First time I had a breakfast buffet that included 1/2 Belgian waffle, a 1-egg omelet made-to-order, AND vegetable vermicelli.
You gotta love international airlines that have full-service meals + free beer & wine on an hour & 35-minute flight...
Beef with vermicelli - check! (good choice since the "chicken" in the other entree resembled a fermented square of SPAM).
Halida beer - check!
Some kind of funky dessert that seemed to be a distant relative of brilliant pink tapioca with frosting to disguise it as a brownie or small square piece of cake - check!
After waiting at least an hour for our luggage (triggering horrible flashbacks of our 2010 Nairobi nightmare), we drove about an hour to our hotel in Hanoi. Before our quick walking tour of the hotel neighborhood, Sunny, our guide, informed us we were still waiting for 4 more people to join us too late for our welcome dinner tonight. So we changed the itinerary for dinner on our own tonight and the welcome dinner tomorrow night.
We were devastated (NOT)! In true leadership fashion, I let the rest of the 10 folks know that Iris & I were heading to Cha Ca La Vong, where fish & only fish was served. This is delicate white fish, fried at high heat in peanut oil with dill, turmeric, rice noodles, & peanuts. There are additional garnishes of red chili peppers, fish sauce and cilantro.
Ordering is a thing of simplicity & beauty - how many in your party = the number of bowls you need. How many bottles of beer do you need to go with your cha ca? Ingredients are added to a frying pan over a charcoal hibachi right at the table (2 hibachis for our group of 7).
Cha ca + 450 ml. Bia Ha Noi beer + gratuity + extra tip = $10 US! Life is good!
Betty, Gloria and Barbara get to work on their cha ca and beers.
I am scarfing down those noodles
like there's no tomorrow (ha ha)
Iris slurps up her meal in true Asian style.
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