Bánh gối and the Old Quarter fryer corner

Hanoi has a specific institution that does not have a good English name: the fryer corner.

It is a woman, a wok of oil at waist height on the pavement, a stack of plastic stools, and three or four fried things that come out of the same oil all afternoon. You sit down, order a mix, and eat them with scissors-cut herbs and a bowl of diluted fish sauce.

Bánh gối is the anchor of that corner, and the crawl around it is one of the better ways to spend four in the afternoon.

Bánh gối

The name means “pillow cake”, which is exactly what it looks like — a half-moon parcel of wheat pastry, crimped along the curve, deep-fried to a blistered gold.

Inside: minced pork, glass noodle, wood-ear mushroom, shredded jicama or carrot, and half a quail egg. The quail egg is the detail that makes it. You bite through the pastry, through the savoury filling, and hit a small firm yolk.

It is closely related to the Chinese curry puff and the Indian samosa by descent and to neither by taste. The filling is wetter, lighter, and more herbaceous than either.

How to eat it: with scissors, or by hand. The stall will cut it in half for you if you ask. Dip in the nước chấm — do not pour.

The sauce

A bowl of nước chấm: fish sauce diluted with water, sugar, lime or vinegar, garlic and chilli, usually with slivers of green papaya or kohlrabi floating in it.

Those papaya slivers are not garnish. Fish them out and eat them between bites; the sharp crunch is what stops four fried things in a row from becoming heavy.

Alongside, a plate of lettuce, perilla and rau mùi. Wrap a piece of bánh gối in a lettuce leaf with a herb before dipping. This is how it is meant to be eaten and it changes the dish considerably.

What else comes out of that oil

The whole reason to sit down at a fryer corner is that you do not order one thing.

Nem chua rán — cubes of nem chua, the sour fermented pork from Thanh Hóa, breaded and deep-fried. Crisp outside, molten and tangy inside. The best bite on the corner and the one to order two portions of. Eaten with chilli sauce rather than the fish sauce.

Nem rán / chả giò — the standard fried spring roll, in its snack format: smaller, hotter, eaten with the same nước chấm. (Call them nem here. See the naming article.)

Bánh rán mặn — savoury sesame balls. A sphere of glutinous rice dough with a pork-and-glass-noodle filling, rolled in sesame and fried. Chewy shell, crisp crust.

Bánh rán lúc lắc — the sweet version, with sweetened mung bean inside a hollow shell so the filling rattles when you shake it. The name means “rattling”. Ask for it by name; not every stall makes it.

Bánh tôm — sometimes, a small shrimp fritter. The lake-side version is a bigger production; see bánh tôm Hồ Tây.

How to order a crawl

For two people, a reasonable order:

• 2 bánh gối
• 4 nem chua rán
• 2 bánh rán mặn
• 1 bánh rán lúc lắc to finish
• Trà đá (iced tea) — usually free or a few thousand đồng

That is roughly 100,000–130,000 VND total, sits you on the pavement for forty minutes, and is one of the better-value hours in the city.

Useful phrases:

“Cho hai cái bánh gối” — two bánh gối. “Bốn cái nem chua rán” — four nem chua rán. “Cắt ra giúp em” — please cut it up. “Rán lại giúp em” — please re-fry it. Use this if what you are handed has clearly been sitting in the tray.

Where to look

The Old Quarter, around the cathedral. The most famous fryer corner in Hanoi sits in this pocket, and there are several others within a few minutes’ walk. It is busy, it is partly touristed, and it is still genuinely good.

Alley entrances throughout the Old Quarter, from about 3pm onward. The unnamed ones are cheaper and often better.

Near university gates in the west, where the crowd is students and the prices are lower.

The tell is simple: is the oil moving? A fryer corner with a still wok and a full tray of cooked food is a fryer corner at the end of its shift. Come back tomorrow at four.

When

Afternoon into evening, roughly 2pm to 9pm, peaking around 4 to 6pm when school lets out and offices empty.

This is snack food. Do not plan dinner around it, and do not go at noon — the good corners have not started.

What it costs

10,000–20,000 VND per bánh gối. 10,000–15,000 VND per nem chua rán. 5,000–15,000 VND per bánh rán.

Nothing on the corner costs more than a dollar.

If you only do one thing

Go at four in the afternoon, sit on a plastic stool at a corner where the oil is moving, and order bánh gối and nem chua rán together. Wrap the bánh gối in lettuce with a perilla leaf. Eat the papaya out of the sauce bowl.

Order the rattling one at the end.

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Next: nem rán, not chả giò — spring rolls and what you call them in the north.