At around eleven in the morning, something changes in the air of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Thin blue smoke starts curling out of doorways and off the edge of the pavement, carrying the smell of pork fat hitting charcoal. Plastic stools appear. Within half an hour the whole city seems to be sitting down to the same lunch.<\/p>\n
That lunch is bun cha Hanoi, and it is the dish this city claims most fiercely as its own. Bun cha Hanoi is grilled pork, cold rice noodles and a warm dipping broth, eaten at a pavement table between eleven and two. While pho travelled the world and became shorthand for Vietnamese food everywhere, bun cha stayed home. It is still largely a Hanoi thing, still mostly eaten between eleven and two, still cooked over real charcoal in the same narrow shophouses where families have been grilling it for three generations.<\/p>\n
For visitors, bun cha Hanoi offers something that is increasingly rare: a dish you almost have to eat in the place it comes from. This guide covers what bun cha actually is, where the dish came from, how to eat it the way Hanoians do, and the places around the Old Quarter and French Quarter<\/a> where the grills have been going longest.<\/p>\n