We woke up and had buffet breakfast on the 11th floor of the LaRosa Hotel before checking out and starting Day 2 of the Ha Noi tour.
I tried a bowl of pho with beef flank. It was good but not as good as the one from Orchids Hotel. The broth had no depth and it was too simple.
Then I tried their banh cuon and egg roll. Their banh cuon wasn’t good. It just had very tiny black fungus mushrooms in it and the fish sauce dip provided was sour. I hate lemon in my banh cuon! The banh cuon was so plain.
The Ha Noi egg rolls were very good! They were small, crunchy, crispy.
After doing the morning activities of the tour, we had lunch at Anh Hoa Restaurant. The one thing I don’t like about doing a tour is that I don’t get to pick the restaurant and we have to eat together as a group. However, the plus side is, they do all the planning. Hmm, if it weren’t for my mom wanting to do a tour and hearing Ha Noi is more dangerous on your own, I would rather do the planning.
Bun Ca. Each person only for a small bowl with two little pieces of fish in it. It was okay.. I think it was on the bland side. The flavor was familiar from childhood. I’m sure my mom made this when I was a kid.
Fried fish in tomato sauce. I feel like because I love fish and I believe you can’t really make a fish dish wrong, it’ll always be good to me. Or mostly. This tomato sauce it was drenched in was good. I love tomato. I couldn’t tell what fish it was and my mom couldn’t either. But it was good! It was soft and mushy kind of like catfish texture.
Pork belly stew with quail egg. This is the same as what we had for lunch yesterday. It tastes better! The pork was tender, the quail eggs were soft and the sauce was flavorful. I enjoyed drenching my rice with the sauce, but the rice wasn’t good. It was dry.
Goi with banana flower and jellyfish. This was actually very good. It was light and refreshing with a slight tangy taste.
Fried tofu with salted egg yolk sauce. This was my favorite!! The tofu on the inside was so soft and silky. It had a very crispy shell. The sauce was very tasty and savory. Reminds me of the salted egg yolk bun from dim sum. So delicious.
Green vegetable stir fry. My mom can never tell me what kind of vegetable it is in Vietnamese nor English. Fail lol.
Hot and sour soup (Vietnamese) style. This soup was very plain. There weren’t any special toppings in it; just bean sprouts and green onions. Not my favorite soup. People love it; I hate it haha.
Cha Ca. This is like Vietnamese ham but made with fish. I usually love this but they didn’t make it that good at this restaurant. Dry and mediocre.
And that already concluded Ha Noi.. I didn’t even get to try their banh cuon.. 🙁
The tour bus drove us 2hr to Ha Long. It was hot but already feels cooler because it had more cool winds. The rocks from the waters looked beautiful. I’m excited to see more of it tomorrow!
For dinner, we ate at the Sea Star Restaurant, which is right downstairs from our Sea Star Hotel. Ugh, these aren’t foodie choices to me but I have to follow the tour itinerary. Whatever makes my mom happy.. for this trip.
Clams. I was initially excited to see these clams and they’re the mini ones too. But what bad luck, the first two I opened were full of mud. Disgusting and an immediate turn off. NEXT!
Cha Squid. Vietnamese ham but with squid instead. It is so good and my favorite dish for dinner. It was fried fresh and was juicy with every bite.
Stir fry bokchoy. Typical Chinese like stir fry.
Ground pork stir fry with fish paste, onion and lemongrass. This was also very good but because of the fish paste; that adds the saltiness. You definitely have to eat this with rice.
Goi with jelly fish. Same as lunch as earlier today. Wow they really like jellyfish up in the North.
Sour soup with sau. It’s this type of northern Vietnamese soup made with this sour nut that’s only found in the North.
Egg rolls. Delicious and done Northern style with the extra crispy rice paper skin and mini size.
My mom also didn’t know what fish this was. Ugh!! I really don’t like your picked restaurants and food. I don’t even know exactly what they ordered!!
After dinner, we decided to take a short walk around our hotel to look at other business. Compared to Saigon and Ha Noi, the streets are awfully quiet and dark. There are no street scooters. The streets are much more bigger too.
Good thing I did research ahead of time and found this place that serves soybean tofu. My mom wanted soybean tofu.
Tau Hu Dua Nuong. This is what my mom ordered. It’s the one in the bottom left. Looks like it’s covered with the whipped same egg cream and with toasted sugar on top. My mom loved it and said it was very good. My mom wiped her plate clean!
Tau Hu Kem Trung Chay. This is what I ordered. It is topped with the same egg cream that goes on top of the egg coffee. It was pretty good! The soybean tofu was very smooth and soft. It was so refreshing to eat. The egg was creamy!
Tau Hu Tran Chau Duong Den. This is what my aunt ordered but she let me try a bite of hers first. It was topped what tastes like brown sugar boba. I am sooo surprised that the boba is soo good. It was so soft and chewy. Perfectly sweet. Good job Vietnam!
Tra Sua Kem Trung. I also ordered a milk tea topped with the whipped raw egg like the egg coffee. The milk tea was sweet, milky and tasted very good. The boba was also perfectly chewy and sweet. The egg topping is the same as for my soybean tofu.
I was disappointed in both tour provided lunch and dinner today but I’m glad the day ended well with delicious dessert and milk tea!
