Hanoi traditional cuisine

Introduction

ThangLong - Hanoi is not only the political, economic, cultural and social center but also a center of cuisine and traditional culinary art in Vietnam. For Trang An people, cooking and enjoying food is an art. The exquisite cuisine in Ha Noi is reflected in the way of cooking and how to enjoy it. Up to now , the habit keeps existing and become a unique culinary culture the attracts both domestic and foreign tourist when they visit the city. According to Mr Dinh Ba Chau – famous culinary artist, the lengthy culinary tradition of Hanoi created a distinctive culture in Vietnam.

After the fieldwork in some Old Quarters such as Hang Manh street, Ly Quoc Su street,Bat Dan street where many traditional dishes often are sold and fascinate tourists, I myself realize that there is a special style in cooking and enjoying food culture of Hanoi people that becomes as symbol of the capital Hanoi. There are a variety of the traditional delicious dishes of Hanoi people which exist from the past. This is one of the features that attracts tourist come to Hanoi. In particular , the tasty dishes in Hanoi have their own trademark that the citizens consider as the best taste : Thanh Tri rolled rice pancake, Vong grilled green rice, West Lake fried shrimp cake, La Vong grilled fish pie, Hang Manh round rice noodles with grilled pork , etc. 

Why does Hanoi cuisine become unique and different from other regions ?

In any travel guide book, it can be seen clearly that the capital Hanoi is an attractive destination which includes numerous tourist interest points such as Ancient Quarter, museums, theaters, historical landscapes, etc and especially Hanoi cuisine. It alway plays a key role in Hanoi people's life .

From the old days, the previous generation has left a cultural tradition in cooking and enjoying food that makes Hanoi cuisine unique and different from other areas in Vietnam. The first reason is the way of cooking which is the typical feature for the North cuisine. In food processing ans selecting ingredients, Hanoi people are very sophisticated. The dishes are not too spicy like the Middle, not too sweet like the South, each dish is a harmonious combination of various spices : onion, chili , sugar, garlic, pepper and particularly fish sauce that make it elegant taste and delicious flavor. Moreover, Hanoi people themselves can produce the cooking ingredients that nowhere can have such as soy sauce, rice sauce and shrimp sauce . The citizen mainly focuses on the using of fresh vegetables in cooking that is the reason why most of dishes in a Hanoian meal contain vegetables.

Another reason which contributes to a distinctive cuisine of Hanoi is the way of enjoying food. Initially, a meals of each family in Hanoi. It also takes a personal style : the sets of the tray, clean bowl and chopsticks. For Trang An people , eating is to enjoy it rather than to get it. In a meal, there are often alot of dishes but each dish is not  full of food. Because they think that every dish is prepared carefully as well as meticulously so when eating it is necessary to enjoy slowly and feel from their tongue the flavor in each dish contain. One more typical characteristic in Hanoi cuisine is that the citizens eat seasonally such as eating Khuc cake in spring, Che in the summer, green rice with banana in the autumn and Bun Thang in the winter. All above things create a special cuisine culture of Trang An people

How is Hanoi traditional cuisine today

In the modern society, Hanoi culinary art is made simpler a lot. There is no longer high demanding in the way of cooking and enjoying food like Trang An people in the past but the citizens keep ancestor's tradition in preparing carefully for the important events such as the Tet celebration, wedding ceremonies, family dining, etc.

However, long with the development of economy, especially in tourism, Hanoi tradition foods grow dramatically. Now besides normal rice noodle soup , there are the trademark of Pho 24 with different spices, Bun Ta with more than 70  types of the noodle which becomes famous not only in Hanoi but also in other cities of the country and all over world. Today, it can be easily to find the restaurant or shop on the pavement which serve fried spring rolls (Nem) in Dao Duy Tu street , West Lake fried shrimp cake in Thanh Nien street, snail with noodle in Phu Dong Thien Vuong street, etc.

Particularly, to develop and preserve the tradition foods of Hanoi, the city government has already built culinary culture streets that are Tong Duy Tan street and Hang Bong lane (or Cam Chi lane). When coming here , the visitors can enjoy the delicious dishes in Hanoi.

In short, the cuisine of ThangLong-Hanoi is the symbolic of the unique personalities of the Northern Vietnam people. Also, the capital Hanoi has unique culinary culture which plays an inportant role in bringing Vietnam's culture to the whole world. I fully hope that this paper will let the younger generation and foreign tourists more understand and love Hanoi. Furthermore, it makes the Hanoi younger more conscious in maintaining and developing the beautiful style in culinary culture of Hanoi.

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Survey the community tourism tour at A Luoi – Thua Thien Hue

During the last 2 days 16th and 17th, May 2013, the Department of Mekong Project conducted the survey “tourism service products and attending the Festival of Culture, Sports and Tourism of mountainous ethnic group in Thua Thien Hue” at A Luoi District. 22 travel agencies from Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue took part in this survey.

After attending some activities of the Festival of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the team came to conduct the survey at A Nor Falls (Hong Kim Commune), experienced community tourism at Aka-Achi village (A Roang Commune) with many interesting activities such as riding bicycle around the village, enjoying foods, camp-fire, doing cultural exchange with the villagers and having a bath at A Roang hot spring, etc...The team also worked with Border Defending Post 637 and people doing tourism at Aka-Achi to unity route, the method of organizing and service charge...Based on the survey, travel agencies will introduce these community tourism tours to visitors.

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VietJetAir launches Ho Chi Minh city – Buon Ma Thuot air route

On the occasion of launching the Ho Chi Minh City – Buon Ma Thuot air route, VietJetAir Joint Stock Company has brought passengers the weeks named “The Dance of Highland” – “Vu dieu Tay Nguyen” (taken place from now till May 26th) with a lot of attractive programs.

On the first phase, Ho Chi Minh city – Buon Ma Thuot air route will carry out with the frequency of 7 flights/week.

                                                           Buon Ma Thuot Airport

Flights from Ho Chi Minh City will depart at 6:20 PM and arrive at Buon Ma Thuot at 7:15 PM. The backward flights will take off at 7:50 PM and arrive at Ho Chi Minh city after 55 minutes.

The airfare just costs from 390,000 VND/trip.

Afterward, VietJetAir is gong to expand its business with the launching of domestic and international air routes.

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Hang Dao Street - The place not to be missed when you travel to Vietnam

Hang Dao Street - The silk dyer street

Background information

Hang Dao is one of the oldest streets in Vietnam, its location is in the Old Quarter, The Restored Lake District, Hanoi. “Hang” means street and “Dao” is the name of one silk dyer having the pink of apricot blossoms, which are symbolic of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. In the first years of the 15th century, this street was very famous with this silk so that people named it is “Hang Dao”, based on its characteristic.

Nowadays, Hang Dao is still one of the main streets in Hanoi. Its length is 260 meters and runs from north to south, cutting the Old Quarter in half. The southern border of the street is Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square, closing to Hoan Kiem Lake. The northern border is the Transversal Street (Hang Ngang). The street’s west has even number and the east has odd number.

History

From the 15th and 16th century, people from different places, especially from Hai Duong province, had to set up Dai Loi Ward. It is professional in dyeing silk. Since then, Hang Dao has become a center for dyeing silk and become the most crowded and noisiest street in Hanoi at that time.

On the first and sixth days of lunar month, there were fairs for the sale of silk items. It attracted many people and villages of silk such as La a, La Khe, the Grapefruit village - the coastal village of the West Lake, Van Phuc Village and so on.

After that, the occupation of dyeing silk was moved to the Wooden Bridge Street (Cau Go Street), Hang Dao became the place selling other types of fabric such as silk, gauze, brocade, crepe, muslin, etc

In 1986, when the innovation policy of the State is opening the market economy and economic integration, Hang Dao Street was awaken with the emergence of a range of groceries, watches, clothing and many tall buildings. They completely changed the face of Hang Dao street. Hang Dao became the place selling city maps for foreign tourists.

Hang Dao Street at the present

Nowadays, Hang Dao Street is one of the most expensive areas in Vietnam. Going along this street, tourists will catch so many clothes shops that almost cover the street. Instead of  dyeing silk, nowadays, Hang Dao people sell every kinds of clothes all the year, makes the street colorful, crowded and crazy just like many other streets. But the traditional values are still reserved by people and authorities. Looking up we see that the ancient windows and roofs are patiently defending to the time, weather and the developing modern life. Since 2006, Hang Dao Street has been as the night walking market opened every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.

As we have said before, Hang Dao Street is almost covered by clothes shops, so there are not many hotels or restaurants along the street. More detail, the only hotel we catch on Hang Dao Street is Serenade Hotel at 58, a 3-star hotel with 4 floors.

As you know, Hang Dao is a major shopping street in the trading centre of Ha Noi's Old Quarter. And there are some tourist attractions in the street like 38 Hang Dao street and 51 Hang Dao street.

38 Hang Dao street 

The house at 38 Hang Dao street was formerly Dong Lac communal house (brassiere selling market). The communal house was built in the Le dynastic time (the seventeenth century) in large scale. It was badly damaged by the war and in 1856 (Binh Thin lular year of Tu Duc Period), it was restored.

In 1941, the owners rebuilt the house and added a storey. They used the ground floor as living quarters and installed a family altar on the first floor. The house has a stone stele over 150 years old of a type rarely found in Hanoi’s surviving communal house. Other original features include many fine decorations. Of particular note is the carved head of dragon. The State-owned Hanoi Trading Service used the house as a department store from 1956 to 1999.

Then the Hanoi People’s Committee and the city of Toulouse, France selected the house for part of the plan “Preservation and Renovation of the Old Quarter”. Craftsmen using traditional construction techniques renovated the house, which was officially inaugurated in April 2000.

51 Hang Dao street

The house at 51 Hang Dao street, for instance, was built in 1930 for one family, its ancestral altar and the family silk business. Although built later than the “tube house”, that architectural tradition influenced its structure. The ground floor contains a shop, common room, sleeping room, inner yard, kitchen, backyard and toilet. The upstair has a small room, a courtyard linking the roofs of the house, a room for ancestral worship and a large yard for silk drying. The house is three meters wide and fifty meters long. Sunlight enters through open yards and courts, creating a pleasant atmosphere.

Then in 1954, after defeat of the French, a second family of eight moved into the house, living in the outer room of the upper floor while the former owners occupied the rest of the house. Since the house is narrow, the second family had to pass through the first family’s space to reach its own quarters. Both families shared the inner yard, kitchen and the back garden.

Now, the house at 51 Hang Dao street is a portrait-drawing business operated by three artists. The shop itself is in the room facing the street, while the room behind serves as the drawing workshop. Three generations live in the house. The grandfather helps two of his children run the shop in the evening. Others in the household earn their living outside the Old Quarter.

Walking street.

Hang Dao street is very suitable for walking tourists because as I said before, Hang Dao street is a most popular shopping street in Ha Noi's Old Quarter. There are so many stores and places for tourists come to visit and buy souvenirs, silk, clothes... It’s a fine example of a restored traditional Old Quarter house like the house at 38 Hang Dao. You can also visit the house at 51 Hang Dao to have a portrait drawing and learn more about the old architecture of Hanoi, the Hanoian lifestyle in the Old Quarter...

Besides, another especially for walking tourists,  on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, the street is served only for walking and there are vendors selling all sorts of household and personal goods.

I hope this is a memorable place when you travel to Vietnam.

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Bai Tu Long Bay will be put into operation since summer 2013

On May 22nd, Mr Do Thong - the vice president of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh confirmed that Quang Ninh will put into operation some routes and sights at Bai Tu Long Bay since summer 2013.

The expansion of routes and sights in Bai Tu Long Bay will create the attraction and enrichment for marine tourism in Quang Ninh.  It will help tourists have opportunity to gaze with the natural wonders which have huge geologic and geomorphology values. Mr. Thong emphasizes that all the routes and sights will operate on the principle of ensuring completely safety.

The People's Committee entrust the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to sponsor and coordinate with the Management Board of Ha Long Bay, The Department of ransportation, The Provincial Police, travel agents and tour operators for publishing online the routes and sights; constructing and promoting the image and tourism products of Bai Tu Long Bay. Furthermore, they have to conduct the survey for routes again, publish places of interest, and also supplement rules into regulations regarding the management of cruise ships on Ha Long Bay.

According to the proposal of the departments, agencies and local authority, Quang Ninh will build three tour routes, three points of reside temporarily and three routes of inland waterways on Bai Tu Long Bay. Currently, the preparation for opening the routes and points of reside temporarily on the Bai Tu Long Bay has been actively implemented by departments and local government.

Putting into operation since this summer, the tour routes include Ha Long – Hon Xep Park, Vung Duc (Cam Pha City) - Hon Xep Park, Cai Rong – Minh Chau (Van Don District), three-points of reside temporarily are Hon Xep Park, the Van Canh island, Lo O; three routes of inland waterways consist of  overnight point at Lo O, Van Canh and Hon Xep Park.

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Long Bien Bridge and people's life underneath it

From my point of view and from what I have learnt, there are differences between the repair replacement supports because there is so many times Long Bien Bridge destroyed by the enemy’s bombs. Hence, each time the bridge was repaired, it made the differences. Moreover, Vietnamese workers at that time did not have highly good quality and skill in this field. Consequently, although the bridge was restored, it could not return to the original one.

However, this is not totally a disadvantage. It was these differences that enclosed and symbolized the victory of Vietnamese sovereignty and national reunification against both French and US domination.
Understanding this meaning, we know that the existence of the bridge is a national pride.
People on the Island, or more usually called, “Bai Giua” (the Middle Ground) do different “jobs” to make a living.
Absorbing from what I saw, people here are not native Hanoi resident. They are from different places, for example, Hung Yen, Bac Ninh Province. The reason why they leaved their hometown to live here, as far as I know, is because at their home town, they could not find a way to earn money. Besides, there are also people moved to live here because they own no land, have no where else to settle down, so that they choose this place. When moving here, it can be possible that all of these people expect a better live; however, it turns out to be a hard-to-come-true dream. Their daily life is so harsh.
There is a fact that they do not have a family - register, diploma or basic knowledge to get a proper job. On the Island, most of people here make their daily life by farming. Some other, such as healthy men, is working as hired labor in some constructing buildings (working as builders for example), etc. There are also some families earn money by collecting and categorizing nylon rubbishes to sell to firms for recycling. Lastly, families living beside the river’s banks are fishermen.
It is transparent that their lives are depended strongly on the Red River. Unfortunately, in recent months, the Red River is at its lowest water level within more than a hundred year. This makes even more burden for people living on the Island. They are lack of water to plant tree and to irrigate their arid fields. The fishermen also face troubles. Their boat-houses are stuck in mud. It is harder to go fishing to earn money. Their life is becoming much more miserable.
In general, most of families on the Middle Ground are living at poor conditions. Having so many difficulties at having a settled income pushes their dream of a better life away.
Actually, my hometown is in Hanoi, but it is an outskirt area, so that my family members just know a little about Hanoi great bridge – Long Bien Bridge, and they nearly do not have any close memory about the bridge.
However, with native Hanoi residents, especially the senior citizens, Long Bien Bridge is a part of their heart and soul. There are so many memorable times as well as important events attached with the bridge. Firstly, it should be mentioned about the construction of the bridge in the period of 1899-1902. When Long Bien Bridge was built, it was called the Doumer Bridge. This original name was after the name of the Governor General of Indochina. At that time, Long Bien Bridge was the longest bridge in Asia. More influential, it was also the symbol of French assimilation towards Vietnam culture. It is the idea of bringing into Vietnam, particularly in Hanoi, a modern and civilized small Paris. This assimilation policy reflects the French desire to totally conquer Vietnamese society and culture.
The second remarkable event going with Long Bien Bridge that I would like to mention about is Vietnamese triumph in the end of French War. Right across Long Bien Bridge, there was the joy of liberty from capital residents, Communist soldiers – the Vietminh. People stood on the two road edges on the bridge to cheer with Vietminh revolutionary forces matching across the bridge. Furthermore, the bridge also witnessed the defeat of French as well as their withdrawal of the troops. To mark this glorious event, the bridge was renamed Long Bien Bridge as the name of a small village located on the Red River bank.
In the glow of Long Bien Bridge victory, there are also many times the bridge was destroyed by tons of bombs. Hanoi people and part of the army force had worked so hard to repair the bridge. Nowadays, there are still vestiges of the restoration, for example, the bridge’s supports, spans. This “scar” of the bridge marks the spirit of Vietnamese people to fight against the US war; therefore, it is the symbol of Vietnamese victory.
Without a doubt, Long Bien Bridge truly is the bridge of history and it will live permanently in each Vietnamese people mind, especially Hanoi people.
For us, the young generation, the bridge brings along with it the message from the magnanimous past of our previous generations, in keeping and protecting national independence and sovereignty.  But that is not all. Obviously, how to preserve the bridge intrinsic value is another essential issue. On one side, it is important to restore the bridge quality for people daily demand of transportation. On the other side, it has to be considered carefully about how the bridge will be preserved. As mentioned above, there are many valuable merits that the bridge is holding in: the “differences”, the historical marks of the previous hard-working, national victory, etc. Therefore, the idea of restoring Long Bien Bridge into it original shape means that all those values will be deleted forever. It has to be cautious about the “colonial form” from foreign country.
With this duty, the young generation will be the one with the greatest support and effort to keep our national pride.

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Travel to Vietnam with us

Are you planning to travel to Vietnam? I'm very happy if  this become true. It is hard for me to select one among many beautiful destinations throughout the country. However, I would like to recommend you some places which I find most attractive.

Sapa is the first name I want you to remember. It is the wonderful time these days in the year around for tourists to go to Sapa and join the people here during the season of ‘flowers’ and festivals. You can enjoy plentiful charming woodland flowers or take part in some cheerful spring festivals.

If you want some  really cool adventures during your travel to Vietnam , you should never miss Halong Bay when you travel to Vietnam. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world where limestone cliffs and islands rising through the emerald water ,making you more surprised than your image .At there , you will have been wonderful relax  time on board  and enjoy the incredible sight-seeing combined thousands, limestone and emerald water.

Hue is the next place you should visit. Its outstanding features include the ancient citadels and floating along The Perfume river, listening to Ho Hue (Hue chanty)…  
                           

The final destination may be Nha Trang, a coastal city in the south of Vietnam. It is famous for most beautiful beaches and resorts. The sun is not too bright and the sky is quite clear this time of the year. The weather is also good enough for outdoor activities along the beaches.

I hope you would wish to come back our country after the journey and experience many other interesting tourist destinations .
                                                                                                                                               
  Love,

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