Bodega Restaurant – Hotels & Restaurants – Travel

Bodega Restaurant – Hotels & Restaurants – Travel

Hanoi Times – Bodega restaurant in

Trang Tien street

, which was o­nce famous for Western tasty and luxurious cakes, seems to sink into oblivion in the modern life. Whether has it finished the mission to cede a new Hanoi?

Bread appeared in Vietnam at the beginning of the 20^th century. At first, it was called western cake along with western sugar, western cloth, western paper, etc. for they were brought into Vietnam by western people. After the Thang Tam (August) revolution in 1945, that western cake got the name of “bread”.

Once again Hanoi was the first place in Vietnam where European cakes, which were called “gateau” (a French borrowing) later, appeared.

After many decades, a famous restaurant was opened to serve cakes for upper class people. It was a European bakery named “Bodega” at

57 Trang Tien Street

owned by foreigners. This restaurant served European dishes such as beefsteak, stewed chicken, beef soup, rabbit soup…to eat with bread. High quality cakes that the Europeans often used after meals, therefore, could not be spared.

While o­n other streets like Hang Dao, Hang Duong, Hang Than, there were numerous traditional cake shops such as Khao cake (patty made of mashed rice), Green bean cake, Com cake (green glutinous rice cake), Gai cake (glutinous rice cake dyed black in a concoction of leaves), Xu xe cake (yellow-coloured wedding pastry), those who wanted to enjoy European cakes had to seek Bodega bakery o­n Trang Tien street, a typical Western street in Hanoi for a period of a century.

The most popular cake was Su cream cake which is in the shape of a cabbage (“choux” in France means cabbage and was transcribed into “Su” in Vietnamese). Another is called “Mo-ka-bo” with gateau inside and several cream coats outside. And there are various types of gateau cakes in different colors, shapes and tastes.

In the past, when life in Vietnam was still hard, this restaurant made a kind of dried bread called “bit-cot”, which Hanoians used to send for children in evacuating places. This cake is made from bits and pieces of bread sliced and coated with sugar liquid. This dry provision, which is easy to eat, preserve and bring along, won people’s favor. Initially, Bodega belonged to a French, after that an Indian was its owner, and then it became a shop. In spite of the change of manner, the cake-making technique has been kept.Recently, since Hanoi stepped into 21^st century, Bodega has served noodle, pho, dumpling cakes and Vietnamese cakes. The new Bodega restaurant has totally changed from manager to staff and types of cakes.

Nowadays, European cakes have become so familiar to Vietnamese and are made in a great number of bakeries that Bodega lost its monopoly position as a result.

Bodega Restaurant – Hotels & Restaurants – Travel Related image(s)