Fanny's and Quan An Ngon (Day 1- Part 2) Hanoi , Vietnam

I have a tendency to try to fit as many things into my itinerary when I am travelling on a tight schedule. It's a balancing act between enjoying the sights but still try to make the best use of time. This results into really really long blog posts if I don't do it in parts.

After the water puppet show, we headed back towards the lake for pre-dinner dessert. If you read blogs about Hanoi, more often than not the name "Fanny Ice Cream" would have probably appeared more than once on your screen. With the praises raining down on an gelato parlour (and I even found mention of it in a Lonely Planet Guide published in 2002), we decided to try it out.

Fanny is known as one of the oldest restaurant around Hanoi and was founded by a French man to serve gelato to the Vietnamese masses.

We ordered the sushi set and a normal banana split and chose a window to sit by to watch the evening traffic and the lake as the sun set. The place was quite quiet as there was only one other table occupied apart from ours. The waitresses generally looked sulky. Maybe it was a slow day.

Sushi ice cream

The sushi was interesting but I seriously don't like sesame seeds. It took me some time to scrape off the seeds. The sauces in the plates were chocolate and strawberry jam to emulate Chinese sweet sauce and chilli sauce, although wasabi should the the right condiment. Fresh fruits decorated the sides. RM16 109,000 VND... Creative presentation concept but the gelato is really just vanilla ice-cream rolled in black sesame seeds.

I found the plain banana split was more satisfying instead. At least I could taste the texture of the gelato instead of being distracted by fancy dress-up.

Banana split

Pirates come in here for ice cream? O.o

After we were done with the ice-cream, it was already dusk and the temperature had dropped considerably. I think it was around 20°C in October. It took us 20 minutes to walk back to the hotel while avoiding the scooters that zipped by us.

Note: Crossing the road in Hanoi - to cross a road, you have to watch out for scooters. Let's say if you want to cross from the right to the left side of the road, take a minute to determine the path you want to take. When you step off the curb, do not stop halfway if you see a scooter coming towards you. Continue walking at a measured pace. The riders will swerve around to avoid you as they know you are crossing the road and they have roughly estimated how to avoid hitting you. Do not make a sudden dash for it either. It will endanger both yours and the motorcyclist lives. Hanoi's motorcycles are not daunting if you know what to do. If you see on-coming cars, do not adopt this method. They are unable to stop in time for you nor is Hanoi a pedestrian friendly city. Wait until the light changes to cross the road.

After taking a quick shower, we got the reception to call a cab for us to the Marche of Hanoi - Quan An Ngon.




The place was packed to the brim when we arrived around 7.30pm. We waited for 20 minutes before shown a table that we shared with a nice Australian retired couple. They have been staying in Hanoi for the past 5 years. The serving staff is pretty impatient with customers as they tend to hover around and keep asking whether are you ready to order every 5 minutes.

Quan An Ngon, being like Marche, had makeshift stalls within its compound where it brought together different types of dishes throughout Vietnam. Vietnam is a pretty big country where there are dishes indigenous to certain areas and it would be a chore to hunt those down if you ever got a craving in Hanoi. With Quan An Ngon, cravings begone! Well, it least it should be put on a leash until you manage to get a seat at this popular establishment.

L-  Cháo Gà (Chicken gruel) R - Sparrow salad

I started off with the chicken gruel as I was nursing an unsettled stomach after the ice-cream. The broken rice was boiled until all you got was a creamy consistency with chicken floss, fried shallots and spring onion. The sparrow salad was recommended by one of the serving staff. In all honesty, I do not know if I really ate a sparrow. It tasted like roasted quail to me.

The next dish we had was interesting and not easy to find in KL nor Singapore. It was Chạo Tôm (Vietnamese Grilled Prawn on Sugar Cane). It is also one of the restaurant's signature dishes. It is seasoned prawn paste wrapped around sugar cane stick, then steamed to set the shape. After that it was deep fried.  The prawn meat is cut off the sugar cane and wrapped in rice paper rolls with fresh herbs and dipped with fish sauce. The waiter cut the meat off and proceeded to show us how to wrap it. Same principle as wrapping a popiah.

L-R: Waiter cutting prawn off; shape of cut prawm; rice paper rolls and herbs; assembling the chao tom.

HY thoroughly enjoyed himself with the assembly line of Vietnamense prawn popiah making. The process goes along like this:

• Pick up rice paper with some leaves
• Pick up grilled prawn
• Warp
• Eat

Next up was Cao Lau. It is a pork noodle dish with rice crackers and roasted peanuts drizzled on top. Very much like the dry mee pok. It is Hoi An native dish.



We got too busy with eating after that so no more photos of food. Little did we know the danger that awaited us in the dark. 

We got robbed!!

(to be continued....)

Fanny Ice Cream
Add: 6A Quang Trung Street, Hanoi, Vietnam (new address after July 2012)
Price: USD 5- 10

Quan An Ngon
Address:18 Phan Boi Chau Str Phan Bội Châu, Hoan Kiem District  Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: (04) 3942 8162
Price: USD20 ++