Opera Garden Restaurant

Whenever I come home from traveling, I long for nothing more than traditional Vietnamese home-cooked food  best french restaurant in hanoi . And nothing's more traditional than Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Catfish Soup (Canh Chua Cá Trê) and Vietnamese Braised & Caramelized Catfish (Cá Kho). One fish. Two easy dishes. Add steamed white rice and you have a complete Vietnamese home-cooked meal. Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Catfish Soup (Canh Chua Ca Tre) is one of many traditional Vietnamese soups, but it is this soup that epitomizes Vietnamese home cooking. How? It perfectly balances the delicate combination of sweet, sour and savory. The sweetness comes from sugar. The tartness comes from the tamarind, which gets mellowed out by the sugar. And lastly, the savory is obviously the catfish. There are many variations of Canh Chua. All include tomatoes, best french restaurant in hanoi  however, others may also include taro stem, mushroom, okra, celery, bean sprouts and/or pineapp...

When I sit here at another airport, my mind focuses singularly on the first bowl of pho that I will consume when I arrive at one of my favorite cities on earth: Hanoi. If I close my eyes and ignore the man who snores heavily beside me, and the boy loosening his lungs in the far corner of this sterile airport, I can almost smell the streets, hear the sound of the horn and feel the frenzied energy of the city. I can easily remember an image: me, sitting on a plastic stool, face down in a smoky bowl of pho as I take the first ceremonial inhalation. The bouquet of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, green onion and history inflates my tired traveling soul with joy, comfort and something similar to a strong hug from an old friend. After the passage of one more flight that image will be a reality. As you may catch up, I love Hanoi: I love your food, I love its dynamic busy streets, its hidden cafes, its cycle drivers who ask me to take a walk around every corner. I love plastic stools an...