We are back on the travel trail after a few years of the COVID wilderness.
In Hanoi we have stopped for a few days to restart a trip postponed two and a half years ago, due to COVID shutdowns.
Hanoi was affected badly by COVID, as our street food tour guide Jonny said.
"Many men killed themselves during this time, no money, they lost their honour."
He also told us about the war of independence from France, and the lack of food when the French colonials were kicked out, saying "they took all the livestock".
Two million people starved to death in the old quarter. This is where we are staying and where the night-food tour is based.
Jonny tells us we won't be eating dog, cat, cobra or eel tonight. However, during the war when food was scarce, any animal was needed and caught to feed a hungry populace.
Money was short as well and, it was during this time, the modern Vietnamese delicacy of egg coffee was developed. Milk apparently was in short or no supply. Eggs, however, must have been abundant. Egg yolks, honey and vanilla are mixed together and frothed. This is added to espresso coffee. The cup I had was placed in another cup, which contained hot water to keep it warm.
The taste and texture was a mix of coffee and sweet frothy warm egg tart. It was quite nice. Egg coffee is a favourite in Hanoi.
On our food tour we walked for nearly three hours, stopping at eight food venues. Most were on the street and we sat on chairs, the size of which most of us only ever see at preschools or kindergartens. I'm 185cm tall and approaching the age where I should know better.
My left knee has been telling me stories of its long lived past on the concrete floors of the steel industry I once worked in. Getting up and down eight times in tiny chairs on this tour was a fabulous example of a praying mantis falling off a leaf. Or the old dude with long legs and a lanky body, sitting on a small chair on a footpath to eat fabulous street food.
While the idea of street food didn't sound appealing at first, it certainly became attractive once we tasted it.
Street food is made on sidewalks or shopfronts. Jonny tells us it is hygienic because, if not, the city would shut them down. Tourists love the street food. Hanoi loves the tourists.
The narrow streets of the old quarter of Hanoi is where the city first started. Its street names start with Hang and then the name of the main industry from that street is added to Hang. We are staying on Hang Ga. Ga is chicken in Vietnamese, so our street sold chicken. During the war, housing was in short supply so many places became share houses. This exists today in the old quarter. Food is prepared on the street, in laneways anywhere there is room. Family's share one room and live a shared existence with other families - preparing food, eating together. It looked peaceful even with the constant sound of the ever-present tooting motorbikes, locals living and tourists touring.
Walking between food venues was an act of bravery, with Jonny showing us how to cross the street when 50 gazillion motorbikes are riding the streets like an anthill after being disturbed.
Roads are shared between traffic and people. Footpaths are shared between parked motorbikes and street food vendors. Intermixed between these were shiny, brand new, glitzy up-market shops and retailers selling their wares. Footpaths are used for everything except pedestrians.
The food we ate on our tour was magnificent. We were told not to eat too much at each stop, as we had more to go. The food won't be wasted. It is kept and fed to the animals on the farms.
We learnt how to say pho, to wipe down our chopsticks, to remove street dust and to wrap using rice paper. We are foodies back home. We love a nice bottle of red and chairs that, when you get up, you don't have to make a noise.
Hanoi street food brings you back to earth. Food made with love from a culture sculptured by war and tradition. And yes we got dessert at the end.
We came across a shopfront that felt like someone's home - an old lady was asleep with her head leaning on a table.
My husband Bill and I privately rate each restaurant we eat at for taste, presentation and atmosphere. Sitting down on a plastic chair with a plastic table, eating sensational food, with the bustle and noise of the old quarter. A big 10 out of 10 from us.
A Second Language
This from Kara Matheson, of Hunter Community Languages: "Australia was described by sociolinguist Michael Clyne as having a monolingual mindset - an ideology of access to only a single language as normal".
"I want to acknowledge how hard it is to push back against what is culturally normal, when you are positioned in the cultural minority. It requires huge energy and determination, which is much harder when you are pushing back in isolation.
"When parents persist with speaking their heritage language at home to gift their children all the researched and documented benefits of bilingualism and biculturalism, these parents are up against a lot - a long history in this nation of sacrificing languages other than English.
"Parents can face strong resistance from their children, whose peers and mainstream school teachers may not appreciate how cool it is to be bilingual. They might even receive the outdated message that 'Australians speak only English'."
Kara said the Community Languages Schools Program is "pushing back against a culture that values monolingualism".
"The work is mostly done by volunteers, is largely unpaid and is certainly undervalued by much of Australian society, but it is so important."
Si de hecho ["yes indeed" in Spanish].
