Hanoi: Van Phuc and Le Mat Part 1

*** This post has a minimum of food, and some drink, but I thought you'd be interested. If not, we'll have the food portion of this post tomorrow....thanks for being so patient!

On the way back to our hotel to meet our Guide and Driver, the Missus decided that She "needed" some Vietnamese Iced Coffee. Luckily, right on Hang Bac, just around the corner, was Cafe Nang:

This tiny hole in the wall is quite popular, and was always busy in the mornings and evenings. Just like the US, the clientele of these type of coffee shops is mostly male...

We managed to snag a table in the back of the restaurant, with 2 kiddie stools....better to watch the Little Old Lady "do Her stuff" in this cramped little space that serves 2 floors.

It was pretty amazing to see what can be done in this tiny space, and with only 1 burner.

Interesting thing; in Northern Vietnam, Iced Coffee with Condensed Milk is called Cafe Nau Da, not Cafe Sua Da...with a few exceptions. The Missus enjoyed this version, (8,000 VND, approx 50 cents US) though to Her taste buds, it tasted milder than versions She's had at "home".

Upon our arrival at our hotel, I had met with the travel desk and went over our itinerary. On the flight over, the Missus went through Her guides to Hanoi, and decided that She wanted to do a tour of some of the Handicraft Villages. So we managed to snag a Guide and Driver for the day.  Our guide, a friendly young man named Hung, was glad to have the work, He usually does the City Tour, and for him this was nice change of pace.

The first village we "hit" was Van Phuc, the Silk Village, located just outside Hanoi.

If you want silk, or silk products around Hanoi, I guess this is where you'd...or at least the bus loads of tourists, get the stuff. The was one really interesting thing about touring these villages.....

You can go just about anywhere.....step into a shop, and start walking around...get caught in some massive rollers.....no OSHA, no liability issues here. It was interesting watching and hearing endless rows of spools, the clacking of gears...the sounds of machinery echoed down the street.

For me, watching the Jacquard Loom, which uses punch cards to determine the sequence of patterns was almost mesmerizing. Stay here long enough and you'd need ear plugs, though! After walking about the various shops and factories for about 45 minutes, we'd just about had our fill, and it was time to move on....

Our next stop was the village of Le Mat, which I had seen on several shows on television. Le Mat is known as the "Snake Village", where snakes are raised for consumption......pick your poison(no pun intended), hungry, thirsty, or perhaps feeling a bit "under the weather"?

Because Hung had to ask for directions once we arrived, I gathered that he hadn't been here too many times. Nevertheless, we ended up at a huge restaurant, named Quoc Trieu.

There were several large glass enclosures with snakes in them, and large containers with what I assumed was snake wine.

After a short discussion, we were walking down a short road, took a left, and started walking down a dike...

And soon enough came to a large, fenced off area....we found out later named Quoc Phuong Ecological Farm.

Just as with our previous stop....you just wander up, open the fence and walk in.....

It wasn't until after we entered, that I thought, "wait a minute.....they raise snakes here, and we just kinda walked up here and are making ourselves at home?" Of course, I kept glancing around at my feet.......

In reality, the place is pretty peaceful.

We walked past huge concrete pens.....

When you walked up the stairs, you saw this:

As we walked up the trail, the Snake Wrangler/Manager, a very mellow Dude named "Huong" met us, and walked us up to an enclosure.

The entire floor of the shed is lined with cages with hinged doors. You could actually hear hissing coming from a few the cages. Mr. Huong(about this time I started calling him "mister") waved me over to one of the cages, unshouldered the flashlight, and proceed to shine it in one of the cages.

Okay, yep, that's a King Cobra alright......nice...time to go and visit our next village!

One problem, Mr Huong didn't speak any English. And so he started opening cages and bringing the snakes out......

One snake....

Two snakes......

Three snakes......

 

More!!!

Huong actually asked us (translation courtesy of Mr Hung - see, I'm taking no chances...I'm calling them all "mister" by this time) if we'd like to pet the baby cobras. We were told that none of His customers had been bitten, yet.... Turns out behind that quite and mellow demeanor, Huong had a sense of humor.

I did manage to take one of my favorite photos of the trip......

That was a few miles closer than I'd rather be, when it comes to cobras....

As we left the area, I noticed these enclosures:

I was told that snakes are placed here for tours, to do a kind of "show", but there weren't any tours scheduled today, so we got to see the snakes in the pens...which I kinda enjoyed a bit more than a staged "cobra and pony show".

We were shown a few other animals being raised.....

The most interesting were found in these pens:

Guess what????

Yep, porcupines....we were told that it was for eating.....

A few minutes later, we were seated in the patio area, and the fine stemware was broken out.

A barrel was uncorked....

And we had some tea, with snake wine chaser.

This snake rice wine was the best stuff we drank on the entire trip....we kept drinking, and Huong kept pouring...must've done five or six shots. This hootch was pretty smooth, a mildly sweet start, with a floral finish. I didn't think it was very strong, but Hung started getting a buzz on. Huong was nice enough to answer a bunch of questions, which I'm sure he's been asked a zillion times; like "how long does it take to raise a cobra to be ready for consumption?"(answer, about 3 years) And, "what happens if you get bit?"(answer, once you suck the poison out, there are some herbs and plants that help healing.) Soon enough the pangs of hunger set in, and Huong shuttled us back to the restaurant on his motorbike. We had decided to go ahead and have lunch at the restaurant...

How was it??

Stay tuned for part 2!

Comments

[nhbilly]

Hehehe, last picture - where's the king cobra or porcupine on the plate? ;-) Didn't know coffee is a little different in the US.

[Chris]

Great. On this "show" that I watched about food in Hanoi, there was some mention of a special kind of coffee that is eaten by a civet, and the undigested beans are gathered from the...feces and made into a drink. I think that may have been more shock value than real, everyday drink? As far as salt is concerned, my Vietnamese girlfreind tells me that there was this great chef long ago in VN who developed an entire banquet meal based on salt.It is reserved for royaly, and only a few chefs are trained in these elusive recipes. If anyone else has heard of it, it would be you. Maybe its just one of those urban legends?

[mizducky]

That was cool! (And yes, my inner geek really dug the Jacquard loom too.)

[kat]

gosh what a great adventure!! can't wait for part 2!

[RONW]

My skin still crawling.

[Rachel]

Wow what an adventure! So what part of the snake is fermented for the wine? Is it the venom? I must say you were pretty brave! All this for the first full day in vietnam too!

[Kirk]

Hi Billy - I think there is a difference in the coffee....That last picture is just a "tease" for the next post! ;o)

Hi Chris - There is civet coffee all over SE Asia....I understand that it is the most expensive coffee in the world. If I recall, only 500 kilos or so makes it to market each year. Don't know about the salt banquet though....

Hi Mizducky - You could walk right up to the loom and watch it in action.....kind of mesmerizing.

Hi Kat - I hope you enjoy the second part.

Hi RONW - Let's see how you like part 2.....

Hi Rachel - There are whole snakes, and other herbs soaking in the bottom of the barrel....as for how it's made; I'm not quite sure.

[Beach]

Le Mat Village has gone from a quiet vilagge to a very commercialized enterprise in a few year. I had coffe at the same shop when I was in Hanoi last. The street you are looking out to from the shop is Hang Be. There is a very nice Boutique Hotel on that street named Hoa Binh Palace Hotel with a restaurant on the 8th the floor with a great view. It used to be very cheap but they has priced themself out of my range. Looking for ward to your second post. I ran into Chubby Panda at lunch on Monday.

[Kirk]

Hey Beach - Hang Be is one busy street! We spent a good deal of time at Hang Be Market.... I hope CP is doing well.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Fascinating.

I've had snake wine/liquor from Okinawa (if memory serves). I think I prefer my snakes dead to alive.

[Ed]

I've had Okinawan snake wine as well - it was really good!

[nhbilly]

Too bad I can't hold my liquor otherwise I would love to sample the exotic drinks.

[Carol]

I would have liked to try the snake wine. According to my Mom, I had snake soup as a 3 yr old to help with some heat rash. Guess it cleared it right up. I might have been born in the year of the Snake but not sure if I ever want to get that close to a King Cobra.

[foodhoe]

This is great stuff! Thrills and chills and good dramatic build up. Are those figs in the last picture? I'm looking forward to seeing the meal!

[pen]

ahhh!! snakes! on the plain!
sorry K. bad excuse for a joke.

[Sandy]

Hmmm ... I'd be kind of worried if my driver was getting a buzz from snake rice wine!

I get the heebie-jeebies at the zoo's snake enclosure, so I think I'll stay away from Le Mat if I ever get to Hanoi.

[Chris]

You are right, I did some research. You can buy civet coffee on the internet for starting at about $40 for 2oz bag. There is another Vietnamese company that makes a coffee that is supposed to emulate the flavor by treating the beans with enzymes and fermenting them like what happens inside of the civet, I might try that out. I have not seen snake wine in USA- is it illegal? Do thet have it someplace on Bolsa ave maybe?

[Kirk]

Hi Ed & Ed - Sounds great....I've only had Awamori, and another type of Shochu from Okinawa that tasted like pure alcohol.

Hi Billy - The snake wine from the farm was the best thing we drank the entire trip...tough the Ruou in Bac Ha was pretty good.

Hi Carol - Snake soup as a remedy for heat rash.....I hadn't heard that one before!

Hi FH - Those are pickled figs....the Missus loved 'em.

Hi Penny - Too funny! I wish I had thought of that one.....mmmmm corn!

Hi Sandy - It was our guide who drank....our driver was off somewhere taking a nap in the shade.

Hi Chris - I don't know about all the legalities and stuff....I know they differ from state to state. But here's a link:

http://www.asiansnakewine.com/

Don't know how good this stuff is though.....

[nhbilly]

Now I know what that fig looking vege is, my mom use to make it but stop making it due to the fact that it heats up the body some how - asian thing obviously.

This is the raw version with mam ruoc - Yummy?

http://tianguyen.blogspot.com/2008/04/last-meal-ca-phao-mam-ruoc-hue.html

[kay]

I got a bottle of snake wine from this website, do they also sell it in China?
Thanks.
http://www.asiansnakewine.com/