Ruou Can

As a specialty of picturesque mountainous areas, “ruou can” distinguishes itself not only by its herb bouquet, its light-bodied taste but also by the way to relish it, through long-slender bamboo tubes in the big wine jar.

 Accordingly, the idea of enjoying “ruou can” is highly seductive, even for locals. The wine is, inherently, a fermented rice wine made of sticky rice; however, ethnic minorities add several kinds of herb leaves and herb roots to the wine, creating an exotic jungle flavor. It is fermented in a large porcelain jug and it takes at least one month for fermentation process.

Traditionally, for special occasions such as weddings, harvest feasts, and festivals, local people hold a party in their community house, called “nhà rông”, dancing together, enjoying their cuisines and relishing the wine together.

Tourists also are invited and certainly you will impressed by ardent flavor of the wine, refreshing taste of food, and more importantly, communal spirits and culture features that are preserved and brought into play by the locals here.

            

Hanoi beer

That's especially true if you're in Hanoi, where the beer is surely the best value to be found anywhere and the world going by must be among the most fascinating.

Ahhhh. After a hot, steamy day of exploring museums and pagodas there's nothing better than sitting in a pavement cafe, sipping a cold beer, and watching the world go by.

The presence of Bia Hanoi, or freshly brewed, light, low-alcohol pilsener-style lager, is one of the best things in Vietnam.

Beer Hanoi was the brew of connoisseurs in the capital

It is incredibly cheap - less than 20c a handle - tasty and refreshing, and because it's low alcohol you can enjoy plenty of it without feeling any after effects.

There is a slight trap in the standard toast "tram phan tram" which an innocent visitor can join in with realising it means  - "bottoms up", "drink up", or "100 per cent".

  

Furthermore, the cafes also supply cheap snacks to soak up the liquid and to allow you to keep drinking all evening without the need to leave for dinner.

Sitting at a cafe in Hanoi's Old Quarter is also a fine way to get a feel for the city's rich street life with its occasional limousines, endless buzzing motorbikes, bicycles laden with produce and street vendors hawking vegetables and fruit from baskets slung over their shoulders.

You could easily sit there all evening, relaxing, supping, chatting, shouting toasts and enjoying the passing parade. 

"Tram phan tram".!!

Hanoi’s coffee culture

Sai Gon has coffee on high floor, and under ground, etc., whereas Hanoi has street coffee and traditional cafeteria. The competition between Trung Nguyen coffee system, modern Cappuccino coffee and traditional coffee is still equal. This reveals that the Hanoians retain some uniqueness of their ancient lifestyle.

Coffee and the Hanoians

The Hanoians drink a lot of the dark, caffeinated beverage and prefer sipping their stronger blends outside in front of a small shop with some sweet milk and a spoonful of sugar. Every morning, on hot days of summer and cold and dull days of winter, you can easily see some here with a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

For many Hanoians, the most important factor of a café is not its luxuriousness but the quality of the product. Old people love cafés which have been around a long time, located on old streets or inside deep alleys. Office workers like cafes with romantic and quiet styles like those in Pho Co Quarter. Young people prefer the noisy and busy atmosphere of modern and luxury or pavement cafés.

Street Coffee…

Soaking up the rhythms of the street and embracing Hanoi from all of its sides, from old to new ones, and from traditional to modern & quirky ones, you will tenderly recognize that, nothing can be better refresh us after hardworking hours than a cup of coffee on a street near Sword Lake (Hoan Kiem Lake).

Basking with sunshine in the afternoon when there’s less noise from automobiles, Hanoi ends a day and opens a new paradise for culture experiences. Taking over a legacy from bygone years with the involvement of an irresistible French factor, the Vietnamese have embraced café culture in a great way. There are so many famous coffee shops in Hanoi, like Nang café (6 Hang Bac), Nhan (39D1 Hang Hanh), Quat (Quan Thanh), Quynh (Bat Dan) to Giang (Hang Gai and Lam (60, 91 Nguyen Huu Huan)… Chairs are small, literally child-sized, and are sometimes made of blue plastic or painted wood. The tables are covered with glasses of ca phe den (black coffee) or ca phe sua da (iced coffee), which come with their own picturesque drip top. Not only just for connoisseurs,  these places are idea for having gossip, meeting old friends, talking to pass  time of day, stealing precious moments for romantics …

Now, let’s follow a coffee connoisseur…

A good example of the authentic Hanoi cafés is Hang Hanh, an atmospheric slender street veering off the city’s central Hoan Kiem Lake. In the afternoon, one may find himself inexplicably drawn to its’ wall-to-wall cafés which unfold below the shady boughs of leafy trees. Here, the annoying young and cool Vietnamese often sit and watch the world in front of their eyes. In late afternoon, with the last rays of sunshine, the place starts to buzz. At weekends, it is positively heaving with dating couples or gangs of youths desiring to be couples.

If this sounds too frenetic, a more subdued place like Giang Café can be chosen! Though situated in a busy tourist shopping street, the tiny confined Giang Café attracts the serious permanent coffee lovers and soccer addicts. 

Cyclo cafe in Hanoi

My next stop is Lam café - the perfect refuge for artists, poets and thespians to refresh their minds for creativeness. Situated on a shaded street, it will bring you the relaxed moments by the simple but artistically-decorated bamboo furniture, colorful framed oil paintings on the wall, ceiling fans as well as wooden table with a lot of tiny china teapots.

Yet, if you ask me about my favorite one, I will not hesitate to answer that it is Quynh Café. Down in a quiet side street, this unassuming cafes’ entrance is marked by a simple red lantern and ornate ironwork doors. Stepping inside, you not only see the bamboo furniture on tiled floor but also the tiny plants adorn wooden shuttered windows. Looking on damp-streaked walls, you may surprise with wooden arrows and trumpets, farming implements and ancient hunting pistols. Breathing the cool air from the antiquated table-fan, wallowing in soft French background music, you will desire to stay longer...

Coffee drinking from another approach

The resurgence of tourism to these fragrant shores has led to the resurrection of the wonderful old ambience of former colonial times in many Hanoi cafés. Delightful cafés are now housed in elegant French-style villas with exquisite silk prints, meticulously polished wooden floors and pot-planted courtyards or serve delicious food all day and evening. Street cafés like the La Terrasse du Metropole on Ngo Quyen and Le Phung Hieu or Highlands Café, 84 Nguyen Du are the typical examples!

Hanoi’s coffee culture calls on coffee addicts from every corner of the globe!

"One cup of tea, please!"

... is what you often here when walking along Hanoi streets, near a lamp post, under the shade of a tree, or next to a door where there is a low table with glass pots containing different kinds of candies, roasted ground nuts, and sugar coated cakes. This is a complete description of a make-shift tea shop, which is a very popular part of Vietnamese street life.

The owner skillfully lifts the cap of the tea cozy, takes out the tea pot, and then pours the hot tea into a small cup. The owner then hands the cup of steaming tea to the customer. Unlike northerners, who prefer hot steamy tea, people in the south would like to add ice cubes to their tea cups/glasses due to weather difference.

Tea drinking - an indispensable habit.

Vietnamese people have a nice habit of drinking tea. They drink it everywhere and at any time: at home, at workplaces, even in tea shops on their way to work, or at formal meetings, weddings or funerals. They also place it on altars as an offering to their ancestors on worshipping occasions. Whenever the locals feel thirsty, they are likely to look for this drink, in both summer and winter. A cup of iced tea in a hot day in summer not only refreshes your mind but also detoxicate your body. On the contrary, in winter, a sip of hot tea makes you feel warm inside and better able to cope with the outside cold temperatures.

Yet, tea drinking is not a recent trend in Viet Nam but attached to an ancient history as follows;

Tea drinking - from history to daily life...

Viet Nam is one of the largest and oldest tea-producing countries in the world. The Vietnamese have been growing tea for over 2,000 years. As early as in the 11th century, tea was used as a symbol to convey the essence of Buddhism. During the period of the Tran Dynasty from the 13th to early 15th century, tea assumed a philosophical value for the Vietnamese. In the 15th century, the Vietnamese polymath Nguyen Trai (1380-1442) lived as a hermit, renouncing the outside world for a life of "tea, poetry and the moon".

While tea has a special philosophical value for scholars and a long tradition in Vietnamese history, it has its own place today in the life of ordinary people living both in the cities and in the countryside. In the past, peasants could not afford expensive tea, so they grew tea on their own. Nowadays, tea is used to bind people together, for example, the peasant often invites his neighbor around for a chat over a cup of tea. They drink tea initially to thank the host for his hospitality, then throughout several tea sips, they open  heart more, to share their feelings, to speak about the family, the company and finally to feel the nature savor of the cup of tea.

Besides a normal thirst-quenching beverage, tea is also considered a delicate and meaningful one. In the past, it used to be the leverage for poets’ inspiration. Up to now, the habit of leisure tea-drinking has helped refresh and polish the drinkers’ minds. Moreover, a person's character can be assessed by his or her tea drinking ways. Vietnamese people consider those who drink concentrated tea to be finely-mannered; and those who can pour tea into bowls arranged in a circle using a coconut scoop without spilling a drop will certainly enjoy the admiration of their tea-drinking peers.

Kinds of tea

Viet Nam has grown many and various types of tea such as che Tuyet, che Moc cau, che man, che chi … Each one is combined with a particular kind of flower: che man with chrysanthemum; che bup with hoa soi flowers; high quality che man and che bup with lotus, narcissus or jasmine. Some connoisseurs go so far as to row out to the middle of a pond to place small amounts of tea inside lotus buds in order to perfume it. An example is cum tea, grown by the Tay ethnic minority. Cum tea plants are allowed to grow until the buds are mature, then they are picked, and roasted in a pan until they are dry and the buds begin to curl up. The tea is then wrapped up in palm leaves to keep it fragrant.

The Vietnamese like to mix tea with flowers to make it more aromatic. Tea with lotus is very precious for Vietnamese people. This kind of tea was formerly reserved to the Kings. According to the predecessors, when the lotus blossoms in the afternoon, they put a sachet of tea in the pistil and then, they tighten it with the sheets of lotus. In the next morning, they take dew remained on the sheets and in mixture with the sachet of tea in the pistil. After having poured into the cup, the soft and fresh odor of lotus dominates the whole room.

The tea culture has sticked to the life and the heart of Vietnamese people for generations. And when they drink tea at a small mouthful, the tea savor makes them more off-hand and closer to one another. This has formed the culture of the vicinity and the affection between neighbors.