Hanoi Market

Markets full of fresh greens, fish, flowers, steaming pots of soup, roasted and grilled meats, dried fish, spices, trinkets and clothes, pots and pans and dishes can be found in every city and most towns throughout Vietnam. The woman in the center picture is not selling candy as the colors might suggest but dried fish, an important in SE Asia.

All of the markets are crowded, the walkways narrow and at any given moment one could collide with a bicycle or motorbike. At the same time you can see people playing cards in a carved out little corner or just sitting on the ground or small plastic stools hanging out.

Hanoi"s market was, while not being the largest one we visited, the most mouth-watering. Everywhere, it seemed, there was someone having a bowl of wonderful looking noodle soup. Hanoi is well known for it's soup called Pho but there is another chicken based soup called Famous Hanoi Soup. We did have some Pho but the famous soup that we never tasted has to remain, as my imagination dictates, what the people were eating in the market that looked so good.