One culinary experience you MUST NOT miss in Hanoi is to eat at Quan An Ngon, and if you're new to Vietnamese cuisine, it makes a great introduction. The idea is simple—the owner has sought out all the best cooks who serve a single dish at street-side stalls, and assembled them together in one location with comfortable seating and efficient wait staff. Ngon means "delicious," an apt name for the tasty and incredibly cheap food here. Choose from the extensive menu, or take a stroll round the many cooking stations scattered about the compound. Shrimp on sugar cane and mussels in fried pancake are popular choices, though if you're adventurous you could go for something like papaya salad with sliced pig ears. For a more relaxed time, go outside peak eating hours (noon–2pm, 6–8pm) when it's usually full and chaotic. This is the first of four branches; check the website for other locations.