December 31, 2010Selling, the Vietnamese are always selling, aggressively. Just a day in Hanoi showed us why we lost the war here. Our guide aggressively sold us this lunch place, as gold medal-winning, with famous American and French chefs having visited. The guide (who is an excellent guide) sold us his guide services (even after we’d already bought them) by telling us all the famous people he’d toured and brought to this restaurant. And, he said this was NOT a restaurant but we were eating in this famous chef’s home.
Let’s be clear. This was a restaurant, no matter what our guide says. Maybe the chef or someone lived downstairs but it was a restaurant we dined in upstairs. Still, the food did deserve a medal. Even the kids loved pretty much everything served. Even ALICE! And, she’s the queen of picky.
There was a noodle soup with a rich broth to die for and fried spring rolls that melted in your mouth. Then, the piece de resistance, the dish she’s famous for, was the chicken. But, it was really the sauce that made it amazing – lemon, pepper, salt, red hot pepper, and lime leaves. Sounds simple but it was phenomenal. I have an automatic drool that kicks in just looking at the picture above of the sauce and chicken that made her famous.
At the end, they washed our hands in leaves and lemon water. They scrubbed each of our hands with the leaves, leaving our hands scented and us feeling pampered. The chef’s great grandfather used to have his hands scrubbed with leaves by a servant. Now, she just has her waiters wash tourists’ hands.
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