Hanoi Embraces the Colonel

Last week, American fast-foot giant KFC opened its first outlet in Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi. It was a huge hit. “The line was so long Phan Huyen Trang, 26, had to wait 25 minutes for chicken, coleslaw and mashed potato and gravy,” according to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur report. “‘You have to wait for a longer time to have a KFC meal than to have pho,’ Trang complained, referring to the Vietnamese national dish of beef soup with rice noodles.”

I remembering visiting Hanoi in 2004 and buying the most delicately wrapped fresh spring rolls from a street vendor for about 20 cents—the non-fried version, with a sprig of green onion sticking out the end and a neatly filleted shrimp wrapped inside, glowing pink through the opaque rice paper (side of peanuty sauce for dipping). Then I headed to the market to sit on a low stool surrounded by produce and slurping locals to follow up with a steaming bowl of pho bo. I can’t imagine swapping that culinary foray for the Colonel’s powdered potato and pre-packaged version. But I can picture the young north Vietnamese lining up for an experience that might seem equally as exotic to them as their markets were to me.

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