Mark Wiens is a well known food blogger from the US. The man has a Facebook page with 6 million followers, and a YouTube channel with 10 million followers.

With a great passion for travel and culinary exploration, Mark Wiens has been to tens of countries, experiencing unique and attractive dishes in many localities and regions. In Southeast Asia, he visits Vietnam and Thailand the most. He is especially impressed by the rich cuisine in Vietnam with many delicious dishes at affordable prices.

In the latest trip to Vietnam, Mark flew to Hanoi. He likes the native people’s style of eating at sidewalk shops. Just a small table and a small chair is enough for people to comfortably sit and enjoy street food. 

He also enjoyed fish noodle shop on Trung Yen, a small alley on Dinh Liet street in Hoan Kiem district.

The shop has been operating for 20 years and is well known by locals and foreign travelers thanks to the fried thin crispy fish slices and meat-fish rolls fish that have a strange and attractive taste. 

To fully enjoy the flavors of the shop's dishes, Mark ordered three sets at once, including noodle soup, dry mixed vermicelli and red rice noodles. He admitted that as soon as he approached the shop, he could smell the fragrance of deep-fried fish which stimulated all his senses.

The foreign traveler also ordered a serving of fried fish-meat rolls, which is the ‘must-taste’ dish of the shop.

The first dish Mark enjoyed was fish noodle soup with vermicelli, fish and deep-fried fish cakes, served with bean sprouts and water dropwort, green onions, and broth. Diners can enhance the flavor of the dish by adding some spicy bamboo shoots soaked in garlic, chili, vinegar, or kumquat.

As for mixed vermicelli (made of cassava) dish, the materials are the same as fish noodle soup, but there is no broth. Customers need to mix the materials and then add soya sauce and fried peanuts.

He praised the fish and meat rolls. Fish slices, marinated with rich spices, are rolled with a little ground meat, and wood ear fungus inside. The outside is a layer of crispy fried dough. When eating, diners dip the slices of fish with meat in sweet and sour fish sauce.

Phan Dau