Udderly….ummmmm…Interesting!

Last night my friend Huong picked me up on her motorbike and took me to dinner. I think her goal in life is for me to try all the interesting food Hanoi has to offer. Her common words are “I will take you out for delicious Hanoi food tonight”. And so last night we headed out to experience Hanoi street food.

But before I discuss the food….you have to understand the Hanoi street food scene. It is Hanoi at its finest! In the US we think of sidewalks as a place for people to walk safely away from the traffic. In Vietnam sidewalks are locations for restaurants, butcher shops, DVD shops, fruit and vegetable shops. You don’t walk on the sidewalks……you walk in the street and browse the sidewalks for something you might want to buy or eat! The photo below is during the day and we are buying soy milk from a sidewalk vendor. Next to the soymilk vendor is the bun (white rice noodle) vendor.



When the sky begins to darken, the action really begins in Hanoi. People start rolling out their carts, dragging out the plastic tables and little plastic stools. The sidewalks morph from veggies and DVDs to food of all types. You want immature duck chicks ….easy! I tried those last time and didn’t get one down! Fruit in a glass with sweet cream poured over the top and you chop it all together! MMmmmmm. Pho, a big bowl of rich broth with noodles, vegetables and beef or chicken—everywhere!

So last night Huong and I headed off for another “food adventure”. I didn’t think it was going to be an adventure because she said we were going to have beef! Great…I like beef. So we putt-putt-putt down the streets of Hanoi to the “beef corner”. I find it interesting that typically one area of town serves one type of thing. We park our bike with hundreds of others in the area and thread our way to a specific “restaurant”—or place on the sidewalk. These people really had a big spread. I imagine they had 25 or 30 plastic tables set out and they were all full. The photos below show what the area looks like




Huong orders and the young kids (really young—like 12 year olds) bring out a burner, toss in some wax with probably gasoline in it! Just joking…but it burns like crazy. He puts on a cast iron pan and throws in some oil. Then the food arrives….veggies, cucumbers, French bread, dipping sauce and some raw marinated red and white meat. Huong starts cooking!



This is what the raw meat looked like. As you can see…the red stuff is beef. But I was surprised by the white meat.



I asked if the white meat was chicken. No….not chicken. As it was cooking, it really looked like pork. So I said Pork! Nope….not pork. Hmmmmmmm…so I shut up for a while and let her cook.



As I ate the white meat I got more interested as to what it was. Huong knows that I don’t like “entrails”….so she was a bit hesitant to answer. She told me she didn’t know the English word for it. I kept prodding her for more information as I was working my way through the tasty meal. Finally she starts pounding on her breasts. Heart--- I shout out! No, not heart. So then I think I am eating lungs. Lungs I say—somewhat under my breath. Nope, not lungs. Finally I say “breast”. Yea, she shouts! Breast…. of cow!

I stop talking for awhile …but my head was buzzing. Breast of cow? What the heck…cows don’t have breasts. WAIT A MINUTE….cows have udders! So I made like I was milking a cow. Yes, Huong shouted! That is it—and she wanted to know what the English word was. Udder……. I was eating udder meat!

Well, suddenly I started chewing a bit more slowly. But actually it was pretty tasty because it was marinated and highly seasoned. You dipped the udder in some really nice lime, salt and chili sauce—and it tasted fine. The beef was better—and the veggies were GREAT. Pumpkin, taro, egg plant, onion and a bunch of other things I didn’t recognize. Of course everything was fried in a ton of margarine and oil—so not very healthy.

We really ate a huge amount of food…..and almost finished it all. There was a bit of udder left! The photo below shows the complete food outlay at the beginning of this meal.



The cost of this meal including two cokes-- 147,000 dong or about $7.50. So now I can add cow’s udder to my list of new food experiences. Just another interesting and tasty night in Hanoi!