Scrumptious Hunk of Namesake

Get a load of this, my scrumptious hunk of Easter Sunday morning breakfast.

With not a chocolate egg, chicken or rabbit to be had in Hanoi, it was a case of " when in Rome...", and no significant problem is posed when Rome is Vietnam, where there's an edible treat in every step of one's day. Truth be told, chocolate had not even entered my mind and, of course, Easter does not register a blip on a lunar calendar of pagoda visits and incense sticks.

This xoi ga (sticky rice with chicken), however, has registered a big bloody blip on my Hanoi map of food gold. The chicken is not the sinewy string of some birdmeat on offer but instead tender moist strips which are bitten through with no effort at all. The sticky rice, dug with spatula out of a three tiered metal steamer, is a clinging, salty-in-a-good-way mass of satisfaction. The splinters of lime leaf wreath on top and a side bowl of pickled papaya and carrot suck me in even further.

I'm hooked on this version of our namesake.

Rice Finance

One serve of xoi ga - 10,000VND (USD62c, AUD88c)

Xoi Ga
Hang Hanh St (opposite the Win Hotel)
Old Quarter
(mornings only)

Comments

[drifter1dc]

Looks so good I want to jump into the picture.....will definately try this when I come in september.

[msnguyen]

yummmm

Hey, I can make this too, but the chicken in the U.S. aren't as good as the one in VN.

BTW, are they free of the avian virus?

[Flora]

Yummy!

[Sticky]

Yes it's good. I've been back already since I posted this. The avian flu situation is more a concern for poultry workers and people who handle and live with sick birds - not people who eat cooked chicken. I read last week that there had been a small outbreak in one of the provinces which borders China - the first blip on the bird flu radar for a while.