This post is less guide and more, go where your heart takes you. I wanted to share a few photos of one of my favorite mornings in Hanoi. We woke up and headed out for our favorite egg coffees and stumbled upon some delicious pho. Photos after the jump…
We stayed at LaSiesta in the Old Quarter. There are several La Siesta locations so more on that later (we loved it – blog post to come). From there we were lucky enough to be close to the world famous Giang Cafe, home to Hanoi’s famous egg coffees. For those that don’t know, egg coffees are essentially coffee with a sabayon egg on top, a frothy mixture of egg and condensed milk that balances the bitterness of the coffee with a cloudlike custard on top.
We walked the streets for our morning coffee. This one was clearly an iPhone photo.
We’re almost there!
If you’d like to check out egg coffee yourself, they are available in most cafes throughout Hanoi but here at Giang Cafe, you can find the original. There is a cold and hot version but we greatly preferred the hot version. The little cup it comes in is sat in a small bath of hot water to keep it warm.
The can’t miss, Giang Cafe.
Head up the stairs, past the many whirring kitchen aids
Ah, an egg coffee. Perfection!
Close up because when in Hanoi…you must egg coffee.
The cold version
And one more side by side for good measure (can you tell we went there in the day and night)
Back on the street and in desperate need of food.
Don’t get distracted by the tempting offer for fruit because the best breakfast is street pho!
I honestly can’t remember where this pho stand was, we just looked around for a stand that wasn’t too crowded and sat down. All of them are reasonably priced, the meat you get is generally whatever they have that day. Keep in mind that is my uneducated guess but we weren’t disappointed. Street food was clean and never a let down while in Hanoi.
Ben waiting patiently
We were rewarded with chicken pho. Yum! This is the pre-spicy shot of course.
