfortable beat it makes for a super café. Just don’t go if you have an aversion to expats cause they are here in force.

The Rundown
Super Kiwi breakfast, Pesto Pasta, Toast, Coca, Lemon Juice, Latte - 139,000 VND (USD$8.74, AUD$11.59)

Puku
60 Hang Trong
Hoan Kiem, Hanoi

Pizza for Christmas

Christmas day in Hanoi was much like any other day. Xe om (motorbike taxi) drivers hanging on corners for rides, fruit vendors pushing bicycles tirelessly about the streets, shoe-shine boys plying their trade outside cafes and noodles omnipresent as ever on the food front. The churches were packed to the rafters, though, and there were a few Santa-suit clad locals burning around on motorbikes so there was something oddly different in the air.

In keeping with this oddness, we opted for pizza - albeit an upmarket one - for Christmas lunch. That's right - no birds, no glazed hams, no pud!  After roughly four decades of festive menu, it was time for a break from the tradition. Would there be tears? Would Santa whizz back in the sleigh and snatch the pressies back? Would the body-clock of my digestive tract shout, "What's this doughy crap? Where's the friggin' turkey?"

No, to all three.

Luna d'autunno is a wood fire oven pizza joint well-established in town, run by Italians and recognised by many as purveyor of the best cooked dough circles around. There's a covered al fresco dining area, pizza ovens at one end, mosaic tiled bar at the other. Inside the atmosphere is slightly more intimate. The wine list is full of Italian, including some varieties of grappa.

As the pizzas were getting fired, we fired into the grog (it's Christmas!) and a big platter of antipasto, which included cured meats, roasted capsicum, eggplant, sundried tomato, little squares of polenta and cheese - each bite relished and memorised, for these exotic Mediterranean treats are far from common and bloody expensive in the Hanoi foodscape.

The pizzas are slid onto the table with hardly enough time to swig a toast to the day. Made with thin bases, perfect crusts and simple ingredients, our 'eyes bigger than bellies' order was one spicy number of chili and hot salami and one squid and shrimp laden - both LARGE! We struggled but, in keeping with one Christmas tradition - that of stuffing oneself until buttons bulge, every last morsel was put away. And, afterwards, some air in the back tyre of the bike and a good lie down!

Chrissy Pinch
Antipasto platter, two large pizzas, three draught beers, two gin and tonics - 464,000VND (USD$29.15, AUD$39.80)

Luna d'autunno
11b Dien Bien Phu
Hanoi

Vegetalia

Walking into Tamarind cafe there is a measureable warmth to the place, reassuring in a way. It throws a snug arm around your shoulders and brushes off the miserable night outside; stands you back up on your feet and unruffles your ruffled collar and mind. Although the internet cafe in the middle area is a rough note, the big windows that give onto Ma May and the ambience of the back area relax you in the way martinis used to do for Dean Martin, the calypso sun did for Bob Marley and staggering amounts of wine do for me.

This is no hippy shack, no wheatgerm and rabbity wholefood trip to wholesome holyness land here. Tamarind Cafe is a Vegetarian restaurant that understands vegetarianism. It is all vegetarian fare, even catering for vegans- some dishes are marked "no eggs" or "possible without eggs". And given that statement, if you've ever dragged a reluctant carnivore through the lettuce patch and laboured through the process you can rest assured here. The food is food, big and bold enough for any chest thumper to stab with a fork. There's lots of baked goodies and now that winter is rearing its ugly head, there's a special winter menu, containing such baking greats as lasagne and roast veg and not a hint of a mock duck or moose in sight. God bless 'em.

Raw silk lampshades bounce muted light off the framed calligraphic chinese characters lining the walls. There's lots of dark wood, a winner in everything but a suit, and cushioned seating- Huzzah!! Unlike many vegetarian restaurants that assume vegetarians don't drink, this place has the fridges stocked. There's a vital array of alcohol available from cocktails, wine, spirits and beer and loads of interesting fruit juices and shakes.

It was too cold for such shenanigans and the room feels cosy so we pick a caraffe of house wine and, in so doing, arrive at farce and folly in neat progression. It arrives overly fruity and sharp, all peaches and switchblades. More amusing is the fact that it's served in a giant's sized decanter. This thing takes the strength of ten men to get to the table and must have been designed to climb inside of to clean. To tip it to the right angle and still hold it steady enough to get some in the glasses is like watching someone balance a sofa on its edge to get a look at the bottom. A few splashes are, as you would expect, lost forever, but fortunately this is far from Dom Perignon.

The food starts arriving, first one off the block being the summer rolls. Despite the season and weather, I know from previous experience that these will be fantastic so they are a must for any visit. Fresh cucumber, carrot and lettuce, spicy tofu, egg, rice noodles and herbs are all neatly tucked into a rice paper roll. These little packets of goodness are then served with a lemon, garlic and chili sauce. Not a good match for the wine but all good sense, after all, went out the window at the sight of the decanter now didn't it.

Vegetable chowder is laden with goodies from the garden and it's proper homemade chunky stuff. Broccoli, cauliflower, capsicum, carrots, potatoes, swede, butter beans, garlic and onion are all thrown in the rich broth. There's even gouda cheese on the side. All this is served with crunchy bread drowned in butter and chunks of garlic...drool. The Vegetable Gratin is equally glorious, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli and potato in a rich creamy cheese sauce, baked golden till it's wrinkled on top and sprinkled with eschallots.

This place has been here a while, and so is a bit of a travellers' institution. I remember eating here years ago and loving the hot food cause we were in Hanoi in the midst of the January chill. Six years on it's still going strong and popular with travellers, these days maybe they are just a bit better dressed. Despite the menu being annoyingly in US dollars, it's well worth the expenditure.

The Spin
This place is not very expensive but  I have misplaced the bill *doh* I'll update when I find it!!

Tamarind Cafe
80 Ma May
Old Quarter, Hanoi

Tangerine Dream?

We strolled in from the craziness of the old quarter across the cobblestone courtyard and into the ambience of soft lighting, thoughtful staff and soothing music. We are looking for a special night. The menu appears before us and is a Francophile's dream, the air thick with French accent. The attention to detail is what it's all about at Green Tangerine. The artwork, the furniture, the menus, table settings and food presentation are superb. This place is a visual feast!

We relax for a while over a glass of champagne. Unfortunately,the half bottle of champagne does not match the atmosphere but I suspect that it is not French and we are never shown the label.

We are given a complimentary starter, a nice touch. It's served in an Asian soup spoon on a bamboo plate, two little cubes of potato nestled in with a garnish of herbs and chilli for a splash of colour. Tasty and tasteful, all in a spoonful. The crab roumelade comes next, silky smooth and bursting with flavour, with the asparagus giving a nice contrasting texture. The sesame snap laid on top is lip smackingly good with a brilliant roasted flavour and the four scallops, one on each corner, are grilled to perfection. Unfortunately, this is the best we are going to get for the evening. The main course, scallops and watercress on mashed potato, is surprisingly bland - no punch and lacking the deep, rich flavours you would expect from French food. The scallops on the entree were delicious. What happened here? The duck in mushroom is uninspiring and the sauce lacks authenticity.

Thank god for the vegetable pastry that we ordered after one of our entrees was unavailable. This pastie-like creation is flavoursome and satisfying. Maybe there is something to be said for the first bite with the eye. I am smitten when I see the sauce served in a shot glass ready for us to spoon over, a nice touch. Maybe it was the love heart decorating the plate?

I do have to say that the staff here are excellent, attentive but not smothering, smooth and efficient. Perhaps you should drop in for a coffee because I really love this restaurant. I just can't help wondering why the food can't match the environment. Ridiculously more expensive than Vietnamese food, nowhere near as good.

The Ouch Factor
1 small bottled water, 1 bottle (mini) champagne, 1 crab roumellade, 1 serve scallops in watercress, 1 duck breast with mushroom, 1 pastilla, 2 glasses of house white. 860,000VND (USD$54.20, AUD$71.95)

Green Tangerine
48 Hang Be
The Old Quarter, Hanoi