Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

Contributed by Ben Moeling 

Bia Hoi

A product as purely Hanoian as phở, and three times as cheap, it is sort of a Vietnamese version of the local pub. In Hanoi, it’s a noun and a verb; “to go bia hơi (di bia hơi )” is to commit a significant amount of time to slow snacking, slow conversation, and slow inebriation with one’s mostly male Vietnamese companions at one of the hundreds of open-air, down-market, but still wildly popular “bia hơi” joints around town.

Bia hơi  is light as a feather, lightly carbonated, light alcohol, and light on the wallet. It spends little time in fermentation, often going straight from the brew tank to the keg, and then on to a sprawling fan-cooled Bia Hơi  hall or, via a secondary network of Bia Hơi distributors that make the Pony Express look like a slacker colony, to every street corner in Hanoi. It’s served from kegs, which come in two varieties: the big silver ones often delivered by truck to established institutions (“restaurants” being too dignified a word for a Bia Hơi joint) and the green-striped plastic ones you will frequently see zooming around the city perched on the back of a motorbike, destined for a sidewalk noodle joint or just some dude with a few plastic cups and a square of pavement. A glass or six of bia hơi under a lazy fan is one of the pleasures of Hanoi and an experience not to be missed.

Almost wherever you are, Bia Hơi will be served in extremely cheap, chipped and bubbled recycled glasses; these are marginally clean and should be considered part of the fun. Before you head off to tackle a Bia Hơi, be aware of the following:

1. Drinking Bia Hơi in Hanoi is very Vietnamese and very much a male pastime. Any foreigner stopping at a Bia Hơi is going to get some good-natured attention; any foreign woman doubly so. Not harassment, but you’ll be a curiosity.
2. Bia Hơi food is famous nationwide for being greasy and sometimes barely edible; the things served there are designed to make the beer go down faster. There are exceptions here and there. Noodles, tofu, pork ribs, grilled squid: after a couple Bia Hơis, they start to taste really good.
3. Sanitary conditions at Bia Hơi restaurants can be beyond bad, according to Vietnamese friends, so you might steer clear of the food altogether. Not that I ever did.
4. The beers are light, but there is alcohol in them. Keep that in mind when you’re on round five or six and thinking how smoothly they go down.
5. Bia Hơi bathrooms are among the worst you’ll ever find so another reason to count the beers going down.

Where to find it?
Bia hơis tend to be local neighborhood joints so the best ones are outside of town center. Ask at your hotel for the best spot near where you are staying.

Bia Hơi Lan Chin: located just before the U.S. Embassy on Lang Ha Street (note: not near the U.S. Consulate, which is nearby, but near the U.S. Embassy – an ugly little office building at #7 Lang Ha street). There is a giant sign out front that says “Bia Hơi Hanoi.” Smaller letters will tell you it is Lan Chin. It has been renovated recently and has a nice outdoor seating area, and tasty dog meat, if you’re into that.  Packed at lunch and 5:00.

Tiger Cage Bia Hơi: Tong Tan Street, just near the Opera House. Stand with the History museum at your back, the Opera to your left, and point to 11:00. The yellow-ochre building with the Bia Hơi sign and the bars instead of windows is what you’re looking for. Check out the impressive array of horrifying food at the doorway (Fried scorpions? Check. Bull penis? Check. Whole roasted dog? Check. Bear paws pickled in brine? Check.) and then wander in for a few Bia Hơis. The tofu’s pretty good, as are the sausages.

Blue Wave Bia Hơi (not called that in Vietnamese. Don’t even try the English with them.): attached (off to the side) to the ASEAN Hotel at 41 Chua Boc street, it surrounds a truly massive banyan tree, forming a happy Bia-Hơi merry-go-round, shady and cool no matter what the weather outside. A bit of a hike, but easier to get back to town because you can just go get a taxi at the ASEAN hotel entrance.

Bia Hơi at 36 Hàng Giầy, on the west side of street. This is right in the center of Old Town and while open to the street, has people sized tables and chairs indoors. A great place to enjoy a cheap bia hơi in recycled coke bottle glasses and passable beer snacks.

Bia Hơi, outdoors around the tunnel just north of the Cua Dong underpass under the train tracks, connecting Ly Nam De and Pho Phung Hung and in the alley beside the underpass. Lau, as well as bo xao rua chua, muc kho nuong, other beer snacks…

 
Bia Tuơi

There is also another kind of very popular, very good and very cheap beer called “Bia Tuơi” which is a bit thicker than Bia Hơi but still very light and fresh. It is usually served in nicer places, which seem to be proliferating lately. At less than 50 cents a glass usually, it is a great bargain and is hard to resist on hot days in Hanoi. Some suggested sites fro sampling Bia Tuơi are;

Pacific Beer on Doi Can Street (great outdoor space with giant trees growing up through the patio and decent food).

Red Beer (Bia Đỏ) located at 97 Mã Mây in the Old Quarter, just north of the intersection with Hàng Bạc, on the east side of the street.

Bia Tuơi Hoang Dat, 124 Hai Ba Trung, a crowded multi-story place with very good beer and excellent food.  

Hoa Vien Brauhaus, 1A Tang Bat Ho Street, about 500 meters from the Opera House.  A new Czech beer garden/beer hall, the setting in a big, open villa with a nice patio is wonderful for an evening of drinking good draft beer (dark and pilsener) and marveling at how many Vietnamese yuppies there are these days.  The grilled squid was excellent when we tried it.