Le Tonkin, Hanoi

The girls went to Halong Bay, while my roommate and I stayed behind.

It was Yayo's birthday and she requested the 'attorney', my lovely roommate,

 to find a good restaurant where we can all have dinner. 

When Susie went to Hanoi in 2008, her client brought her to this

French inspired villa, right in the center of town,

 that serves authentic (here I go again) Vietnamese cuisine.

Le Tonkin, pronounced as le tong king.

The maitre d' asked us if we wanted to dine in the garden or indoors.

The perimenoapusal ladies, with hot flushes??? ... syempre indoors.

Upon entering the villa, Oh my, I saw stairs again.

We didn't go up the stairs though. The main dining room was on the right side

of the hall. Here's Atty Susie at the long dining table reserved for eight.

Btw, we were the only guests that night.

Hmmmm... impressive decor in one corner .

... another one, which was at the other corner.

Their menu, in a 'bilao' ?.. or a Vietnamese hat.

table setting

Pho... we were given one big bowl each of this chicken pho.

Soup was delicious, but it wasn't warm enough and had too much soggy noodles.

But I did like this soup, I almost finished it,

even if there were no basil and bean sprouts to go with it.

From hereon, there were two servings/plates each.

Notice the 'kropeck'? Just four pieces, meaning we only have one piece each.

Fresh Spring Rolls ...  looks good  but I did not taste this.

Again, one piece each.

There it is again, the crunchy tasteless squid fritter,

served with sweet and sour sauce. One calamari each.

Fried Spring Rolls... I forgot if I ate this one. One piece each again.

The rice ... very fragrant and had coconut milk in it.  I loved this.

Mixed Vegies, Chop suey... more Chinese than Vietnamese.

This was the shrimp dish, with four pieces of Shrimps in it,

 underneath the onions and carrots,

The fish was served last and had to be mixed with noodles and a special sauce.

. I don't think the girls tried this. I didn't.

We had this wrapped and took it back to the hotel, but it spoiled the next morning.

 

This was the dessert, a slice of watermelon. Didn't eat this either.

They could have at least given us two slices!

The bill was 152 US dollars., about 6200 pesos,

that's 775 each. Too much!

I shouldn't complain! It was the birthday girl's treat for the travel buddies.

Thanks Yayo!

*** 

No wonder I did not see any fat Vietnamese women/men in Church.

If this is what I will eat daily, I would probably be as slender as they are!

*******

Now, shall I go back to this place? NO.

*** 

It's not just the food. It's the motorcycle - laden streets, the smelly alleys,

the sidewalk eateries, the rude sales lady at the art gallery who raised her voice at

the attorney and me (or was she just emphatic?)

[but I really wanted those paintings, so I haggled and got what I wanted!]

... and the tricky deceitful non-English

speaking taxi drivers!!!

*** 

Shall I go back to Hanoi?

I am never going back to Hanoi.

/ betsisanders 2012

'forgettable' lunch in Hanoi

This is where we had our first 'authentic' Vietnamese meal in Hanoi.

It was almost mid afternoon, was very hot and humid.

The girls were sweaty, tired and famished.

Some already had street food, fried spring rolls, but others,

like my roommate and I, are not that adventurous. 

This was probably the first restaurant we saw and

we agreed to have lunch here.

We had to climb these stairs. Raffy went ahead and when she heard me complain

about the steps, she said, "Betsy, kaya mo yan. Kaya din ng stairs." or something like that.

The stairs squeaked as I climbed up.  The steps were hollow, as if,

 termites already had lunch and had many more 'meals' here.

These are wooden chopsticks. We asked for forks instead.

Swanee brought out her alcohol spray and I took out my wipes.

Looks good, but I didn't want to take the risk.

Instead, I ate some of these fried spring rolls. They were fried in hot oil,

very hot oil, I suppose.  Tasted good. Had these with a bowl of rice.

The noodles were extremely oily! I thought Vietnamese food was healthy!

 Wrong! 

Their PHO fails in comparison to the Pho that I usually eat at Pho Hoa.

There were no bean sprouts nor basil leaves to go with the pho.

Calamari... is crunchy and tasteless, as always.

 I don't really know why we keep on ordering this.

********

Shall I go back to this place? No way.

I hope our dinner at Le Ton Kin will make me change my mind about

 'authentic' Vietnamese food here in Hanoi.

/ betsisanders 2012

hanoi's sights,'smells' & belles

 

Group picture taken on our first day in Hanoi.

Just some photos from my camera.

there are hundreds of photos from the other girls' cameras.

Too many to post here.

Angela & Malu posing as Vietnamese fruit vendors.

They had to buy some bananas & pineapple.

 

I had to buy 50,ooo worth of these chewy tough old fried carioca.

Old tree behind these 'not so old' three.

St. Joseph's Cathedral at the heart of Hanoi.

only 50 giant steps away from our boutique small 'bed & breakfast' hotel.

 

 

 

 

Group picture at Le Ton Kin Restaurant to celebrate Yayo's birthday.

Yayo treated us to an authentic Vietnamese dinner.

 

Yayo, with her bouquet of roses that Angela & Raffy bought at dawn.

Isn't she lovely?

Painting that Swanee & I bought for Yayo. Our gift for Yayita.

 

Swanee, my roommate, and I did not join the tour to Halong Bay.

Susie didn't like to ride the boat.

I dreaded the 4 hour bus/van ride to Halong Bay and

another 4 hours back.

 

 

So, Susie and I went to several art galleries and then went to

the 6pm Vietnamese Mass at St. Joseph's.

Our last day in Hanoi. Waiting for the van that would take us to the airport.

Photos with Dong1 and Dong2. These guys are the 'front desk personnel', bellmen,

porters, utility peeps, cashier, all around help in the hotel.

These guys were actually very nice, funny and quite hospitable.

Thank you Dong (s).

 

 

while waiting for our flight back to Manila

Malu at the duty free.

betsisanders / October 2012