It was time for lunch after visiting the Văn Miếu university...
The morning sightseeing round of Hanoi's historical district left us famished and craving for some good Vietnamese food. And so we made our way through the crowded alleyways of the Old Quarter to head to the Blue Butterfly...
A view from the smudged window of the bus of a French-era villa...
A traditional building...
Kichi-kichi hotpot...
Crossing a railway line, life along a railway line is always interesting...
And we hit the traffic...
In Vietnam bamboos are ubiquitous...
And here we are at the Blue Butterfly...
A simple, hearty and flavourful Vietnamese meal - rice, noodles, vegetables and fish...
Cà Phê Trứng - Vietnamese egg coffee was the highlight of our meal at the Blue Butterfly...
Coffee was brought to Vietnam by the French in the 1800s and today it has been integrated into Vietnamese daily life - a little known fact is that Vietnam is second-leading coffee exporter!
We had the ca phe - Vietnamese drip coffee last night, but now it was time for something a lot more exotic...
The British newspaper, the Guardian says that the drink was first concocted in 1946 - a bartender at the city’s Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel was dealing with milk scarcity. So he replaced milk with a whisked egg yolk. The bartender's legacy lives on today in Cafe Giang run by his son - Nguyen Van Dao. Other Hanoi cafes have also replicated the drink and here we are sampling it today...
The coffee doesn't surprisingly taste of egg - it tastes more like vanilla. The frothy top is a lot like a sweet dessert - it is light and sweet. And the intoxicating bitterness gradually seeps in as you keep sipping!
And here we are on the 7th heaven, fluttering like a blue butterfly, crying out "I Don't Want Nirvana! I Want Great Food, Always!"...
It would take a strong heart to take that coffee! I mean, such beautiful art work would be lost.
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