At 6:30 AM in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, the city awakens on blue plastic stools. Along Hang Buom, steam rises from giant steel cauldrons where beef marrow bones, charred ginger, cassia bark, and black cardamom pods have simmered since the previous evening.
Northern Pho (Pho Bac) is marked by its minimalist clarity. Unlike the sweet, heavily garnished southern versions, Hanoi broth is delicately clear, letting the quality of the beef and hand-cut rice noodles take center stage.
The Secret World of Vietnamese Coffee
After soup, retreat to Cafe Giang, founded in 1946 during the French Indochina War. When condensed milk was scarce, founder Nguyen Van Giang whipped egg yolks with sweetened condensed milk and sugar into a silky, meringue-like custard, poured over dark robusta coffee. The result is liquid tiramisu in a cup.
Shivam Gupta
Expedition Lead & Adventure Photographer
Shivam is an alpine trekker, documentary photographer, and wilderness expedition guide. Having navigated remote high-altitude passes in the Himalayas, polar fjords, and off-grid desert tracks, he shares tactical packing strategies, route logistics, and raw visual dispatches from the front lines of adventure travel.
