The dish of hot pancako with full ingredients is always the best choice of young people in Ha Noi during the time of season change.
The snack ‘import’ deeply in Hanoi
Pancako is one of the popular cakes in Vietnam and also the Hanoi traditional food. This cake is made from the fried flour covering the prawn, bacon, and vegetable. The cake is molded into a round and folded into a semicircle. In Hanoi, pancako is often added more eggs and bean sprouts and served with sour and sweet sauce, which is made from fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, and fresh chili.
Because of the variety of plants in Vietnam, all the Vietnamese food are usually served with many kinds of vegetables such as lettuce, salad, broccoli, lettuce, perilla, basil and bay leaves.
As a typical dish of South, but to Hanoians, this cake has become a familiar and famous dish, even it is indispensable in the fall or winter afternoon.
The name of ‘banh xeo’ (pancako) also has an interesting origin. This name comes from the “puff” when pouring the rice flour into the pan with hot oil or lard on the kitchen fire. Although the food is more popular in the central and southern area, more than a decade ago, many restaurants of pancako have developed. Thus, tourists of Hanoi food tasting tours can easily find a good restaurant to enjoy this new dish on some streets such as To Hien Thanh, Doi Can, Thai Ha, Hang Bo, etc.
The familiar but creative cake
The pancako is the favorite of many young people in Hanoi because it is mixed with many ingredients, full of flavors, so it is easy to eat. Moreover, it is more delicious when visitors of food walking tour eat this cake with grilled rolls (nem nuong).
It is not difficult to find a restaurant of pancako, however, to enjoy a delicious cake with tasty sauce, you should find these destinations where you can eat the unique and creative cake.
172 Doi Can Street
Pancako here is greatly fragrant and crispy with thin layer of fried flour and absolutely not too fat. Inside are the meat, shrimp and bean sprouts… as in the traditional cake. The best way to enjoy the cake here is to roll the cake into the rice paper cut by sellers, add some vegetables and dip it in the sour and sweet sauce. That delicious food cannot resist!
The fragrant and crispy layer of flour with the sour mango, the cool vegetables make the cake not too fat and boring. This is the simple but great combination of a Vietnamese rustic food.
22 Hang Bo Street
The sellers in Hang Bo do not focus on the core of the cake. Inside the cake is only a few small prawns, some pieces of beef and principal element is bean sprouts. The only outstanding is the crispy, dry and thin layer of flour. Even many people wondered how the seller can make a cake “super crispy, super thin” like that.
67 Lo Duc Street
Mushroom pancako looks strange and attractive not inferior to the pizza of the West. Each plate of pancako of 50,000 dong is pretty big. Its attraction is also exaggerated outside with many shrimp, beef and especially mushrooms. When you enjoy, you fold the cake, then skillfully cut into small pieces, put on the rice paper, add more vegetables then dip in sauce and enjoy. The cake shell is not thin, a litter bit thick but thanks to many mushrooms with vegetables, it is not boring.
3 To Hien Thanh
The cake in To Hien Thanh is highly appreciated in term of sauce. The sauce here is full of five flavors: sour, sweet, spicy, salty, and bitter. According to Ms. Huong, the owner of the restaurant, to make a bowl of sauce, it is essential to have a combination of dozens of different materials.