Cuisine and Hobbies in Old Hanoi Stories

An indispensable beauty. Black teeth are the fourth most lovely feature in a girl's charm, so the old folk song says:

" A lover of hair with a ponytail,

Two people love to talk sweetly and charmingly, Three people love to have dimples,

Four teeth polished black beads inferior"

In the work, To Hoai described in detail how to dye teeth. To dye a set of black teeth, there were two steps. The first step was to dye the teeth red: “At the age of seven or eight, I started to dye my teeth red. If I didn’t know how to make medicine, my sister or mother would make it for me. I went to the market and bought a block of ant wings. I crushed it into powder, poured in wine and stirred it until it thickened. I cut a piece of banana into pieces as long as my teeth, spread ant wings on them, and every night I put a piece of banana leaf with ant wings on my jaws and closed my mouth. I did this until one morning, when I looked in the mirror, I saw that my teeth had turned a cockroach wing color . ” [12, 72]. Only when I had a set of cockroach wings could I dye my teeth black. But to have a set of black teeth, one had to be very meticulous from the stage of making the medicine to the stage of dyeing. “Black alum, cinnamon, cloves, dried pomegranate peel, grind all into powder, mix them together. Pour vinegar into the pan, heat and stir until it thickens like sticky rice flour. In the evening, old banana leaves are cut into pieces, dyed, and applied to the teeth. It must be maintained all night and all market day, it is very difficult, even more difficult than dyeing red teeth ” [12, 73]. After dyeing the teeth black, people use coconut shell charcoal to rub directly on the teeth to keep the dye color more durable and beautiful. Black teeth have become a beauty, a charm of Vietnamese women in the past, that is why our ancestors had a saying:

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" Get married to a husband worthy of his name. "

Peacock makeup with rosy cheeks and black teeth”

These customs are beautiful customs that have been deeply ingrained in the "good customs" of Vietnamese people, but due to the impact and influence of urban life, many of them no longer exist.

2.4. Cuisine and entertainment in Old Hanoi Stories

2.4.1. Cuisine in Old Hanoi Stories

It seems that the topic of cuisine is never out of date for writers. There have been many successful writers writing about this topic, notably Thach Lam, Nguyen Tuan, Vu Bang...

In Hanoi thirty-six streets , Thach Lam passionately writes about food, considering it a noble and luxurious art. He enjoys Hanoi's gifts with a subtle, profound perception of the senses. The deliciousness of Hanoi's gifts is the convergence of all the flavors of the countryside... Those flavors are both familiar and strange, that strange part is the charm of Hanoi cuisine that Thach Lam wants to talk about.

Nguyen Tuan again accepted food on the cultural and historical level. He accepted it with all his heart and raised it to a delicate, wonderful work of art that he called " the pinnacle of a form of national culture" (Giò chả). Talking about a cup of tea in the morning, a grain of green rice in the fall, a bowl of pho in the winter, a piece of pork roll on Tet holiday... every detail of Nguyen Tuan is filled with the soul of the country. Writing about the culinary issue in Nguyen Tuan's writing on the Knowledge Forum.Net on April 29, 2011, writer To Hoai also commented "Mr. Tuan was very fond of the extravagant lifestyle of Mr. Tan Da. And Tan Da was a very picky eater. Nguyen Tuan followed suit, gradually becoming more famous than his teacher, sometimes even causing trouble. That was when he wrote an article praising pho, praising gio chả. At that time, society was lacking rice, every household's rice had to be mixed with corn, sweet potatoes, and cassava slices. Eating pho was a violation of food policy. Meat was even rarer, gio chả was the only thing

luxury, many people seem to have completely forgotten the taste of those dishes. Nguyen Tuan probably saw that it was about to become a famous thing so he wrote it down.”

To Hoai is also very knowledgeable about cuisine. The cuisine in his writings is not as romantic as Thach Lam's, nor as elaborate as Nguyen Tuan's, but still has the refined style of a market person. He writes about the origins of dishes, from the most popular dishes to the most quintessential dishes of Hanoi. In Old Stories of Hanoi, To Hoai introduces dishes with an endless passion, giving readers a different perspective on the people, lifestyle, and eating habits of the capital's people, simple but elaborate.

There are dishes that To Hoai mentioned that are still very strange to readers, even today's youth have never heard of them. Reading Old Stories of Hanoi , we know that Com dau gai is a dish of poor laborers such as coolies or poor workers... The reason it is called Com dau gai is because the rice stall is displayed with a bamboo pole, sometimes a door that is tilted down, and bricks are arranged to make rice. The pole and the long chair are bare. The people eating the rice are crowded, jostling each other inside the house and in the yard. Com dau gai is not a special dish, it is just "rice in a bowl, upside down. Tomato soup cooked in fat. Pickled vegetables. Braised beans" [11, 107]. However, that dish has fed countless poor people.

With delicious dishes, To Hoai meticulously and in detail describes the origin and preparation of those dishes. For example, the dish "Nem Sa Goong". This dish originated in Saigon. At first, it was just rice paper rolled up and then fried in a pan into a spring roll without any filling, just a little bigger than a cigarette. Coming to Hanoi, this dish has been Hanoiized. It is no longer just rice paper rolled in oil, but the preparation is more elaborate, which is "Two rice paper soaked in water, pork, minced beef, shredded chicken or crab, then wood ear filling,

Add some vermicelli or bean sprouts to make the filling airy... The spring roll with filling is rolled up, some restaurants roll it long, some restaurants roll it square, tie it with a small bamboo string, fry it until it is cooked and then take it out and put it on a plate." [12, 187]. The cake is eaten hot, not cold, when eaten with dipping sauce and raw vegetables. The dipping sauce must be good fish sauce, mixed with light vinegar, maybe with chili (depending on the person eating). The raw vegetables are young lettuce, spring rolls or split water spinach... Thus, the spring roll dish in Hanoi is more diverse but still does not lose the deliciousness of its Saigon origin.

In Old Hanoi Stories, To Hoai also wrote about Cha Ca in great detail. This dish originated from a Doan family living on Hang Son Street. They used grilled fish to make cha and ate it with vermicelli. Because it was so popular, they opened a restaurant selling this dish and named it "Hieu Cha Ca La Vong". The reason it is called Cha Ca La Vong is because in front of the restaurant there is a statue of Mr. La Vong carrying a fishing rod and a string of fish. To make delicious Cha Ca is also very elaborate. First, people choose Catfish to make cha. This is a type of fish that lives in the Hac intersection area, the fish is not fishy, lean and has no bones. When there is no Catfish in the cold season, people replace it with Banana Fish or Sop Fish. The recipe for making this dish is described by To Hoai in great detail: "The fish is carefully filtered, cut into thin pieces. The fish is marinated with light fish sauce and salt, and squeezed with old turmeric very carefully. The turmeric-colored cha is as fresh as hibiscus flowers, and is picked up with chopsticks. Be careful when using tongs, you must also choose bamboo to heat over the fire to avoid burning when grilling . Fish cakes are eaten with shrimp paste, beaten white, squeezed with lemon and a few drops of wine, then added with water beetles for the best taste. This dish must be eaten hot to be delicious.

Coming to Banh Cuon , To Hoai also wrote about its “Steps of Life”. This is a very old dish in Hanoi. Hanoi Banh Cuon is derived from two things: wet rice paper and Thanh Tri rice paper. Wet rice paper is rice paper that is not dried, not baked into sesame rice paper, rice paper

The road that the cake has been molded into is left wet, sprinkled on the inside of the cake with a little fried shallots and then folded into a square. The cake is arranged in bunches and stacks, separated by fresh banana leaves. When eaten, wet rice paper is dipped in fish sauce, accompanied by a pan of fried bean curd that puffs up, making it very delicious and rich. Thanh Tri rice rolls originated from an old Chinese man's stall on the street. "Late at night, I heard the hoarse cry of "loc beu, loc beu"". This is a thin rice roll stall with meat filling, later Thanh Tri rice rolls were also thinly spread like a sheet of white paper that can be seen through. At first, Thanh Tri rice rolls were eaten with pork roll and fish sauce with water beetles, but later the fish sauce with water beetles was replaced with fish sauce with vinegar and chili.

A familiar breakfast dish that is indispensable in Hanoi is “Chao”. There are many different types of porridge, very rich and diverse. Porridge related to meat or fish includes beef porridge, lung porridge, offal porridge, chicken porridge, eel porridge, fish porridge, duck porridge, am porridge, oval porridge, heart and liver porridge, blood porridge, white porridge. With cereals and beans, there is millet porridge, corn porridge, flower porridge, tapioca starch porridge, se starch porridge, mung bean porridge, black bean porridge, stewed bean porridge. Tapioca starch porridge is measured into a plate, the flour is congealed into a cake mixed with pork ribs, called rib porridge. White porridge sprinkled with onions and perilla, sipped hot, sweating can reduce fever when having a cold... Each type of porridge has a different way of enjoying it. Many porters at the train station who work hard only eat a light breakfast of porridge before going to work. Therefore, porridge has become a very familiar breakfast for Hanoians.

Next to porridge is pho. This is a very special gift of Hanoi people. Many writers have written very well about pho. In Hanoi thirty-six streets , Thach Lam passionately discovered the beauty and deliciousness of pho with all the subtleties of this dish. "The pot of boiling water, spreading out the aroma

all over the streets. If it is a delicious pho stall, there is no place in Hanoi that makes it much - the broth is clear and sweet, the noodles are soft but not mushy, the fatty brisket is crispy but not tough, the lemon, chili, and onions are all there. There is nothing better than a bowl of pho like that." [21, 367]. Also talking about pho, Nguyen Tuan has a different way of enjoying it. To Hoai commented on Nguyen Tuan's pho as follows: "But Mr. Nguyen only ate well-done beef his whole life, never touched any other kind of pho. He said: "If you want to nourish yourself, eat rare, rare rolled, crispy stir-fried, soft stir-fried. I only eat well-done beef, that is the essence of pho"... And Mr. Nguyen ate pho very quickly, following his theory "eat fast while it's hot, the hotter the pho, the better it is" [12, 216].

Different from the way of enjoying of Thach Lam and Nguyen Tuan, To Hoai said "I can eat any kind of pho, it's fine". According to him, pho originated from the dish "Ngưu nhục Phấn" of Guangdong, when it came to Hanoi, this dish was Hanoiized and became a special dish of this land. Initially, there was only cooked pho - beef pho, buffalo pho. It was not until World War II (around 1939) that chicken pho was added. Much later, there was rare beef pho. Recently, there are also restaurants making rare chicken pho... Also originating from South China, it spread to Cao Bang and then to Hanoi, but the fate of sour pho was unfortunate. To make sour pho, people take " small sliced rice noodles, on top of which they put a few pieces of boiled pork mixed with crushed roasted peanuts. All are drizzled with a sweet and sour fat sauce. Customers mix the noodles and eat them with basil leaves. " [12, 217] . In Old Hanoi Stories, To Hoai showed readers the origin of pho. Besides, he also showed readers the difference between pho in the past and present: “Still pho, but it has changed a lot, according to time and circumstances. In the past, pho broth was clear and sweet because of stewed bones. Now the broth is sweet because of MSG. It also makes the pho broth rich yellow, with a strong smell of cardamom,

The "Pho flavor" has a meaty aroma like the fake meat that Nazi Germany created for soldiers.

The soldiers chewed to relieve their craving for real meat. That spice is called pho flavor, which mixes pho flavor powder into the pho, making the pho fragrant, overpowering the smell of spoiled meat, rice noodles, and salty broth that is harsh on the tongue” [12, 219]. If in the past pho was a particularly delicious breakfast dish in Hanoi, now pho is not only a breakfast dish that people eat to fill their stomachs, and pho can also be a “snack” to accompany alcohol. “Eat a bowl of pho, drink “one or two cups of water”.

Dog meat is also a popular snack. To make delicious dog meat, first of all, you must know how to choose the right dog. “Not all dogs can be butchered. German Shepherds, Japanese dogs, and pet dogs are small like cotton balls, and their meat is fishy. Only dog breeds that are everywhere in our country, the yellow ones, the brindle ones, the spotted ones, the striped ones, the short, stubby ones, have neither long nor short front legs, but round, muscular hind legs. That dog meat is delicious.” [12, 224]. Dog meat is processed into many different dishes, but no matter how many dishes there are, each dish “relies on the classic five-stroke root: 1- Boiled meat and liver, 2- Cha, 3- Plum sauce, 4- Fake dog meat, 5- Dog flute” [12, 224]

There are delicious dishes, To Hoai describes very detailed and meticulous about the preparation and cooking methods. For example, boiled dog meat, he wrote: "The best boiled dog meat is the way to cook it in a water bath: steamed dog meat. The artisans explain: steaming, the sweet meat juice is restrained so that the broth cannot be released" [12, 224-225]. The way to make grilled dog meat patties is mainly in the seasoning step: scallion is sprayed with caramel water and then used an aluminum skewer to pick it up. The charcoal gives off a fragrant aroma of the patties. In addition, there is another way to make patties, which is in the countryside, the patties are simply grilled to show off the deliciousness of boiled meat, without any additional additives. The dish of plum sauce is a half-fried, half-braised dish. To make the dish of plum sauce delicious, it is necessary to choose the meat to cook properly. The meat must be pork belly with three layers of meat, fat and skin. As for the dish of "fake dog meat", if there is no

Dog meat is replaced with pork leg marinated with galangal and fermented rice, simmered with tofu until tender. The remaining ends and tails of the dog are put into a pot and cooked into a broth called dog stew, which is delicious when eaten with rice noodles.

In addition to the dishes, To Hoai also introduces to readers how to eat herbs and raw vegetables in the Hanoi region. Scallions are the most popular herbs. "A bowl of sour soup with star fruit, a piece of grilled meat and sausage all need scallion leaves. The onion is split and eaten raw and soaked in vinegar. Scallions and celery are boiled and dipped in sesame fish sauce and eaten with anchovy porridge. Scallions grow all year round, but in autumn or early spring, onions have a stronger flavor." Onions are an imported fruit, and stir-fried with beef is the best. Basil is also a vegetable that can be eaten raw, and lang basil is the best. Lang basil is eaten with many dishes such as crab soup, stir-fried pho, pho in water, pork sausage... Besides lang basil, there is also basil with a strong flavor, so it goes well with dishes such as dog meat, duck meat, and blood pudding. Lettuce is a vegetable originating from Europe, but it has become very familiar to Vietnamese people. Winter lettuce rolls are sweeter than summer lettuce. Besides lettuce, there is also Vietnamese lettuce. Thinly sliced lettuce mixed with coriander goes well with crab soup, fish soup, or New Year's rolls with vermicelli and shrimp. Coriander has a light aroma, and when chopped and sprinkled on pho, it tastes great. When the coriander plant gets old, people can also boil it to make a fragrant bath water. Coriander "is wildly pungent, growing wild in the forest. People bring it home to plant in their gardens. Soon the smell of coriander has crept into pho soup, stir-fried pineapple, and almost any dish" [12, 207]. Chives take the young leaves and put them in wonton noodles, and in some places people put them in fish cooked with sour bamboo shoots, while chives are used as medicine. Similar to chives is the shallot plant, but in fact, the shallot root is only used to pickle and eat with roast meat. Chrysanthemum greens are used like chives leaves, eaten with wontons, porridge, or dumplings. Leaves such as fig leaves, tri-colored perilla leaves, and guava leaves are used with sour nem.

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