Entree Kibbles: Vua Chả Cá - Vietnamese Grilled Fish, Hotpot & Fish Guts @ Hanoi [Vietnam]

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Vua Chả Cá - Vietnamese Grilled Fish, Hotpot & Fish Guts @ Hanoi [Vietnam]

Generally, I prefer food in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) over Hanoi; having said that, I did find some gems in our food exploration at Vietnam's capital. One of which was the Vietnamese Grilled Fish!

On our first night in Hanoi, right after the Ta Hien Beer Street, the Great Kon suggested checking out the Vietnamese Grilled Fish from this nearby chain restaurant known as Vua Chả Cá. With some stomach space to spare, why not?!

This specific branch was located at an iconic building in Hanoi old quarter; the Shark Jaws building. Anyway, this photo was taken after our meal, where we were one of the last few groups to leave; hence, the emptiness.

Sadly, it was quite crowded when we arrived at about 8.30 pm and we didn't manage to secure seating on the side that had a fantastic view of the streets. That would have been a great spot to take some time-lapsed videos although the reflection would be problematic.

It was torturing deciding what to order with an extensive menu. Eventually, we opted for combos and even then, there were 12 different combos. Thankfully, a friendly staff member who spoke Mandarin, Nhan Vien, came over to assist and advise!

Table setup with an induction cooktop and the exhaust system that honestly didn't make much of a difference as the smell were stuck to my clothes.

Trada - Vietnamese iced green tea; one of the drinks I had most often in Vietnam as it was plain tea without any sugar, and it's usually priced at about S$0.30 - S$0.50.

Combo 1 Special - which included two servings of Special Grilled Fish, one serving of sautéed Fish Guts and one fish head head pot! Above would be the Special Grilled Fish and Fish Guts, with tons of vegetables!

Nhan Vien worked on all the mixing and cooking, which we greatly appreciated as we wouldn't have known what to do! He continued to converse with us, making this dining experience extremely enjoyable.

After the items were cooked, he could have just let us alone with the pan but he didn't. He would still delicately place those items into our individual bowl, top with peanuts and tell us how to enjoy the dish. Such dedicated customer service was hard to find!

First bite of the Vietnamese grilled fish; tender with a muddy taste that would have been off putting but strangely still seafoody sweet and super fresh! Fish guts were in fact the fish stomach and aside from being chewy, there wasn't much of a taste.

Do remember to request for the foul smelling fermented prawn paste! I kid you not; this was a necessity to hyper charge the flavor of what we were having! Even Nhan Vien was apprehensive to pass us a serving as not many foreigners can stand the stench!

With its strong, sharp flavor that was on the salty side (rule of thumb, don't put too much at your first attempt), the prawn paste totally transformed the bland vermicelli, resulting in a perfect carbo companion for the grilled fish! I will bet S$1,000 that my mom would absolutely love this!

Fish Head Hot Pot - I actually forgot about this and it didn't help that we were almost 80-90% full! Nevertheless, I am not a fish head lover although I would gladly drink the soup.

Only issue; the soup smelt of bamboo shoots and among vegetables; bamboo shoot would be the one I absolutely detest as the stench was too overpowering! Sadly, I am not one to waste food and the stink emitting from the hotpot was somewhat still manageable.

Soup actually tasted okay; thanks to the slices of ginger, the fishiness was masked although you can taste a lil bit of it. I attacked the vegetables; cabbage in soup was simply irresistible!