Four months after US President Barack Obama sat down on a plastic stool at Bun Cha Huong Lien for a bowl of Hanoi’s signature pork noodles, the restaurant is cashing in on customers eager to taste what all the fuss is about.
Previously a mainstay among a mostly local customer base, hungry foreigners are now coming in droves to the restaurant dubbed “Obama bun cha” for the Hanoi lunch staple: grilled pork patty and bacon in a sweet broth with rice noodles.
“People come here because they are curious about why Obama chose my restaurant,” said owner Nguyen Thi Lien, who has been running the eatery for 23 years.
Eager to tap the star power of her recent VIP diner, Lien has introduced a “Combo Obama” lunch special of noodles, a side of deep-fried spring rolls and a Hanoi beer — but swears she has kept her prices the same.
“So many have come and we cannot serve them all,” she said at the two-story restaurant, which is now plastered with photographs of Obama and his dinner guest, globetrotting US chef Anthony Bourdain.
The pair stopped by during Obama’s May trip to Vietnam — the third by a sitting president since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 — to film a scene for Bourdain’s CNN show “Parts Unknown,” which airs tomorrow. In a teaser for the episode, Bourdain lauded the US leader for his chopstick skills as he expertly scooped up a mouth of noodles during an evening off from his diplomatic duties.
The pork pit stop has seen the number of customers double, Lien said, while the restaurant appears set to become a fixture on Hanoi’s tourist trail.
“I saw that Obama had been here, saw that Anthony Bourdain had been here and I generally follow their advice, figured they’d have good taste, came here and found it to be true,” US tourist Andrew Lala told reporters.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
RSS