In the past, in Hang Buom Street (Hanoi), there was a row of shops selling quay (fried breadstick) with soy milk. In the evening when the high-voltage light is on, the shops start selling. The children living in the surrounding streets sometime were allowed to eat this snack by their parents.
Calling a cup of hot soy milk, add a few fried breadsticks, children both ate and dropped it into a cup of soy milk. Today, there are not many people eating that kind of snack. It is not understood what made soy milk with quay become so attractive, but most of the children living in the surrounding streets are addicted to this simple and popular snack.
In the cold winter, walking through the streets now, many people miss the afternoon after school with friends. On that day, the children stopped at the familiar hot breadsticks shop, with little money left from fasting the breakfast. When quay was thrown into a glossy aluminium plate, they scrambled to get it and dip it into the sauce with a lot of papayas.
The owner make fried breadstick in big pans, and oil always poured to fill full the pan. Each piece only needs to be deep fried in boiled oil in a few minutes, when the powder is swollen evenly, and become yellow.
We enjoyed watching the golden pieces of cake in the pan of boiling oil, then gradually turning to dark yellow. An assistant boy quickly picked up all the oil breadstick and poured them onto the big aluminum dish. Hot oil sticks dipped into sweet and sour sauce mixed with hot and spicy chili sauce to eat with papaya soaked in fish sauce is so attractive that the children captivated and satisfied in the afternoon after school.
The smell of wheat flour is very typical with the oil to create the “classic” dish of childhood of many Hanoi people. Whenever there is a cold wind at the beginning of the season, I hope to be able to rub the hands and enjoy a plate of quay, chat with friends with funny stories that seem to last forever.
Therefore, despite the rustic and simple shops with a few plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk, the hot and simple snack is still a favorite food of many visitors on Hanoi street food walking tour, and the shops are still crowded with visitors. Especially on cold days, everyone takes a few dishes of quay to satisfy their cravings.
Now life is quite full, process of making quay is also much easier. Quay idd made with the machine, fried in the much faster way on large oil pans used with gas or electricity.
However, more and more new dishes are imported, making the shops forced to sell more items. In addition to a rare specialty shop such as in Hang Dieu, most of them sell extra banh goi, banh ran, sour fermented meat, dumplings, and dry beef salads. Many places sell only for guests on Vietnam food tours to take away, so they do not have tables to sit back as before.
Even so, the shops still retain traditional features. When there are customers on hanoi street food tours who come to buy, the owners just start cutting the dough and dropping them into the frying pan. Thanks to that, quay is always fresh, hot, not as brittle as quay accompanied with pho, but soft and not tough.
Addresses of hot selling goods in Hanoi:
431 Nguyen Khang, Cau Giay, 23 Lo Duc, Hai Ba Trung, 73 Hang Bong, 69 Pho Duc Chinh, 109 Ta Quang Buu, 147 Nguyen Luong Bang, 77 Nguyen Thai Hoc, 1 Hang Dau … Price of a plate of 5 pieces from VND 15,000 or more.
For more information/details: Hanoi traditional food, food walking tour, Vietnam cooking class