What to eat in Hanoi
Hanoi eats on low plastic stools: pho for breakfast, bun cha at midday, cha ca with dill, banh cuon, egg coffee and fresh bia hoi in the evening.

[ ] Eat pho bo for breakfast
    A clear beef broth simmered for hours with charred ginger, onion, star anise and cinnamon, with rice noodles and thin slices of meat. In Hanoi it is a breakfast, not a dinner.
[ ] Try bun cha
    Grilled pork patties and belly slices served in a bowl of warm sweet-sour dipping sauce, into which you dip rice noodles and herbs. A midday dish, Hanoian by origin.
[ ] Eat cha ca
    Chunks of white fish in turmeric finished in a pan at your table with a huge quantity of dill and spring onion. Eaten with rice vermicelli, peanuts and shrimp paste.
[ ] Try banh cuon
    Paper-thin rice crepes steamed over stretched cloth and rolled around mushroom and pork. A breakfast made in front of you in seconds.
[ ] Try bun rieu
    A tangy tomato soup with crab paste, tofu and rice vermicelli. The crab is a freshwater variety pounded shell and all, which leaves soft flakes floating in the broth.
[ ] Eat nem ran
    Fried rice-paper rolls filled with pork, wood ear mushroom and vermicelli. They are called nem in the north and cha gio in the south, and they are the same thing.
[ ] Grab a banh mi
    A baguette with a crackling crust and airy crumb stuffed with pate, meat, pickled carrot and daikon, coriander and chilli. A French colonial legacy that turned Vietnamese.
[ ] Try xoi sticky rice
    Steamed sticky rice with fried shallots, meat, egg or beans, wrapped in banana leaf. A morning takeaway sold from baskets on street corners.
[ ] Try bun thang
    A clear chicken broth with fine strips of egg crepe, chicken and cured pork arranged in wedges. A Hanoi dish invented to finish the New Year leftovers.
[ ] Get a fried street snack
    Banh goi is a pillow-shaped fried pastry with meat and mushroom; banh ran are glutinous rice balls with sweet or savoury filling. Both come from pavement woks.
[ ] Try che
    A cold dessert soup of beans, tapioca, jellies and coconut milk over ice, eaten with a spoon from a glass. There are dozens of versions and every shop makes its own.
[ ] Try banh com
    Green squares of young glutinous rice com filled with mung bean paste and wrapped in banana leaf. A Hanoi speciality, given and taken as a gift.
[ ] Drink egg coffee
    Strong coffee under a cap of whipped egg yolk and condensed milk: thick, sweet and closer to tiramisu in a cup. Invented in Hanoi in the 1940s when milk was scarce.
[ ] Drink ca phe sua da
    Strong coffee dripping through a metal phin filter into a glass of condensed milk, then poured over ice. Vietnam is the world's second coffee producer, and the bean here is robusta.
[ ] Drink tra da on the street
    Weak iced tea poured for almost nothing at pavement cafés with plastic stools. It comes with everything by default and is the excuse to sit on the kerb for hours.
[ ] Drink bia hoi
    Fresh unpasteurised beer brewed in the morning and drunk the same day, which is why it costs almost nothing. Poured from kegs on street corners and drunk on low stools.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-hanoi