Now Michèle and I have been in Hanoi
for over a week and we've had fantastic
savory dishes particularly the Pho Ga, I
love the Pho's as we call them
but the Phở which has chicken and beef
in it, it's a noodle soup delicious but
don't forget Vietnam is not just about
savory dishes there is wonderful sweet
dishes here too. So I'm going to take you
out on the streets of Hanoi today and
we're going to taste some of the best
sweet dishes in Hanoi come on what are
you waiting for.
So in these little cafes, these
little back cafes where you're going to
find all these lovely sweet desserts. So
this is the mixed fruit che. This is
Hoa Quả Dầm so this is
Hoa Quả Dầm, this is like a Quả Dầm this is
a mixed fruit with... there's like a sweet
milk on this. So we've got jackfruit,
we've got watermelon. Very refreshing.
Break it up.... okay so I put the ice in to it to
chill down the fruit I mean take a
bit of ice let the fruit chill down, mix
it through there. Let's get a
mouthful of this, I've got some jackfruit
and I think coconut milk
I'm not sure how to pronounce this street so
this street is one of the streets on the
other end of town which is also got some great sweet delights. Now you've got to
remember in these places, there is very little
English spoken so you're going to have
to learn a little bit how to communicate
and gesticulate with your hands. So this is
Caramen Nếp Cẩm. So you've got this
beautiful caramel , a creme caramel,
inside you've got that black sticky rice
I love this and then they've got this
condensed milk. I don't know if it's
sweet condensed milk. You take your ice
just drop some ice in there, a little bit
like this, just mix it up. The ice is
there just to cool the dessert down.
Before I break it all up just have a
look at this beautiful caramel here, it's
like a creme caramel, sweet and sticky
and delicious
I love the creme caramel here they're so
good. Little more ice. come down here a
little more ice in we go, we've got our
black sticky rice here, give this a mix through
look at the color of that rice you
can see down on this side it's almost
sort of purpley red Caramen Nếp Cẩm
she says I've said it all right
Here we go.
You've got to be here, this one Michèle
loves this is a coconut thats been hollowed
out and inside you've got, come and have a
look, so that's the coconut jelly you've
got the young coconut flesh inside which
in itself is just delicious. Now I love this
Michèle loves the jelly, I like the jelly it's
not my favorite. Oh lovely and chilled too. So
on top you've got coconut cream and I'll
just show you as you cut through there the
coconut cream is set in a gelatine. This
is lovely and cold and chilled and
delicious. Here goes
that is sweet and rich and coconutty
Now if you love the coconut cream thats the
bit you'll go for
Michèle likes the coconut water which is underneath
come back down here. Still set in
gelatine under there is this beautiful
see that there, that's the coconut water also
set in a gelatine. Now I'm going to eat
a little bit of this then Michèle is going to finish it off
Here Goes.
This is a huge dessert the previous
dessert the one with the sticky rice that was
20,000 Dong this one 35,000 Dong about $2
for this whole desert down here. Look at
that, how gorgeous is that, to get this
beautiful young coconut flesh off as
well and you can take that, mix it
up with the actual coconut itself. It's a
beautiful refreshing dessert. Okay I've
got to admit I've got a sweet tooth and
I'm not leaving here before I try the
third of my favorite from this one shop,
so this is a great place to come. I'm
going to have, let me have a little look on
here. Now I've just ordered it but I've
probably got the name wrong Chè Xoài
so I've got myself a Chè Xoài here it
comes, the lady's bringing it over thank you
cảm ơn. Now this one I stumble across it, it
wasn't obvious when I came in the shop
but look at this, underneath this cream
here, I don't know if you can see, we've got this
beautiful mango jelly and you just break
into the jelly you take that sweet milk
off of there, and then
beautiful Chè Xoài, you've got all this
lovely diced up sweet mango in here it's
so,so good
Who am I kidding just one last thing
before we leave I'm going to end this
little visit to this shop with a final
caramel. Okay finishing on the caramel, I
love these nothing with it, this sauce at
the bottom is yummy like burnt sugar.
Absolutely gorgeous, one for the road.
This is the guy Michèle's filming, this is the guy that
helped us, served us last time with the
Chè. So first of all he's going to take
a fresh coconut and he's just taken the
top off, now for some reason this time
he's given me the coconut water, he
didn't do that last time but maybe it's
because I'm a regular now. Now firstly
he's filling the inside of the coconut with
ice cream putting a little bit of
shredded coconut in the center and then
he puts just beautiful swirl of ice
cream on top, in goes some pieces of
jackfruit a little more shredded coconut
and then some pieces of this beautiful
toasted coconut. Thank you
So get some nice photo's. So here it is, that looks beautiful doesn't that look beautiful.
I'm saving the coconut water for
Michèle I'm just going to get some of
this.... I want some of that toasted
coconut
here we go
sweet, cold, delicious. Got the little
jackfruit in there
little pieces of jackfruit, a little bit
of toasted coconut cảm ơn
thank you. I enjoyed
so this is a little hidden gem it's a little
bit away from the center of the old
town
How are you? Taro Thank you and this ones Rice Flake.
so good
Michèle's got the Taro I've got the
Rice flake...Rice Flake... rice flake I'm not sure
what Rice Flake is but it's delicious
okay it's unfair of me not to describe it
and say it tastes great it's sort of
vanilla a little bit towards rice maybe
with sweet so sugary, overall its delicious.
So it's air conditioned it's got this lovely sort of
old-school charm of an ice cream parlour
Now I got to report in also the cones are
really good they're sort of caramelized
flavor which I love
well worth the 12,000 Dong you
pay for this, which in Australian dollars
is around about 70 or 80 cents US I
think its closer to 50. In case you're thinking
did I come back from other try no this
is the same visit, of course. Strawberry is really good.
Now what's the chances, right next
door to our favorite egg coffee shop in
Hanoi, there's this fantastic bubble
waffle shop, the lady there was super
sweet, she decided to let me make my own
waffle, though it seemed I wasn't putting
enough batter in at first...not enough
so I've got myself a new job now in
Hanoi working on the what would you call these
like a waffle. Round waffles
these are vanilla..... Vanille
Yes what would you like?
he has a queue!
matcha
So this one the lady's making is going to be Matcha
my first customer cảm ơn, thank you
not bad that is 15,000Dong
So when you've enjoyed yourself the best egg
coffee in Hanoi pop outside and have
yourself a bubble waffle
So we've got all the bees over
there but I've got myself a beautiful
sugar cane drink here
lovely refreshing, If you haven't had this before how can I explain it
it's like slighty sweet water with a
slight sort of honey, you can see why the bees love it. This is delicious
So let's be honest with this cane water or
cane sugar drink, Michèle and I have
been sharing this and it's still too
sweet for us, so it's great it's
refreshing and if you like sweet food
you'll be fine but if you're not a great
sugar addict like we're not, then it's
beautiful, it's delicious, slightly grassy but just
a little bit too sweet.
Now these doughnuts are fresh off the street
the lady here is cooking them up they're
absolutely gorgeous
Now unlike the ones that are being
handed out around the old town which
have been on those baskets all day these
are lovely and fresh.
Give it a try
Oh
delicious the oil is slightly savory not
super-sweet we've got the sesame on
there, you've got the beautiful little
donuts now also inside the donut there's like
a white bean paste, it's slightly
sweetened almost vanilla flavor.
Another great advantage of these little
donuts as they are gluten free as well
and this being a cooking channel more
than the Travel Channel we will be
covering these donuts as a recipe on
Steve's Kitchen at a later date. It's
amazing there's a constant flow of
people coming up to the store picking up
Donuts on the back of their scooters and
off they go and a few seconds later
another one appears.