'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