A few months ago, Diana Neven (Dutch-Filipino) traveled to Vietnam. She visited Hoi An (Quang Nam), Da Nang, Hue, Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Ho Chi Minh City,... and spent time exploring the cuisine in each locality.
In Hanoi, Diana challenged herself to spend only 5 USD (about 125,000 VND) in one day to see how many dishes she could eat there.
“I wanted to experience how many dishes I could eat with only 5 USD. I converted it to Vietnamese currency and rounded it to 125,000 VND. This will be the amount I spend in a day on food,” she said.
The first place Diana visited was a coffee shop on Dinh Tien Hoang Street, Hoan Kiem District. The female tourist said that this was the ideal drink to start a new day, so she ordered a cup of black coffee, priced at 25,000 VND.
She then headed to a famous bakery on Quan Thanh Street (Ba Dinh District) to fill her morning hunger. After looking at the menu and prices, she decided to order a mixed sandwich without coriander for VND25,000.
Diana said that the bread at sidewalk stalls is cheaper than in restaurants but still tastes delicious and attractive. Although the shop she visited was quite small and not a place that many people know about on social media, the bread there was very delicious.
“It was the perfect sandwich that cost me only 25,000 VND. The sandwich was delicious and tasted great,” the Western customer shared.
At noon, after walking around the city, Diana decided to stop at a vermicelli soup restaurant on Duong Thanh Street (Hoan Kiem District). Although the restaurant is located in a small alley and customers sit and eat on a shared walkway, she was still impressed because from the owner to the staff, everyone was friendly and always smiling.
“Small alley eateries like this are quite common in Hanoi. They don’t have a menu and I just see the staff serving quite large bowls. However, I like these destinations,” Diana said.
Here, she ordered a bowl of mixed vermicelli soup for 40,000 VND, served with many ingredients such as fried tofu, beef, fish cakes, etc.
The female tourist commented that the dish looked attractive and the appearance was different from the dishes she had enjoyed in Vietnam. Therefore, she was eager to try it right away to see how it tasted.
“Wow, this is delicious. The broth is delicious, and there are many ingredients. The staff even gave me a basket of green vegetables,” said Diana.
The Western guest also revealed that this was just a place she accidentally found out about while walking by, but she found that the food here was not only delicious but also reasonably priced.
At the end of the day, Diana went to a restaurant in a small alley on Trang Tien Street. This was a place she had been to before and was very impressed with the chicken rice. “This restaurant is always crowded with locals. I ate here before and even took a photo of the chicken rice because it was delicious,” Diana said.
According to the female tourist, because of this chicken rice dish, she went over her dinner budget. After breakfast and lunch, she only had 35,000 VND left, but the meal here cost 45,000 VND. Thus, she spent 135,000 VND, instead of 125,000 VND as originally planned.
“The rice here is delicious, with a whole chicken thigh and extra pickles and sauce. I can’t believe how delicious and cheap this dish is,” she commented.
Diana also admitted that this restaurant is her favorite culinary spot in Hanoi because "the food is delicious, cheap, the portions are large and the restaurant is hidden in an alley".
“So I ended up having the best meal I’ve ever had in Hanoi and exceeded my original budget of VND10,000. Although I couldn’t complete the USD5 three-meal-a-day challenge, I still found the experience very interesting.
You can do the same to realize that living here for a day with only that amount of money is easy because the food is very cheap and delicious," said the female tourist from the Philippines.
Photo: Diana Neven
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