A Market Comparison - Hang Be Market(Hanoi) and 99 Ranch Market

"Market....." Nice word. What comes to mind, when you hear the word "market"....or "Asian Market"? If you live in San Diego, it might be this:

But if you happened upon Hang Be Market located on Pho Gia Nhu starting on the corner of Hang Be in Hanoi, instead of fluorescent lights, and tiled isles, you'd see this.

Though it's more likely you'd get run over by a motorbike than get your shins rapped by a Little ol' Lady pushing a shopping cart at Hang Be! I thought I'd do a little comparison of sorts, there are a few similarities, and maybe a few differences.......

I know 99 Ranch Market is pretty well known for the variety of veggies and fruits.

Actually, I think the fruits at 99 Ranch Market are not a strong point...many of the offerings are often over-ripe, bruised, or of low quality. Still, there's always a nice variety. When it comes to "greens" 99 Ranch Market always has a nice selection.

At Hang Be Market, you won't find the huge stacks of oranges perilously stacked, but you will find a good variety of different items.

You gotta love the Dragon Fruit in Southeast Asia, it is leaps and bounds better than what I've had in the States; it is much sweeter, and the Missus ate the stuff by the kilo. And lest you think this is all locally grown; the oranges are from China(quite good), Dragon Fruit and Durian from Thailand.

A note about prices:

You'll notice quickly that most places won't post prices, so you'll have to bargain. The Missus had a very original way of bargaining.....She was especially frustrating for one lady. She would bargain hard.....the lady always wanted something like 25,000VND per kilo, the Missus would start at 15,000 VND....and so forth. Finally they'd settle on 18,000 VND. By then, the Missus was so tired, She would just hand the wad of money to the lady who'd just pull out what she wanted! Why bother bargaining? I guess the "bargaining fatigue" was just too much. Regardless, the Missus bought 2-4 kilos of Dragon Fruit almost everyday.

It was fun seeing uncommon(for us here in the US) items for sale, like Betel nuts.

Buddha's Hand anyone?

99 Ranch Market has a pretty large meat department.

And though the signs are sometimes unintentionally humorous; looks like the "prok for stew" has been selling pretty well today. There is a nice variety of items from the butcher counter and prepacked trays of meat.

No white coats and hats, or the "singing of the saws" at Hang Be.

Just fresh meat on metal tables, meat is ground to order.

And some items screaming "I dare you to eat me"!

It is all fresh....

Ah yes, the Seafood Department at 99 Ranch Market.

For many people I know, 99 Ranch Market is the place to go for fresh and live seafood in San Diego. There's always a good variety, and the prices are reasonable.

At Hang Be Market, the variety might not be quite as large, but as with the beef, everything is fresh.

And most of it is caught locally.

And if it's not still alive.....

It's still "breathing". These were bought up in an instant.

Someone requested a photo of Rice Paddy Crabs.

Here's one of my favorite photos from Hang Be Market.

Even more stuff. Teas and spices from 99 Ranch Market.

Teas and spices from Hang Be Market:

A pretty large variety.....

And of course there is that staple; rice. We found the rice in Vietnam to be of very low quality....full of grit, lots of "brown bits", and unpolished.

But why have rice when you can have........Bun!

Fresh Bun looks wonderful; pure and white as the new fallen snow, it is brought to the market in baskets lined with banana leaves.

One of our Guides told us how Bun was made; rice is first fermented, then ground and sifted. Water is then added to form a dough that is kneaded. The dough is then pressed through an aluminum sieve with tiny holes into boiling water. The Missus's verdict? "Too much trouble, why don't you just eat rice?"

And then there are those things that catch your eye:

So what's going on here? This gentleman is burning the hair off a pig's feet.

And those items that would be pretty hard to find in the states.

One constant we found in every market, was a barber!

We visited Hang Be Market 3 times, once during each period of the day, during the morning, afternoon, and evening. Each visit offered something different. And on one of the visits, I started comparing the market set-up of Hang Be Market with 99 Ranch Market. Strange, I know......

Miss Oishii Eats visit to Hang Be Market can be found here.

Someone tell the Ham Missus not to quit Her day job....

Comments

[sharon]

What a great post. BTW, did they specially open up Ranch 99 to allow you to take photos? :) I've never seen the produce/seafood aisles so empty! Glad I haven't caught sight of brains there either!

[Kirk]

Hi Sharon - LOL! You can read this post if you're curious about when I shop at 99 Ranch Market:

http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2005/10/relaxing_at_ran/comments/page/1/

The only thing is that sometimes the fresh produce is not yet out. I usually will only shop at 99 Ranch Market early in the morning, at about 3pm, or later on a weekend night.

[nikki]

Love the pics of Vietnam. I'm planning a trip around South East Asia in Feb. It's far off, but I was wondering where did you plan this trip? How did you book the tour guides and such?
Thanks!!

[Chris]

Hi, are the mini crabs there in the market the same thing one occasionally finds fried in sushi bars called sawagani? My father spent 3 years in VN during the war. He always told me that most people really eat BROWN rice. (but ,I thought that might just be due to the circumstances). Is it true, most Vietnamese eat unpolished rice? He also told me the Vietnamese eat with thier right hand, the left hand considered "unclean". (this was problematic for me growing up as I am left handed). Thank you for the great blog.

[nhbilly]

Ranch 99 has nothing on street market and the haggling! ;-) Last picture of the missus remind me of my mom, her should developed a really thick muscles/callus from carrying stuff.

[kat]

what a great post! thanks for sharing :)

[Judy]

I'm surprised they you guys got away with pictures inside the market too! My dad always yells at me when I take pictures inside his market!

The exotic goodies look DELICIOUS though! Mmmmmmm ;)

[Eric]

Kirk vs Cathy in a Portuguese sausage eating contest...who wins?

Kobayashi wins lol

[Su-Lin]

I was recently in Chiang Mai and I totally get that whole bargaining fatigue. Once I went to a supermarket there and was so happy that all prices were labelled!

[Carol]

Great post! I go to 99 Ranch fairly early but never so early there's only 1 other person in the produce section. Now that's the only way to shop at 99!

Is that cuttlefish in that green bucket? Love cuttlefish.

[Captain Jack]

Love the photo of the bowl o' brains. Looks like they are not to big on refrigeration at Hang Be. I'll bet the meat and seafood are "alive with pleasure" after a few hours in the humid heat.

[Captain Jack]

I did notice after looking at the pictures again that they make a bit of an effort by putting some of the seafood on ice. Not so much with the meat.

[Sandy]

Love the market comparison! One thing that the 99 Ranch Market has that the market in Vietnam doesn't have - a badly configured parking lot!

Come to think of it, that must hold true for just about every Asian market in Southern California. Either the parking spaces are are too small, or the lot is in need of re-striping.

[Mr. Saturn]

Kirk you really didn't have to post the pig brains XD

Oh my that sliced dragonfruit looks so good, so creamy and juicy and mellowy sweet at the same time.

Too bad you can't them here!

[yummieyummy]

Thanks for the Rice Paddy Crabs. I can eat a whole basket of them lol

[Tracey]

Great shots! I got haggling fatigue in Vietnam too. After a while, I figured it's often worth the $1 to not haggle, plus it means a lot more to the person I'm haggling with. But my mom kept yelling at me, accusing me of driving the prices up!

[White On Rice Couple]

The Hanoi market pictures are amazing!! We're headed to Hanoi this summer (hopefully) and will be visiting this market for sure!! Thanks for the great picture trip!

[Kirk]

Hi Nikki - I hope you got my email.

Hi Chris - We encountered unpolished rice on all of our stops. Don't know about the left hand thing, it may be something of the past, or as a tourist it didn't matter, I'm left handed. In Cambodia, there is a specific way of eating, I'll cover that in a later post. If I recall Japanese River Crabs are a bit over 2-3 inches in length, and are different from Somanniathelphusa.

Hi Billy - Man, that is tough job.....it's really not easy carrying that stuff around.

Hi Kat - I'm glad you enjoyed.

Hi Judy - We're very unobstrusive....

Hi Eric - Everybody wins????

Hi Su-Lin - It can get tiring if you're not used to it!

Hi Carol - Yep, live cuttlefish....I thought they were beautiful.

Hi CJ - You want to hear something interesting.....the place didn't smell, at all! We noticed this at several markets, no bad smell. And it is fresh....most of it is gone in a few hours.

Hi Sandy - I agree about parking configuration...but in Hanoi, everybody parks their motorbikes on the sidewalk! So you end up walking on the street dodging traffic. So, I guess I've learned to appreciate a lousy parking config, to a free for all......

Hi Mr Saturn - You can get Dragon Fruit here....but they don't taste the same, not as sweet.....the Missus ate this stuff by the kilo.

Hi YY - We've got some better photos of the rice paddy crabs while in Sapa.

Hi Tracey - Gotta love Mom.......

Hi WORC - This is actually the smaller of the 2 markets in the Old Quarter. I'm sure you'll enjoy Hanoi...it is quite a lively City.

[howie]

I love looking at photos of street markets! The dragon fruit looks gorgeous - like an alien egg. I hardly see it over here, but I did get some at that tiny market next to A Chau.

[mizducky]

Wow! Brains, crabs, cuttlefish, and ... were those opium pipes in that one rack? 8*D Definitely a whole kettle of (live) fish from 99 Ranch! And I agree, I find the quality of 99 Ranch's fresh fruit a little disappointing compared to their fresh vegetable offerings.