Under a giant banyan tree, next door to Ly Quoc Su Pagoda in Hanoi is a small eatery offering bahn goi, a tasty snack of fried pastries. One of the last few places I am told you can still eat these on the street.
An old lady sits fanning herself and splayed out before her is a selection of bahn goi, fried pastries, some of them looking like mini Cornish pasties. There are no menus here except for a small sign in Vietnamese on the wall so, unless you can read Vietnamese, just point to what you would like and sit down.
A choice awaits you – sit inside by a cooling fan or sit under the banyan tree by the street. A plate with your chosen pastries arrives along with cold rice noodles, a mound of fresh herbs and a bowl of sweet sauce made with chillies, garlic, sugar, parsley, vinegar and slices of du du (green papaya).
Each pastry is filled with rice vermicelli, woodear mushrooms – the texture is slimy but crunchy and then there is minced pork. Some are enveloped in a crunchy sticky rice flour dough, looking not unlike small doughnuts without the hole, and others are lighter with an added crispness, but they are all equally good.
Just don't have too many if your watching your waistline.
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