Savouring the small things on Lo Duc

Tag : frozen taros

As the summer starts to settle in, Aaron Joel Santos takes a stroll south of the Old Quarter to satisfy an overwhelmingcraving for ice cream.
May in Ha Noi is a hot, brooding month. The sun comes back bringingwith it new ripe fruits and unrelenting rays. Days get longer andbrighter, insects swarm and streets swell with tourists and localsalike. Renewed life and vibrancy soak into the city as everyoneshakes off the grey winter. The rain returns.
It's summertime. And as dusk throws its last beams, thestreetlights glow brighter and more golden. The heat settles andcrowds converge on their favourite outdoor venues, basking in thewarm night. Across the world, sweet tooths stretch and wake.
And there's something about finding that perfect spot, a place tosit, relax and enjoy one of the season's most revered andquintessential treats: ice cream.
Not specific to Ha Noi or Viet Nam or even Asia in general, icecream is one of the worlds great unifiers, something we are allborn to love and to embrace wholly and without question. Ice cream.The Nabokovian cadence alone can be enough to send even the best ofus in search of a savourous scoop.
Such love has not eluded Ha Noi. From Fanny's and Trang Tien toMondo Gelato and the several storefronts lining many of the city'sstreets, ice cream in all of its various incarnations has found afavourable home here. There are near limitless places to find afix, but nowhere does it feel better, more fun or familiar than at29 Lo Duc in Hai Ba Trung District.
Just south of the well-trodden path and nestled amongst a few shopsand charcoal grills, with tables and stools and contented bodiesall expanding outward from the shop's cool fluorescent centre, 29Lo Duc is a simple, unpretentious and easygoing operation.
There's little more here than an open door and a few freezers ofice cream, frozen yogurt and other select sweets. For a couple ofhours each night there's a lady selling thit xien nuong (grilled meat) off to the side, but on the whole, desserts arewhat's on the menu. Judging by the nightly crowds and motorbikesparked out front, this doesn't seem to be a problem.
Twenty-nine Lo Duc is the kind of place that a person can quicklybecome obsessed with. It's small enough to call your own, yetquirky and interesting enough to introduce to your friends. Theprices are modest, the flavours are mellow and the atmosphere isalways pleasant. There's a sign strung across the ceiling wishingyou a Happy New Year and a family dog usually resting on the steps.It's an innocuous space on an unassuming street in a neighbourhoodthat's pretty quiet after dark. Yet it glows and shines perhapsbecause of these things.
There's nothing very unique as far as tastes are concerned either,but that's kind of the point. Twenty-nine Lo Duc's strengths lie inits familiarity, its common, plainspoken take on things (its namedafter its address). The flavours here weren't conjured in a NewJersey laboratory or founded by food scientists. It's got way moresoul than that.
It's chocolate and vanilla and taro and young rice ice cream inthin wafer cones, coconut and green bean on a stick, orange andstrawberry and durian frozen yogurt, silky creme caramel and smooth nep cam. A true Hanoian best-of list.
The menu is posted on the wall to your right as soon as you walkin, and ordering is as simple as telling the owner what you'd likeand forking over a few thousand dong. It pays to know a little Vietnamese walking into the place, sincethere are no English translations, but lacking this the experiencecan be an adventure for the intrepid eater. In the end, you can't go too terribly wrong as it's all pretty sweet and delicious. Justremember, sau rieng means durian. In case that's not your bag.
Of course it's the place as much as the product that keeps peoplecoming back. And as the evening passes the seats fill up with youngand old alike all enjoying glasses of frozen yogurt, ice creamcones and other desserts. The cool faint scent of sugar hangs inthe air. People mill about and others leave with tubs full oftake-away. Kids run around. Bikes buzz. Teenagers flirt. Loverslinger.
It's as close to an ideal summer spot as you're likely to find inHa Noi. Sans swimming pool and free beer. It's good clean fun andthe best way to shake off any stale winter blues still stickingaround. So take a walk and eat a few scoops. It's the season.