Au Co: More than just a street name

Au Co is a fascinating street, and I have the good fortune of walking on it every day. The food comes in all types – from the pho shops to the bakeries to the fancy Moroccan restaurant just up the road. And the wonders don’t stop at food. There’s a huge flower market within walking distance, a plethora of beautiful houses, and even a barbershop or two.

First off, my lane, Ngo 142 Au Co, has its own surprises. I’ve written about him before but my landlord is the coolest old guy ever. All I see him do is chill and make rice wine and play with his dog. And his grandkids are always around and shout “Hello!!” every time I walk by. I bet their family is shocked that my roommate and I are able to survive. Whenever we get food delivered (which is more often than I’d like to admit), they stare at us as if to say, “how are you guys not able to cook your own food?” And for a while I wasn’t putting my motorbike in our garage (which is playing with fire since it’s a piece of cake to steal a motorbike, roll it down the street, then get someone to make a key that turns it on). Eventually, the landlord’s wife came over and made enough hand motions that it became clear I needed to start locking it up. Their presence next door (and the police man who lives on the other side) make me feel incredibly safe here, and I’m learning more and more about them the better my Vietnamese becomes. Below are some pictures of the view from my house, Ngo 142, and my landlord's rice wine containers/his house/a random delicious meal my roommate and I had there today.  

This is my motorbike! 

That's how my landlord makes his ricewine! He makes so much that he tries to give me and my roommate bottles of it all the time.

Ngo 142

My landlord's friend along with some rice wine and the meal we had today!

My roommie is pretty easy to pick out. My landlord is the man smiling off to the right.

The pho shops right near Ngo 142 make food that is to die for and so cheap that it’s really a steal. A bowl of steaming noodles and chicken or beef costs 20,000 VND (about $1 USD) and there are these delicious dough sticks called quẩy that you can purchase to go along with it for 2,000 VND each. In addition to pho, these shops also serve “miến,” a cellophane noodle dish which is 5,000 VND more expensive but comes with vegetables and is actually even more delicious than pho (when I first got here, I was having pho literally twice a day but now miến is my new obsession). Below are some photos of pho shops on the street, and a picture of a typical dinner these days – my Vietnamese book, a bowl of miến ga (miến with chicken in it), and some quẩy.

All over the city, Hanoi has a number of shops and streets that serve delicious food but close down after about 2 PM. Au Co has one of these shops, located underneath an internet game store. The woman who always serves me my food here is the sweetest old woman I’ve ever met, and she always serves me as soon as she sees me even if there are other people waiting in line (one of the benefits of being a regular!). To create my 20,000 VND dish, she starts by piling white rice onto my plate. Then she adds lettuce, tomatoes, fried tofu, some pumpkin, an entire fish (head, tail, everything), and usually some pork too. At night, when there’s no food being served, I usually see people selling off-brand Adidas-esque shoes for about 50,000-100,000 VND a pair. The Moroccan restaurant on my street is run by a man from Morocco and his daughters. I’ve been here a few times, and although it is one of the most expensive places I’ve found for food in Hanoi it’s also probably the best non-Vietnamese restaurant that I’ve been to so far. I usually get couscous with beef, carrots, potatoes, and turnips. The portions are so big that I find myself taking home enough leftovers to last a solid few days. Below is a picture of the restaurant, which has gorgeous outdoor and indoor seating:

There’s also a really great fruit shop down the street where they sell all sorts of things—it’s pretty expensive (all fruit here is) but well worth it. I get an apple a day from the woman in the pictures below.

And, last but not least, Au Co has one of the most delicious bakeries I’ve found here. The items they sell are all really cheap (a loaf of bread for 15,000 VND, a piece of cake for 7,000 VND) and they are open from early in the morning to at least 10 PM at night! 

I could write about the food on Au Co for forever, but there’s tons of other interesting stuff on this street as well. In my previous post, I wrote about the city’s preparations for Tet. On Au Co, there’s a shop that sells the traditional fruit trees that everyone puts in their house to ring in the New Year. I’ve watched the shop get bigger and bigger throughout the month of January, and it never ceases to amaze me when I watch motorbike drivers drive away with huge quat trees on the backs of their xe motos. There’s also a tailor shop and a few cafes (with employees who are always happy to help me practice my tieng Viet!), and lots of roosters. 

That’s all for now! Starting next week, I’m going to ask my translators to help me do a profile a week on someone in Hanoi who has an interesting story to tell (sort of like a “Faces in the community” kind of thing). So stay tuned!