Bánh tôm in Hanoi

A bánh tôm is a fried fritter with shrimp, eaten with herbs. In Hanoi the fritter is ordinarily sweet potato: a slice or a small cake of the root, a shrimp set into the batter, fried until the outside is crisp and the middle stays soft. The photograph shows whole shrimp on golden fritters, with perilla and other herbs. It does not show a dipping bowl, and it does not show the street. Stalls around Hồ Tây made this snack well known. The same idea is cooked in other neighbourhoods. The picture is the dish, not a map.

What you are eating

You are eating shrimp and a fried root-vegetable cake. It is not a prawn cracker and it is not a fresh spring roll. The shrimp should taste of shrimp. The fritter should taste sweet and starchy under the oil. Herbs — often tía tô (perilla) and a mint-type leaf — belong in the bite. A sharp nước chấm is the usual dip, even when the photograph crops it out. Some tables add green papaya or a few extra leaves.

The starch in a Hanoi bánh tôm is ordinarily sweet potato. A shop may use another root. If that difference matters to you, ask before you order. Do not decide from the colour alone.

How it is served

The fritters arrive hot. You take one, add herbs, and dip. They cool quickly and the crust softens, so this is a poor plate to save for later. It is a snack or a shared plate, not a noodle lunch. Bún chả is the charcoal pork lunch. Phở in Hanoi is the breakfast bowl. Bánh tôm sits in another hour, often the afternoon.

Taste and texture

Crisp oil, sweet starch, saline shrimp, perfume from the perilla, and acid from the sauce when the shop brings it. If the fritter is heavy with tired oil and the shrimp tastes of nothing, the fry was not fresh. If the herbs are missing, you can still eat it, but you lose the contrast that cuts the richness.

How travellers eat it

Order a plate to share if you are more than one person. One fritter is a taste. A plate is the snack. Ask for the sauce on the side if you are unsure about fish sauce or chilli. Do not expect every walk in the lanes to end at a bánh tôm stall. Food in the Old Quarter is about those lanes. This fritter is often somewhere else in the city.

Dietary and allergy notes

Shellfish is the point of the dish. A shrimp allergy means you should not order it and should not share a fryer that has just cooked it. The batter is usually wheat. Fish sauce in the dip is common. The herbs do not make the plate vegetarian, and this is not a chay dish.

With a guide

Hanoi Old Quarter Food Journey is a daytime walk you can enquire about. Bánh tôm is not a guaranteed stop on that walk or on any other journey. If you want it, say so when you write. The programme, the price and the dietary limits are confirmed in writing before anything is booked.