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 Lẩu, or Vietnamese hot pot, is one of the great joys when cold weather descends on Hanoi. Not only it is warming for the hands and belly, but it is also a communal experience made more agreeable by sharing with friends, huddled together around the steaming pot. For Ben, a turn in the temperature was always followed by the question, “Is it time for lẩu yet?”, and the chilly season never lasted nearly enough. He explains what makes him a loyal hot pot devotee:
“Hanoi is one of those semi-temperate, semi-tropical cities that spends most of its time sweltering hot, except for a 6-8 week period in the winter when it’s miserable, damp and cold. Like Taipei and Guangzhou – climactic neighbors that flavor the monsoons with the occasional overzealous gust of cold air from way, way up north – Hanoi does a horrendous job of keeping you warm in the damp winter months. Few places have heat, and many don’t even have walls or windows. Enter the marvelous phenomenon of lẩu (pronounced “low”). Lẩu will be familiar to Chinese food connoisseurs as 火锅, or hot pot, but as always, the Vietnamese have applied their own “characteristics.” Essentially, you get a big pot of soup and a heaping tray of stuff to put in it. The basic soup is a savory broth, laden with spices, MSG, tomatoes and pineapple (go figure), placed in front of you on top of what is, from what I can tell by observing, a 30 year-old burner fueled by an old can of spray paint. When a battered, unstable pot of boiling broth is balanced in front of you on a rattrap tin burner whose fuel can has just been encouraged to last a bit longer through a method involving banging it on the pavement for a minute or two, it’s best to have another swig of beer and remember that fate is an important part of the Vietnamese cosmology. Then tuck in to the deliciousness. The ingredients you get along side depend on what you order; seafood (Lẩu Hải Sản is seafood hot pot. Lẩu Thập Cẩm is mixed meat and seafood.) Also on the plate will be large piles of greens, tofu, starchy taro root, and at least two kinds of noodles. Drop food in the broth, let it cook, take it out and eat! This job gets considerably tougher when your order the shrimp, which is often served live; throwing a live shrimp in a lẩu pot will earn you a serious talking to by your boiling broth-spattered dining companions. You need to follow the lead of the restaurant staff and hold the shrimp securely with your chopsticks in the boiling soup until you feel it stop flipping its tail. Like all good food in Vietnam, lẩu requires you to get up close and personal with your carnivore side. While waiting for your food to cook (or calling loudly for more free broth, or for extra noodles and greens for pennies), drink beer, chat with your friends, and enjoy the savory steam wafting from the roiling cauldron. Lẩu, warming your belly and your heart, seems like it was made for the misty winters in northern Vietnam.” Where to find it?
Like the clusters of seafood places, lẩu places also tend to line certain streets. Three streets to head to in the evenings during the winter are Cao Bá Quát, a squiggly short street hooking north off Nguyễn Thái Học, at the north wall of the Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu), Tống Duy Tân, see coordinates and description of this food alley in the Fresh/Live Seafood section, and Phùng Hưng Street. Phùng Hưng is just around the corner from Tống Duy Tân. If you head out the northern end of Tống Duy Tân, bear right slightly and you will be at south end of Phùng Hưng, which runs parallel to the train tracks. Walk up 50 yards or so and you will see an entire stretch of sidewalk set up for lẩu. Evenings only. Note: There has been a recent local food scandal where lẩu vendors were discovered to be added Chinese flavoring packets to their broth rather than making it from scratch. The locals were indignant about having been fooled so lẩu is a little out of favor. Another recommended place for Lẩu gà (chicken hot pot) is Quán Rượu - Trường Xuân Tửu, 112 Giảng Võ street (see review in the sườn nướng section). The local chicken and broth with veggies make a perfect meal. Ashima is a recent upscale addition to the hot pot scene in Hanoi. Serving up mushroomlẩu as a twist on the traditional meat and seafood varieties, reservations are required to nab a table at this restaurant that is all the rage. But hot pot veterans report that the frenzy is merely a passing fancy and the actual taste factor can’t compete with what was already on the scene. |
