My Hanoi Impression

Reliving the days of living in the old city of Hanoi, I fell in love with this place and yearn for its hidden stories in each of those secretive streets. With winds of change and development from 60 years ago, we can still see typical colonies style buildings - a similarity to Malaysia’s building architecture - one can see the streets are busy and buzzing with all kinds of activities. Crowds are wowed with all kinds of buy and selling activities, typical to see all sort of vendors carrying their goods moving around promoting and selling. Like back home, every nook and corner one can find ourselves surrounded by a variety of delicious snacks and desserts. The originality and deliciousness of these locals’ pastries and desserts - is fading over time in our memories with change of times.

When we discuss about traditional dishes, one cannot forget the authenticity of - Hanoi Beef Pho - a classic example of medicine meal where it is made up of the homology between herbs and food. Firstly, the broth must be boiled for a few hours using bovine bone or pork bone. This bone soup is very rich in calcium, the winning formula to build stronger bones and muscles. Due to geographical region of Vietnam, one can expect the four seasons alternate, thus, exposing people to being prone to cold and dampness while working outdoors resulting in a poor digestive system, damp stagnancy or vital energy retardation, Indigestion, regurgitation, fullness of chest and abdominal area. However, the wisdom of Vietnamese ancestors, ingredients like Star Anise, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Clove are use regularly in beef noodles soup - helping in activating vital energy and remove dampness. Spices that invigorate our stomach, warm the spleen and stomach by dispelling coldness. Finally, a hot bowl of Hanoi beef noodles is garnished with a large bowl of lettuce, bean sprouts, scallion, coriander, mint leaves and basil leaves. This is what we mean by homology between herbs and food - a beef noodles soup is not just food but also means of medicine!

Generally the consumption of vitamins and fiber in fresh vegetables is important for anti-oxidation, anti-cancer and gastrointestinal movement. With this in mind, the poor hygiene conditions out in each streets, the higher possibility of serving raw vegetables may have hidden dangers of parasitic infection and water pollution. However, this special homology of herbs in the Hanoi beef noodles functions to also eliminate these mentioned hidden dangers. The wonders of Herb made right, in addition of the beef steak plant, it can help in regulating the stomach, promote digestion process and eliminate stomach bloating. The garnishing of mint leaves and basil leaves with the added lemon slices and fresh red chili with soy sauce is mainly to kill bacterial effect and also help to prevent vomiting and diarrhea.

Now let's take a look, just a bowl of Vietnamese beef noodles, it can improve immunity and prevent colds. Regardless of age- old folks, youngster or kids, this dish simply put protects our digestive system. A good digestive system is the key to good health, when our digestive system is in good condition, assuming any minor or major illness befalls on us - trust me it will be much easier to treat and higher possibility of full recovery. So, ingredient such as ginger, garlic and spices - it is very important to use it reasonably in daily cooking!The amazing wonders of ‘A bowl of delicious Vietnamese beef noodles’ contains wisdom of good health!

There are many old buildings in this old town, looking up at the balconies - mostly covered with climbing plants and flowers, it emits a feeling of comfort. Surprise! surprise! I can even find a small tree growing right at the top of the building! Imagine that! Busy streets buzzing with traffic and Asian culture of crossing the roads at wilt, left the Western tourists with a lot of question marks on their faces. My quest through the dark trails and roads less traveled, even the courage to step up the dilapidated stairs, sometimes not even knowing where and how I end up where I am - was when I found a hidden gem! The adage on the road less travel is really true as one will find something special. In my case, An unusually worn old coffee shop - at first it seems like returning back to the sixties, seeing used coffee cups that are just soaked in waters of sliced lemons to complete the "clean-up process". A local menu - the famous Vietnamese coffee where brewed coffee is so rich caffeine. The strong brew coffee contain high caffeine is basically would increase our body metabolism rate, for sure it has burning fat’s effect,everyone seems continue to enjoy the strong brew. No wonder the communities of Vietnamese looks so slim and healthy.

Asian squat- action is an half low squatting will take extra attention in Vietnam. Low tables and chair are definitely one of the main characteristic of Vietnamese people. They usually utilize these low table and chair for "drinking coffee" and taking a meal. Vietnamese people are used to chatting, drinking and eating with the infamous squat. Please do not be offended when you are in Vietnam, it is a culture. Foreign studies had done some studies and concluded about these Asian half squatting action. The very action of sitting down on a small stool is an outstanding example of multi-segmental movement, where it involves the anatomy of your ankles and knees, whereby both must be bent to complete this complex movement. In the long run, Vietnamese old people who complete these action daily abling them being able to get down and stand up slowly are indeed much better and way stronger than other nation’s old folks! A pride of the Vietnamese folks.

Besides the famous Hanoi Beef Noodle, they also serve another special noodles soup dish, with the addition of a small pig's trotter, a large piece of pig's blood cake and other fish cakes and fritters. Seriously, the moment I saw that this some pig's trotter was not prepared in good hygiene condition, where the nails still attach with it, similarly just freshly slotted, I feel uncomfortable to look this dish, I really did not dare to eat. However, it is believed that pork trotters can supplement collagen, and it also helps adolescents to grow and slow down the rate of osteoporosis in middle-aged and elderly women. The pig’s blood cake not only supplements the blood, but also can help in excreting harmful substances in the stomach and intestines along with stool.

Another good and tasty medical dish is the glutinous rice, topped with fried scallot and steamed mung beans. This mung beans are able to clear away heat and toxins, promote circulation of water, reduce blood pressure, relieve sore throat and remove fats. On the other hand, glutinous rice helps in invigorating spleen, replenishing vital energy, as well as nourishing the spleen and stomach. Having said this, just a simple mix of Glutinous rice and Mung beans - blended together becomes Multi grains - a natural elixir to being healthy! Therefore, proving a theory to say that there is no need to spend excessively for Ginseng and Cordyceps, expensive delicacies from land and sea - the secret is to eat the right combination to healthy and delicious food.Before calling it a day and heading to bed, I have the luxury of enjoying a bowl of dessert namely Chè sen Huế! To describe this dessert simply, it looks like a pond but yet it’s appearance is very pleasuring to my eyes and appetite. It consists of white lotus seeds in sugar syrup, coupled with black one-grain sweet basil seeds and jelly embellishment. Before I forget to introduce, White Lotus seed is able to nourish the heart and spleen and it is very effective in treating anxiety, insomnia and indigestion! Bet you never thought a Dessert can do so much, right! Welcome to the world of food blend and homology.

My dear Hanoi friends, your traditional food has comforted my body and souls, just by eating and enjoying your food, I can feel the love and care of your Ancestors’ from generation to generation, passing on the secrets and tools from their time to our time to ensure tradition is never lost in this land. The food speaks the words of your ancestors! The spirit of cultural heritage is just like the slogan plaque in Thang Long Museum on the ancestral hall “Preserve, Respectful and Honest, and Pursue.” It is undoubtedly important to cultivate the people through commemorative activities and to strengthen the respect for the ancestors and the care for the family. This is to maintain the unity and stability of the family. Being Honest and respectful; Pursuing forward to modernization but never forgetting the Sacrifices of their ancestors while at the same time preserving the rich cultural heritage.

I hope this article will inspire people to open up, try and enjoy the qualities and reap the benefits of traditional food. With the rise of processed and non-nutritional food, we should be worried for our future generation - our children is the future. With the rapid development of the economy and technology, do we really want to forget our ancestors healthy recipes that eventually preserved the many generations of life up to our generation today? I very much appreciate and welcome one and all to share your traditional food - your secret food to good health. Thank you.

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