Hanoi, Vietnam : Places to eat at... when you're feeling homesick!

I know the time gap between my posts seems to be getting longer and longer and they aren't any pictures but things can be a bit crazy sometime.

This article is especially for the expats or tourists visiting Hanoi, Vietnam and are craving food other than Vietnamese.

Food seems to bring about a great festivity to the people in Hanoi. Everywhere you look you see families eating breakfast, lunch or dinner together chattering away while sitting on their colorful plastic stools oblivious to the tourists or other people around them. To eat the true Vietnamese food you can stop at any of the million places on the road where families are eating noodles or rice out of their bowls (different variety of noodles are also sold in stalls on the road). Accompaniments to this can be a variety of fish, pork, beef, veggies. A staple of the Vietnamese cuisine also is the Pho bo (beef noodle soup) served with lots of fresh red chillies and lime and Congee again served with meat and an assortment of sauces - traditionally made with beef but you can get yours with chicken too. Breakfast every morning at the hotel seems more like lunch with either congee, miso soup or Pho ga (Chicken noodle soup) and is so filling that there is hardly any place for a full blown lunch. The more exotic and contemporary Vietnamese dishes - snails, clams, pork intestines with blood and all (yes, you did read it right),spring rolls filled with a variety of vegetables / pork / chicken or tofu cooked and then served with a matured duck egg sauce can be found at all the good fine dining places here. A common site here is that everywhere you go you can see women with balancing baskets of food on her shoulder slung over a bamboo pole. This can be as exotic as rice cakes or boiled sweet potato but after a while an average person staying here for more than 10 days does start to get a bit homesick.

I am not a fan of experimenting with my meat and stick to chicken and vegetables. Also, with a small baby around me my excitement to experiment is a bit diminished... so I am always looking for places which serve basic sandwiches and fries and bottled water and have an air-con so that I can feed my baby in a cool place.

The options for expats and tourists who are home-sick are quite a bit. You find a number of restaurants around Hoan Kiem Lake that cater to the palette of tourists and Vietnamese alike. The Little Hanoi (Every thing from Vietnamese food to Tandoori chicken baguettes can be got here and the food is really tasty. This is just at the entrance of the old quarter and you can watch the hustle bustle of the old quarter from the confines of a nice air-conditioned sit down place which makes you feel right in the middle of it but still gives you yours pace) ), Thai Express (over looking the lake for good thai fast food), KFC (for your burger and fries craving), Opera House Cafe (great place to lounge and enjoy that evening beer or Vietnamese cold coffee with condensed milk). There is a coffee shop at the Hotel Zephyr that looked very chic and modern and have been meaning to try it out but haven't had the chance to step in. The good old Indian food craving can be satisfied with a visit to Tandoor (at the old quarter) or Asia House (Indian and Indian Chinese near Hai Ba Trung ). And there is always the good old Highland's Cafe, Hanoi's answer to Starbucks that has multiple branches all over the city and is always full of families and people sipping on their cuppa, chatting or expats / tourists surfing the net (you can get everything from breakfast to a decent meal here with an assortment of cold and hot coffees and tea to accompany it).


Since I am currently living in a service apartment I have been cooking a lot and L's Place at Hai Ba Trung (near the Cuban Embassy) is a great place to stock up especially is you are looking for food for kids (all ages). They have kiddie food (<1 year and up), cereals, chocolates, veggies, fruits, even chicken (which seems hard to get around here) , toys and household items. A one stop shop for anything you need for the house.

There is much to discover in Hanoi and I have just started discovering every page of this rich, culturally enriched book but it can be a bit challenging with a baby. Museum and shopping updates are going to be to be up soon - so do watch this space if you are planning a trip to Hanoi or just want to read more about this gorgeous place.




   

Cooking with 3 pots and 1 pan... my mis-adventures...

There are things (and people) that we take for granted in life and only when we are forced to give them up do we realize the comforts that we have surrounded ourselves with.

Usually, I am up at 6am ready for my yoga and by 7am when I am back my help serves me a warm glass of coffee milk which I manage to gulp down and skim through the paper before my son wakes up and demands I attend to him. I often crib about how I don't get alone time or miss a session 'coz I was awake the night before trying to get my son to sleep etc.

I am currently in Vietnam, yes Vietnam out of all the places, with no help and my 20 month old and me having a go at it all alone! I have been under the weather then passed off the bug to him.. but am still managing with no help for cooking and looking after him. We seem to be more relaxed and since I am less hyper it transfers to him and he is calmer too... I actually thought I won't survive without help but it's been a week and I am coping fine!

Yes, I do miss doing nothing and sipping on a cup of chai knowing everything will sort itself out and there will be food for the baby to eat but I am more at peace now. The other adventure that I am on is trying to get meals ready in time or before time and actually cooking with only 3 pots and 1 pan (a non-stick) that I couldn't have survived without - so I bought one the day after I landed. In Gurgaon, I have 6 pressure cookers to choose from when I am cooking and currently I have a mini 1.5ltr which I am using for everything!!!! I am terribly lucky to have packed it off with my husband in advance otherwise we would be waiting for hours to get food ready on the electric stove we have in the apartment. The only regret I have is the baking I have to abstain from since there is no over here.

Over the next few days, I am going to document surviving on how I manage to cook with my limited utensils. My son is not keen on experimenting with Vietnamese cuisine so I am also trying to cook Indian food here and the limited items on my list currently are - rava dosa, upma, subudane ka porridge, khichdi, a variety of dals with chawal, bhindi and various chicken curries. My hubby and son are not a fan of veggies but I think they are missing their paranthas and roti.

Am going to keep trying to blog from here about the markets, cuisines and things to do with children.

Over and out for now - time to head into the kitchen to get the evening snack ready.

Mumbai - City of Dreams...

This article is just some food for thought (but no actual food or pics included). It is about Mumbai - the city I always call home, even though I currently reside in Gurgaon (which is in Northern India)! For those of you who live in India or who reside outside the country - I will definitely have it on my "one of the places to visit" list.

I live in Juhu near the beach and there is nothing quiet about where I am - this hustle and bustle is what I love the most about the city and what keeps me going. At any given point of the day or night there is a continuous flow of traffic that can be seen from my window and honking of horns. There are a million people thronging the beach even in this weather when the rain doesn't seem to have ceased... and the city is full of some kind of vibrancy that makes you want to go out there and live your life and makes your dreams come true - maybe this is why it is called the "City of Dreams"!

Since, this is a food blog I will tell you about a few restaurants and places to eat that I touched upon on this trip. I couldn't go around trying a lot of new restaurants since the weather has been really blue and getting out with a baby can be quite a chore. Also, my throat is slightly under the weather so I am trying to keep it real simple. I had to go to my bhel-puri and paani-puri joint - which is in the by-lanes of santacruz between Yoko's and Tresori (e-mail me if you want directions). This guy is great for all kinds of chaats (Indian Street Food) - I think he beats Elco (on Hill Road)  since he has not commercialised it and turned it into a big shop and is yet really hygienic! He has a loyal clientèle and I have been going to him for the last ten years... Then there is Candies (in three locations in Bandra) and it has the most awesome selection of food if I may add - during my stay at Lilavati during my delivery my family was a regular at this food joint. This time there was a change in their desserts... beside the regular fare they had the cutest mini muffins - carrot, carrot - zuchini, banana, chocolate, red velvet - name the flavor and they had it. Thy had cutesy mini pies,  mini chocolates and miniature everything. In this day and age of super sizing portions it was a relief to see - coz I could try a couple of things without feeling guilty and I am always trying to cut my "dessert" intake - so these sizes really help! I also ate some Indian-Chinese at Juhu Gymkhana and it didn't fail to make me happy - chilly chicken and fried rice is the way to go when in India!

Apart from this my ten days in Mumbai flew by, also because I had a nasty cold which refused to go... the one day that the hubby showed up we tucked the baby in bed and decided to visit Olive - I just love this place - but the baby got up and we had to be back even before we had ordered drinks!

For those of you who follow my blog and are not from India.. I am going to try and put up some pics of some Indian Street Foods - so you can get a feel of what I am talking about.

I am still travelling and shall be back with some great food pics and recipes soon!

Off and On...

I am going to be blogging sparingly for the next month because I am travelling to visit family... if you subscribe to the blog you will receive an email as soon as there is a new post!

Thank you for the patience...

Kiddie Party Treats - Totally Sinful !!!!

I have been a fan of Bakerella Pops since forever - she has the yummiest and most scrumptious looking bite sized food ever!

So when I knew I was going to have many many kids over (read more than 10) and I had some serious baking to do... I realized I am going to try and make some "CAKE POPS"! I also ended up making some very Christmassy sugar cookies - and got inspired to turn them into "COOKIE POPS"!

Accompanying this I also had some Mini Cheesecakes (Oreo cookie and Blueberry flavors), Chocolate and Walnut Biscotti, Chocolate and Walnut Fudgy Cookies, and Banana Walnut Loaf Slices - the mothers needed some treats too!

Yeah, I think I was going crazy and into baking over-drive for the last few days - but it was well worth the effort!
 
More photos to come :)!