I knew about this duck vermicelli and noodle shop on Street 2, Soc Son in a rather special way, not because I found it myself or heard from friends, but because my mother said this place is delicious.My mother has a very delicate palate. She used to be a cook for more than 15 years, with an extremely sensitive sense of taste, wherever she eats she can immediately analyze which dish is well-seasoned and which is done carelessly. For her, eating is not just about “filling the stomach”, but it has to be delicious, and clean. So when she said “the duck there is good, clean, the broth is sweet and light,” I went to try it right away. This shop is also near my office, I’ve seen this place many times but never tried it because from the outside, the shop doesn’t stand out. This morning I went to try the two dishes my mom praised, and truly… she wasn’t wrong at all.

As someone who has tried dozens of bún chả shops in Hanoi – from famous decades-old restaurants to “hot” places on social media – my tongue is quite sensitive to food. Just by tasting, I can tell if the broth has too much MSG, if the pork has something strange, or if the restaurant uses dry noodles or fresh noodles.

In my morning wanderings around Soc Son town, I discovered a small eatery located right on Street No. 2 – a street that is not very prominent but gathers quite a few shops serving local residents.😚 This street is small, but surrounded by many schools, markets, and administrative centers, so within just 1km there must be more than a dozen breakfast places. ☺️Compared to the noodle shops I’ve reviewed before that specialize in one dish, this place gives a completely different feeling: not specialized, not elaborate, but sufficient like a homemade breakfast.🫶🏻

Every time I’m tired, I look for a place that is quiet and cool. And this time, I stopped by Tiny Coffee located at 169 Nguyen Ngoc Vu – this is a familiar stop but never boring to me.As soon as I stepped into the yard of Tiny cafe, I felt relieved. The yard is wide, paved with old red bricks, with green trees on both sides, occasionally dotted with small flower pots like a yard at grandma’s house in the countryside.

If you have ever passed by Trich Sai street by the West Lake at night, you will surely be attracted by a tea shop with a name that is both strange and familiar: Phê La. 😀As someone who has written more than 2,000 reviews about coffee shops and restaurants on Hive Blog, I thought I had tasted enough flavors from many places, but that evening, when I stepped into Phê La Trich Sai branch, I was still surprised🙄

For nearly 8 years, I’ve been writing about all kinds of noodle dishes in Vietnam on my blog, from the vibrant flavors of bún riêu, the delicate textures of bún mọc, the fatty noodle duck & bamboo shot, to the bold broth of bún bò Huế. Somehow, I’ve written pages and pages about , but barely a word about — Vietnam’s most iconic dish.☺️☺️☺️☺️