Hanoi fish noodle shop was featured on American TV channel

Van fish noodle shop in Quan Thanh once appeared on the American television channel CNN, introduced as "one of the 5 must-try dishes" when coming to Hanoi .

Without advertising widely on social media, the Van fish noodle shop at 174 Quan Thanh, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, still attracts many customers. Nguyen Thi Van (52 years old) said she opened the shop in 2010 at 105 Quan Thanh. Initially, she planned to sell seafood dishes such as crab spring rolls, shrimp spring rolls, and fish spring rolls. However, considering the capital to maintain the shop, she switched to selling fish noodle because the cost of ingredients was cheaper than seafood.

In June 2019, after the US-North Korea Summit, Van Quan's fish noodle soup was recommended by the US television channel CNN as one of the five must-try dishes when visiting Hanoi. In addition to fish noodle soup, the restaurant also sells fish cakes, shrimp cakes, crab noodle soup, and egg coffee.

After the restaurant was introduced, many foreign tourists, especially European tourists, came to enjoy it. The number of customers increased every day, so by the end of 2019, Ms. Van moved the restaurant to its current address with a larger area.

Van fish noodle soup is located at 174 Quan Thanh, Ba Dinh, Hanoi. — Van fish noodle soup at 174 Quan Thanh, Ba Dinh, Hanoi.

The current facade of the restaurant has an area of about 20 square meters, divided into two rooms. On the right side is the entrance to the three spaces of the restaurant including the outside room, the inside room and the loft, with a total area of nearly 100 square meters. On the left side is a small kitchen where the staff prepares the fish noodles.

In front of the kitchen is a glass cabinet with the word "Văn" on it, used to preserve ingredients for making fish noodle soup such as fried fish, fish cakes, peeled boiled shrimp, and vegetables. In the kitchen are two pots of broth, two bamboo baskets lined with cloth containing noodles and red rice paper.

Mrs. Van makes two types of fish noodles for customers to choose from. One type is fish fillet, fried until golden brown. The other type is sliced fish, steamed. Both types use fresh fish meat, not marinated to retain the original flavor.

The fish bones, after being filtered to get the meat, are simmered for 3-4 hours to make the broth. The spices of the broth are rice wine yeast to create a light sourness and sea worms to create a light, sweet taste. "Do not use fish heads to avoid the broth being fishy, cloudy and greasy. The broth is always cooked fresh every day," said Ms. Van.

In addition to shrimp, fish cakes, and red rice paper imported from Hai Phong , the remaining ingredients are all sourced from Hanoi. Ms. Van buys vermicelli from Phu Do village, Nam Tu Liem district, and tilapia is delivered the same day from Thanh Tri.

At 3:30 a.m., Ms. Van arrived at the restaurant to receive the vegetables and fish that had been delivered and prepared them herself, removing the meat, washing the vegetables, and slicing the onions. She waited until a customer arrived before frying the fish to ensure it was crispy. At 5:30 a.m., four employees arrived at the restaurant to clean up and prepare for opening.

The shop opens from 6am to 3pm every day. From 7am to 10am, Ms. Van hands over the shop to the staff and goes home to rest.

To make a bowl of fish noodle soup, the first step is to blanch the vegetables in a separate pot of broth. The vegetables are served seasonally, currently including mustard greens, water spinach and bean sprouts. Then comes the step of blanching the vermicelli and rice paper. Finally, add the side dishes of the customer's choice such as fried fish, shrimp or fish cakes, sprinkle with onions and pour the broth.

A bowl of fish noodle soup costs 40,000 VND and includes 3-4 pieces of fried fish. The deep golden brown meat stands out against the green of the mustard greens and the white of the noodles. The light yellow broth is accented with the red of the tomatoes, making it even more delicious.

The fried fish is quite old, so even though it is soaked in broth, it still retains its crispness. When picked up, it is still firm, not soft or mushy. The fish meat is not as soft and juicy as when fried well. The blanched vegetables retain their pungent, spicy taste, combined with the sour, sweet taste of the broth, helping diners experience a variety of flavors in one bite, without the need for accompanying spices such as garlic vinegar or chili oil.

The first time enjoying Mrs. Van's fish noodle soup, Mai Phuong (24 years old, Nam Tu Liem district) commented that the fish noodle soup portion was quite filling with reasonable price. On the weekend, although it was not rush hour, the restaurant was quite crowded, customers came continuously so it took a long time to wait. Phuong was impressed with the crispy, spongy fish meat but still felt it lacked flavor due to lack of marinade.

Mr. Trung (Tay Ho district) came to the restaurant for breakfast and bought take-out, thinking that the restaurant's fish noodle soup is suitable for adults' taste and is cleanly prepared. "I bought take-out for my grandchild and wanted to reduce the sourness, but the restaurant's broth was cooked like that, and I couldn't adjust it," he said.

A bowl of fish noodle soup costs 40,000 VND at the restaurant. — A bowl of fish noodle soup costs 40,000 VND.

In addition to fish noodles, the restaurant also sells shrimp noodles, rice noodles, vermicelli soup and mixed noodles, priced at 40,000 - 50,000 VND per bowl. Starting from September when the weather is cool, the restaurant has more customers than in the summer. On weekdays, the restaurant sells 400 - 500 bowls. On weekends, it can reach more than 800 bowls. Each day, the restaurant consumes about 80 kg of fish, 50 kg of noodles, and 25 kg of rice noodles.

The restaurant's peak hours are 11am - 1pm. If you don't want to wait long, customers should come on Mondays when there are the fewest customers, Ms. Van said.

After the restaurant was introduced on American television, Ms. Van did not increase the prices of the dishes because "the quality of the food remains the same." She feels happy and proud to be able to contribute to promoting her homeland's cuisine to international tourists. However, she still wants to serve Vietnamese customers with Vietnamese cuisine at affordable prices.

Article and photos: Quynh Mai

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