How a family-run, locals-only noodle spot in a not-so-fashionable part of Hanoi became a tourism hotspot in North Vietnam
If in Hanoi, why not bún chả?
It’s good, it’s cheap, and it’s hearty, served as a complete meal, with broth, with fresh greens like lettuce, morning glory, perilla leaves, and coriander, and with a cold beer. Although nobody knows enough about its history, it’s believed to have originated in Hanoi or at least it is so inextricably associated with the Vietnamese capital that some locals call it bún chả Hanoi.
Venerated writer and intellectual Vu Bang, considered as Vietnam’s first foodie, for whom eating was an art, described Hanoi as a town “transfixed by bún chả.” In his collection of essays, Hanoi Delicacies, published in 1960, he also wrote, “Even if I was abducted for a thousand years, I would remain a Vietnamese longing for the food in Hanoi.”
In 2016, the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain featured what was then a locals-only bún chả eatery, the family-run Hương Liên, in his CNN show Parts Unknown, inviting no less than then US President Barack Obama, who was on an official visit to Southeast Asia, as his special guest. Since then, the relatively unknown dish bún chả has become a must-try for travelers from around the world, who happen to be in Hanoi. And Hương Liên has since become a tourist attraction.
It’s not exactly in the best location. Hương Liên, you could say, is on a seedy street in a not-so-fashionable part of Hanoi, just south of the French Quarter. It’s tidied up a bit, the tiled floor is no longer slippery with grease like it used to be, strewn with crumpled scraps of table napkin, discarded toothpicks, or crushed beer cans. But it’s basically the same as Obama found it, except now blown-up photos of his and Bourdain hang on the walls and the table at which they ate is encased in glass, like a shrine, replete with the flatware and the chopsticks they used.
What these illustrious guests ate is now called Obama Combo, or the Obama Special. If you “Order like Obama,” an exhortation on the menu, more than a chef’s recommendation, you’ll get a bowl of bún chả or chargrilled pork in broth, a plate of rice noodles good enough for two, a platter of herbs and vegetables, a deep-fried and crispy seafood roll, and a can of Hanoi beer.
Low plastic stool, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer. —Barack Obama
It’s a treat, flavorful and comforting, though the broth is never piping hot. Out on the streets, bún chả, more commonly defined as grilled pork meatballs with vermicelli noodles, is often served in cold soup, but at Hương Liên, the broth is warm enough, perfect on the rainy day we came to try it. On our itinerary, which Travel Warehouse Inc.’s Jaison Yang in collaboration with Hanoi’s Viet Unique Travel designed with flexibility in mind as soon as Cebu Pacific announced the resumption of its flights four times a week between Manila and Hanoi, bún chả was an immovable feast, as immovable even in inclement weather as cooking lessons in the city or a tour by the lake in the French Quarter headlined by the Hanoi Opera House.
Although Hương Liên is now on the list of every curious diner on a Hanoi visit, it’s never lost touch with what it was, which made a celebrity chef and the US president eating there quite special. It’s still in the same four-story building tucked away on a nondescript street in the old part of the city.
In his tribute to Bourdain, who died in 2018, Obama revisited his memories of the Hanoi eatery. He did not mention that on the day they visited, the airconditioning unit at Hương Liên conked out, but he probably didn’t even notice. It wasn’t like a sitting US president, “leader of the free world,” could just casually walk into a restaurant like you and I can. It was a major operation, with security people, and the Secret Service, not to mention Bourdain’s crew, spending hours, even days, making sure there wasn’t going to be a sniper or a suicide bomber in the vicinity, not to mention a wok blowing up in the kitchen or amoeba swimming in the broth.
south of the French Quarter in Hanoi
Still, I’d like to think the former US president enjoyed his bún chả.
On Twitter, in memory of his friend, Obama wrote, “‘Low plastic stool, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer.’ This is how I’ll remember .” Those blue plastic chairs at stainless steel tables on a white tiled floor sure made his experience of Hanoi’s bún chả one Obama would not soon forget.