Jananas

Jason’s vegan and I like vegan food, which means that we’re always on the look out for good vegan food. Traveling can be a little tricky sometimes, but a little bit of research normally smooths things over and leaves us with lots of possibilities.

In Hanoi, we mostly relied on our Lonely Planet travel guide. It has handy sections for things like Indian Food, which incidentally was our go to staple if we couldn’t find anything else veg friendly. Thankfully most of the veg places were reasonably close to our hotel.

We did stop by the Tamarind Cafe (80 Ma May St, Hoan Kiem District) one day, as they are a vegetarian restaurant with a selection of vegan dishes. The food was decent, but nothing super special to write home about. I did end up having a grilled cheese sandwich as I was craving some north american comfort-type food, although I was a little confused when they brought out two sandwiches. Not only is that a lot of cheese, they had marketed it as being a ‘sandwich’. As in singular. I guess little grammatical points like that get lost in translation.

The highlight of my meal at the Tamarind Cafe was getting to try grog for the first time. I considered borrowing one of my mom’s parrots and wandering around town dressed like a pirate.

Next up was Fanny’s Ice Cream Parlour (48 Pho Le Thai To, Hoan Kiem District). This wasn’t cheap for Vietnam prices, but was still a steal for some of the best ice cream and sorbets I’ve ever had. In fact it was so good that we had dessert here three times during our 4-5 stay in Hanoi. And yes, they have vegan options and a wide variety of sorbet flavours (the lime is particularly good).

Last, and certainly not least is Com Chay Nang Tam (79A Tran Hung Dao, just north of Hoan Kiem Lake). It was a little sketchy finding this restaurant. The area its in closes down at night so there was this semi-abandoned feeling. And its way far back in an alley off an alley off an alley. However, it is 110% worth it. We had the best mock meats we’ve ever had in our lives here. Ever.

“In the Buddhist tradition, vegetarian food has often been prepared to resemble dishes favoured by non – Buddhist. In this way, Buddhist have been able to show hospitality without appearing to deprive their guest of favorite foods, at the same time not violating their own principles which forbid taking the life of animals.

And so it is the names of dishes of this menu, which your hostess Mrs. Diễm has collected from all corners of the country. Names not with standing, all dishes are prepared without meat. (In the best tradition of ancient Vietnam cuisine, they are also prepared without MSG).”

We had their set menus both times we went, as they offered us the opportunity to try multiple things on the menu so we weren’t just limited to eating one big dish. I can only wish that we’d had the chance to go with a big group so that we could have tried one of their large tasting menus. Their fake beef-dishes are especially succulent, as in literally melt in your mouth good. Oh, and did I mention that the 454mL bottles of Bai Ha Noi were only 10,000 dong (that’s about the equivalent of $0.60 at the time of writing). In fact, our meal with two set menus, an appetizer, a 1.5L bottle of water and a beer came to less than $10 USD.

Anyone want to open up a franchise here?