Cold-weather Hanoi: xôi khúc, bánh đúc and the winter street cries
Hanoi gets genuinely cold, and a whole set of foods only appears when it does. Herb-wrapped sticky rice sold by shouting vendors, hot ginger syrup, and why winter may be the best time to come.
Visitors are surprised that Hanoi gets cold. It does — a damp, windless ten to fifteen degrees from December to February, occasionally lower, with a grey drizzle called mưa phùn that does not really fall so much as hang in the air.
It is not cold by northern European standards. It feels colder than it is, because almost nothing is heated and the damp gets into everything.
It is also, arguably, the best season to eat here. A set of dishes appears that does not exist in July, the street-food economy shifts toward things cooked over coals, and the whole city eats differently.
Xôi khúc
A ball of mung bean and fatty pork, wrapped in a dough made from rau khúc — cudweed, a small grey-green herb that grows in the cool months — then coated in glutinous rice and steamed.
Cut it open and you get three layers: the sticky rice shell, the dark herbal dough, and the savoury centre with a piece of pork fat that has rendered into it.
The rau khúc is the point. It gives the dough a faintly bitter, grassy, almost medicinal note that plays against the rich filling, and it only exists when the weather is cold enough for the herb.
How it is sold: from insulated baskets carried by evening vendors, wrapped in cloth to hold the heat, and — traditionally — announced by a street cry. Xôi khúc đây! or Ai xôi khúc nào!, called at intervals as the vendor walks.
That call is one of the few surviving street cries in Hanoi. It has largely been replaced by recorded loops on speakers, which is a small sadness, but you will still hear the real thing on residential streets in the evening.
Buy from a basket wrapped in cloth. It needs to stay hot; a cold xôi khúc is dense and dull.
When: evening and very early morning, in the cold months. Price: 15,000–25,000 VND. Say: “Một cái xôi khúc”.
Bánh đúc nóng
Hot, loose rice batter with minced pork, wood-ear, fried shallots and a light fish-sauce broth, eaten with a spoon. Covered in more detail in the quiet bowls guide.
It belongs here because it is a winter dish above all. Small afternoon shops, a queue between three and five, everyone eating from small bowls with steam coming off them. In December this is one of the best things in Hanoi and in July it is barely sold.
Price: 20,000–35,000 VND.
Hot chè and tào phớ
The sweet counter changes over completely in winter.
Bánh trôi tàu — glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame or mung bean, in a hot ginger syrup, often with a scatter of shredded coconut. The syrup is sharp with ginger and it is drunk as much as eaten. Genuinely warming.
Tào phớ nóng — silken tofu in hot ginger syrup rather than cold jasmine. A different dish from the summer version.
Chè sắn — cassava in ginger syrup, thick and starchy.
All three appear around November and disappear around March. See the chè guide for the full case.
Everything on coals
Winter is grill season, and the late-night grill streets are at their best in it.
Specifically seasonal:
Ngô nướng / khoai nướng — corn and sweet potato, grilled slowly over coals at pavement braziers. Sold by the piece from about four in the afternoon. The sweet potato in particular — split open, steaming, eaten with your hands on a cold street — is one of the small great pleasures of a Hanoi winter.
Hạt dẻ nướng — roasted chestnuts, from drum roasters, mostly around the Old Quarter and near the lakes. Sold in paper cones by weight.
Gà tần — herbal chicken stew, which is a year-round dish that makes far more sense in January.
Lẩu — hotpot. Every restaurant with a burner runs hotpot in winter, groups of six around a bubbling pot, and it is the default Vietnamese winter social meal.
Bánh đúc lạc — the disappearing one
Worth mentioning because it is going.
Bánh đúc lạc is the old, cold, firm version of bánh đúc: a rice batter set with limewater into a sliceable cake, studded with peanuts, cut into pieces and dipped in tương bần — a fermented soybean sauce from Hưng Yên.
It is plain, faintly alkaline, nutty, and completely unlike the hot version. It is also increasingly hard to find, having lost ground to bánh đúc nóng over the last two decades.
If you see it at a market stall, buy some. Ask for tương rather than fish sauce — some stalls now default to nước mắm, which is not the traditional pairing.
Price: 15,000–30,000 VND.
What changes about eating here in winter
Everything moves indoors, slightly. Pavement tables get tarpaulins and sometimes a brazier. Nobody stops eating outside; they just add a layer.
Soup gets better. Or rather, soup finally makes sense. A 6am bowl of phở in fifteen-degree drizzle is a different and much better experience than the same bowl in August.
Bia hơi gets quieter. Beer is a hot-weather drink here. Winter crowds move to hotpot and gà tần.
Nothing is heated. Restaurants, shops, most accommodation — expect indoor temperatures to match outdoor ones. Dress for inside as well as outside.
When exactly
December to February is the cold season proper. November and March are transitional — cool, pleasant, and most winter foods are already or still available. Mưa phùn, the hanging drizzle, is mostly February and March.
If you are choosing when to visit for food alone: late October to early December is the strongest window. You get the tail of cốm season, the whole of rươi season, the start of winter cooking, and the most comfortable weather of the year.
If you only do one thing
On a cold evening, buy a grilled sweet potato from a pavement brazier and eat it walking. Then find a small shop with a queue and order bánh đúc nóng.
If you hear someone calling xôi khúc đây on a residential street after dark, stop them.
Next: northern mountain food in Hanoi — phở chua and thắng cố.