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posted about 10 months ago by Raould
about the venue: Tống Duy Tân Street Night Food

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The two most popular seafood streets in Hanoi are Tống Duy Tân and Tô Hiến Thành.

To find Tống Duy Tân, head west from Hoàn Kiếm Lake on either Hàng Gai or Tràng Thi. Both eventually run into Điện Biên Phủ, at which point Tống Duy Tân will be on your right side immediately before you cross the train tracks. This alley runs parallel to the train tracks, diagonally between Trần Phú and Điện Biên Phủ. Tống Duy Tân is a pedestrian and motorbike only alley with food stalls lining both sides. The northern end caters more to seafood and lẩu, while the lower end serves up more unconventional specialties like stewed medicinal chicken (gà tần) or grilled horse penis (ngẩu pín).

We have a favorite shop front who we simply call The Seafood Lady. The owner, a lovely woman named Hòa Bình, is kind, helpful and honest, and she doesn’t have annoying young touts out front trying to grab and seat you. Coordinates: No. 6 Tống Duy Tân, about half way down the alley, on the northern side of the street above the small spur out to Hàng Bông street. The largest size prawns here should run you about 220-250,000 dong for a kilo, though prices sometime fluctuated unpredictably with gas prices and international events hosted in Hanoi. She does a great job with clams steamed with ginger and glass noodles sautéed with vegetables and crab meat. Open all day but best in the evening when the alley is bustling. In the winter, stop at the same spot for some lẩu hải sản (seafood hot pot).

See more food and restaurant stuff and other Hanoi life and travel tips at [www.savourasia.com]

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• Posted Saturday January 12th, 2008.

  In general, prevention is better than cure. Everyone should know that if they cannot negotiate a price in advance in Vietnamese, they should stay away from all cabs in main tourist areas except for the main reputable companies like Hanoi Taxi, CP, Mai Linh, Van Xuan. You won't get ripped off every time, but you will get ripped off a lot otherwise.

  If you do end up in a cab and you don't have exact change, you're at a disadvantage. Your best bet is to just pay and call it the "unprepared tax." Much as it may pain you, you can't teach all cab drivers in Vietnam a lesson by making a stink. They generally have more time to wait than you do. And escalating it into an actual conflict is a horrendously bad idea.

  I got into a conflict with a cab driver one time. He was running a cab with a souped up meter, and I got in by my office for the ride home, a trip I took every single day. The fare, as I well knew, was 30-32,000 dong. We reached my apartment and his meter read over 100,000.

  He quoted the meter price, and I laughed and told him not to joke with me. I gave him 30,000. He said I owed the whole 100+ and I answered, "well, then let me see your driving/cab license." Of course he didn't have one, so I said "fine, don't show me. I'm leaving 30,000 on the seat, and if you want the rest, call the police and have them come and we'll straighten it all out." Then I got out.

  He got really, really angry, red face, screaming obscenities. Fortunately there are security guards at my building so I told them the situation, asked them to call the police, and said if the driver was still there when the police arrived, I would be happy to come down and continue the discussion. Then I went in.

  The police did not, in fact, come. And that cab driver sat in front of my building screaming for a half hour. No skin off my nose, in the end, but that was a lot of psychic energy to expend and I resolved to keep an eye on the meter and get out if I saw a speedy one again.

  In response to the question: I've noticed two "strategies" used by taxi drivers: The fairly obvious one is when they take a long, roundabout route to inflate the meter. T...

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