{"id":825,"date":"2023-12-31T15:51:43","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T15:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=825"},"modified":"2023-12-31T15:53:07","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T15:53:07","slug":"bonus-content-process-paradise-ordering-food-in-vietnam-by-declan-walsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=825","title":{"rendered":"Bonus Content: Process Paradise (Ordering Food in Vietnam) by Declan Walsh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the request of some of our loyal blog readers, this bonus content relates to processes in Vietnam. Today’s process is: ordering at restaurants and cafes in Hanoi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Arrive at the front of the restaurant and try to glance at the menu and other customers food, but play it cool to avoid being sheparded inside by overly eager touts. In our experience, the degree of touting is inversely proportional to the deliciousness and value of the food.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Walk inside and take a seat. The staff are happiest if you just do this independently. The waiter will see you and bring a menu over. If you’re not sure where to sit, hang around awkwardly a bit in the middle of the aisle and they will eventually point out where you can sit. There is often a second floor with a steep staircase near the kitchen with more seating they will guide you towards. Take care during this part as the area near the stairs is typically wet from the kitchen and is covered up with damp cardboard in a futile attempt to make it safer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. The waiter will now stand silently behind you, looking nonchalantly around until you make a decision and order. This may make you feel pressured to order quickly, but we have never been hurried up [CR edit: this is where Declan freaks out. He tries to order for me in his version of Vietnamese so that there is about 2 seconds between receiving the menu and the order being placed. This is never what I want to eat and causes confusion when I override his choice in English]. Most good places have a pretty select menu (1 or 2 pages) and a few clear favourites which moves this step along. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Water is not served with meals unless specifically requested and tap water is not drunk. Use ordering food as an opportunity to get Tra Da (iced tea) or similar which is more refreshing and considered safer as it has been boiled and refrigerated instead of coming from the tap. The ice is typically commercially delivered (I hope?), so is a reduced risk as well. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Your food will come out shortly after. Always within 10 minutes maximum and normally under 5. There is a communal box for the table with chopsticks, spoons, toothpicks, napkins and some sauces\/spices (type of food dependent). You will be sharing these with other people on your table. Tables are typically for 4 people and groups of 2 will be combined for packing efficiency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Enjoy your meal. This part is relatively hard to mess up. You will be left alone. There is a little bin underneath each table for your use while eating. I always forget it is there.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. When done. Stand up and walk towards the exit. There will be somewhere obvious along the way you can pay. They will know what table you were on and give you the bill. The bill will never be bought over to the table and you don’t need to ask the waiter about it. Pay however you want, they are normally happy to break moderate sized bills (unlike museums which loathe anything that is not exact). Tipping is not done (at least not at the level of restaurants we are at).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    The successful result of following this simple guide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Bonus Content (Vietnam)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bonus-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}