North of Vietnam food – the yin yang of flavor

When you mention about north of Vietnam, Hanoi is the symbolism for all the food and culture. Not like the other part of Vietnam they only have rain season and dry season, Hanoi have all four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. The weather also affects the foods becomes more diverse and balance than the rest of the country.

Let’s begin with the spring – the best season in year. Spring in Hanoi start around February to April with the light rain and chilling cold weather. The weather is perfect for flower bloom and also perfect people come together enjoy some food. People used to have good time with friends eating hot pot, grills and have some beers together. There are some famous hot pot and grill that you should try when you visit Hanoi like: sweet and sour frog hot pot (lau ech), intense hot pot (lau long), chicken feet grill (chan ga nuong), mix meat on hot plate (nuong tong hop), etc.

Summer in Hanoi is extremely hot, the weather most of time around 35 to 40 census degree. People just go out to have some food at night to avoid the heat. Nothing better than have a cold iced lemon tea with some sunflower seed and ketchup with your friends in a summer night, it become a special culture of Hanoi. It also great to have some iced cream to cool down after long hot day. Hanoi iced creams are different, they are made the iced cream everyday and the taste is very fresh with the entire natural ingredient no chemical flavor and preservatives. If you want to try the iced cream, you have to wait and fight for this (there are no line up in Vietnam) but worth.

After the summer long, students come back to university in Hanoi in fall; it’s time for some street foods. Nem chua ran (Vietnamese sausage) caramel flan, jackfruit yogurt, deep-fried cheese stick. Etc. the food is really tasty, cheap, and easy to find everywhere in Hanoi. bun dau mam tom (rice noodle combination) is the great option to have in this weather too. 

Winter in Vietnam isn’t cold like in Canada; we don’t have snow but the atmosphere make it feel colder than the real temperature. Grill corn, grill yam, boil cassava, corn milk, etc. all the hot food is sell on small bike with huge box in the back to keep it hot. Hot coffee also is the good option for a winter day. Coffee in Vietnam is taste stronger and darker. There are few ways to have your coffee Hanoi but the unique one is egg coffee, the combine from the creamy of egg with the bitter of the coffee made it really tasty.

Nowadays, it easy to have all this kind of food every time in a year but the best way to enjoy the food is follow the season!