Hanoi, Vietnam - Food, History, & The War - Adam Koralik

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-11

[00:00:03]Figure it out.

[00:00:06]>> Hello, this is Adam Corick with Flying and Eating. Today, let's go somewhere and do something. And make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. Hey guys, it's Adam here. Last time on Flying and Eating, we made our way out to Hanoi, Vietnam. Yeah, I got drafted. It's been tough. But all the same, today, let's explore. Good morning. Day unknown on this whole trip uh here in Hanoi, Vietnam. Uh, I thought I'd take a few minutes here to uh talk a little bit of history with you guys. The history of Vietnam. This is incredibly truncated.

[00:00:34]Um, but basically here's how it goes.

[00:00:38]Vietnam has been around for thousand plus years. Uh, in various, you know, imperial eras, mostly in association with China, they were kind of always their own thing, but then there was lots of fights and they were basically at war with the Chinese for effectively a millennium. You guys saw that statue we showed before that was about one of their ancient leaders who had moved you know the capital from a different location here to Hanoi etc. And their big struggle has always been unifying their people. Uh what eventually we're talking about more modern history with them eventually happens is the French show up in empire and they conquer what was formerly known as French Indochina.

[00:01:16]Today it consists of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc. And the French just said this is all ours. uh the French won and they took it. And this is how you get modern day French inspiration here. Uh like for example, we have French press coffee, you know, it it's things like that. Uh Bonme, the sandwich is inspired based on French bread, etc. Uh and the French occupied here for quite some time. Uh fast forwarding to the 20th century, you get to a point where after World War I, uh the world is looking a little different. uh empires were seen as the primary reason the war had started. Um and so the Americans in particular wanted to try and break up that system, but they simply lacked the political and social capital to actually do it. One other person who agreed with that was one Hochi Min uh famously known as Uncle Hoe. He shows up to uh the Treaty of Paris, I believe it was in Paris, uh in World War after World War I concludes trying to get Vietnam's independence from France. uh he's more or less laughed out of the room as like no no no you're not important you don't matter. Uh then World War II happens 20 years later once again the French surrender uh during the war and empires are again seen as the reason this these type of fights keep happening. However, what was different during that situation was that the Japanese had come to Vietnam and they had conquered it. They actually defeated the French forces in 4 days. Uh, and Vietnam initially was kind of like, "Oh, cool. We're being liberated." Uh, but the Japanese were so much worse to them than the French were.

[00:02:51]The French wanted money. The Japanese wanted their lives. It was it was pretty different. It was bad. Um, anyway, so the Vietnamese actually proved pretty essential in uh removing Japanese forces during the war. Uh, and they were actually semi allied with the Americans and the Chinese, etc. But when the war ended and the Japanese were gone, the Vietnamese position was, "Okay, Vietnam's officially independent.

[00:03:17]We're totally our own thing. Cool." And the French were like, "Nah, we want that back." See, the world was kind of in a no more empires mood. Uh, but certain scenarios were tolerated. For example, nearby Hong Kong was indeed restored to the British. Uh, US territories such as the Philippines, Guam, etc. were restored to the Americans. So France's position was, "Well, why aren't we allowed to have it back?" Um, now what happens with that is the Vietnamese were like, "No, we we ain't playing that game, bro." And Ho Chi Min uh says, "Okay, screw it. Then we're we're going to do this. We're going to fight them."

[00:03:51]Uh, and we proved we could against the Japanese, and now we just have to deal with the latest invader. Uh, and the French fought a war against them, and the French were not doing well. However, here's where everything gets kind of mucky. So from Ho Chi Min's perspective, the uh the West was kind of all the same thing. Uh the Americans, the British, the French, you know, whatever. Uh and he looked at philosophical ideas on how to unify his people. How do you just kind of band all together? And he saw communism is kind of like this easy way to kind of rally everybody. That's where things got really nasty because he didn't really fervently believe in communism. He wasn't a Stalin. he was just kind of, well, that's the greatest way to unify my people. Uh, and then we'll deal with everything else later.

[00:04:39]So, uh, that's where it got politically nasty because the French looked at it's like, hey, we're a western democracy and there's this Vietnam, there's this like communist country trying to like oppress us. Uh, America, you going to help us out with this one or what? Cuz at that point in time, the United States was now the superpower of the West. Uh it also was supposedly always about democracy and it really had a big uh fear of the domino theory which was if one country falls to communism then everything else around it does and blah blah blah containment etc. So the Americans got into this being like well we don't want communism to spread. We can't just jump into the French's war. But we got a little more involved and then a little more involved and then a little more involved and inevitably the French gave up and left. Um, and that kind of left us stuck here, not really sure what to do. But the United States had made the decision from the Vietnam War perspective, that it wasn't going to just invade the North, which was this communist part where I am now, and South Vietnam, which was the Democratic part, or the one that wanted to be independent. It didn't want to just full-on invade like it did in the Korean War because it borders China, and they were afraid that the Chinese would come in and we'd have the Korean War all over again. So, what the Americans did is said, "Well, fine. will have a strategy of two countries, South Korea or South Vietnam and North Vietnam will be two separate entities and we'll just basically shield South Vietnam. But North Vietnam saw that as ridiculous cuz they were like, "Well, we want to be one unified thing." This is the part that's the worst is that uh Ho Chi Min dies before this. But it was completely within his power if he had just made a phone call to Lynden Johnson or taken the phone calls Lynden Johnson had attempted to make to him. We could have had a hey look we both agree unified Vietnam is cool just don't be communist.

[00:06:27]If that situation happened whole war gets avoided. But Ho Chi Min didn't like phone calls apparently. And Lyndon Johnson, to be fair on the to the failures of the American side of this, was not a good geopolitical president.

[00:06:40]Good domestic, not geopolitical. Anyway, so the war happens. Uh 2 million Vietnamese are killed during the war.

[00:06:46]Something like 63,000 Americans. It was bad. Uh maybe we'll talk more about that later. Um but that actually wasn't even the last time. The Americans leave in 1973. Saigon falls in 1975. It is now renamed to Ho Chi Min City. And then they're like, "Okay, now we're really independent." Then the Chinese attack in 1979.

[00:07:05]Uh they that war is short. That is the last war that China to this day at the time of this recording has fought. Uh the Chinese lost and Vietnam sits here independent doing its own thing.

[00:07:16]Modernday Vietnam is technically communist. You'll see a lot of the hammer and sickle and stuff around, but from an actual social functionality, nah. They're pretty chill. Um the philosophy, in case you're curious, and then what is their perspective on Americans postwar? What do they think of us? I've always been told like, "You guys were just the meanest, but you left, so we don't really care. We won, right?" So, in other words, they don't really care. It's like, it's like visiting the UK or something. It's like, "We we fought you, but whatever. It's over. It doesn't matter anymore." That's just kind of how it is. Um, but yeah, there you go. There's your quick history lesson. All right. Now, I'm at breakfast. The hotel I'm in uh has a free breakfast. Well, it's not really free. You paid for it with the room. Uh, but it's super posh in here. You get all the cart and there's a buffet and you're entitled to both of them as much as you want. So, I'm fat. Let's do it.

[00:08:05]>> So, I decided to order some stuff. So, this is just what I'm getting is a little uh bites here. We have a little bit of fruit cuz pretending to be healthy. We have some bread thing and um I don't know other thing. I also got a coffee which may not sound like a big deal but Vietnamese coffee is kind of a significant. They used um condensed milk and other stuff. It's really good.

[00:08:25]Vietnam is where poop weasel coffee originates. the best stuff. Just absolutely the best.

[00:08:31]>> Waitress just came and already handed me this. I'm not really sure what it is. I think it's just a dessert fruit cup type thing. I'm a little embarrassed. There's an entire other room with another buffet in it. This is just like snack bits that I showed you. Um, but I already ordered some food. So, I'm just like I'll wait for that. But, we're here every day. So, tomorrow that buffet. All right. The bowl of f showed up. It's smaller than I expected. So, there might actually be space to go get more food. Uh, fur, which I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard or seen it spelled P H O. People think of this Vietnamese food. It is.

[00:08:59]Um, but the interesting thing about fur is that it's a North Vietnamese dish.

[00:09:03]Uh, but most of the fur you've ever had is from South Vietnamese expats. And they're basically doing an impression of it. So imagine, you know, someone from Colorado did an impression of New York style pizza and then brought that impression to Japan and presented it as New York style pizza. Few games of telephone. It might not quite be that accurate. So then the the stuff here is supposed to be the much better one. But granted, I'm at a hotel buffet, so I don't know how perfect this will be. So, actually, I'm looking at the noodles, and I can already tell the noodles are different. I've been told this is the more accurate version, I believe. It >> Okay, that was really good. Um, and it was small, which is perfect. So, I'm going to hit the buffet now, cuz that that actually was fantastic. And it wasn't even too hot. It was like exactly right.

[00:09:45]>> All right, so this is the other side of the buffet. They have more stuff here, but then you've got things like French toast and, you know, other foods. So, I'll see what I can get. All right. So, we got something they just called baked potato, couple of sausages, some sort of chicken, noodles, rice, bacon. There's more up there, but this is this is round one. Although, this might be the only round. We'll see. So, as you guys know, if you've seen my videos in Guam and the US Virgin Islands, I've checked out many Kmart locations. Turns out there's one here, Pepsi Kmart.

[00:10:15]By the way, weather is perfect right now. It's 21 Celsius, which is about 70 Fahrenheit. It's very overcast, which is actually nice. No sun beating down. Uh this is the time of year to come here is the winter. I've been warned in advance, uh don't come here in the summer. Way too hot. But uh a lot of tourists, a lot of people who look like me wandering around. So yeah, that I was told specifically to stay in this area. Uh largely cuz it's the most uh let's say tourist compatible. But so far so good.

[00:10:44]They do have 7-Eleven here. I'm going to have to scope this out a little bit later. Not right now, but it is good to know that it exists. So right there, that's a cool statue. Depicts 1946, which is about essentially when they declare themselves as independent, post World War II, claiming the French were gone. Yeah, there it is. You have a lot of stories saying made in Vietnam.

[00:11:04]Uh to my fellow, well, anyone American, Canadian, Europeans, what have you, get used to seeing that uh China is winding down from being the world's factory, they are being replaced by Vietnam, India, and Mexico, but especially Vietnam. get used to just seeing made in Vietnam written on everything, you know.

[00:11:23]So, I mentioned before that I'm mostly here for my mother's sake, uh, cuz she loved coming out here. She came here like five, six times to teach English and stuff like that. And, uh, I know I'm walking around the same streets that she walked around, but I never came here with her. And you know, N was pointing out some of those specific spots like the ATM where she went to get stuff, little jewelry stores where she bought just the knick-knacks and stuff and how she would come to books and things like this and just meet people, talk to people and stuff. So, it's kind of it's interesting to see what she kept, you know, coming to see on her own. So, my mother was not an avid coffee drinker.

[00:11:58]She actually hated coffee, but she went to Starbucks constantly because uh she liked the chai tea latte, non fat, no water, no foam. still remember that cuz I would order it for her a lot. Uh 100% guaranteed she must have spent hours in this particular location. There's not a whole lot of Starbucks here. There are some, but I can promise you in this area she was here. It's kind of like how when you see a McDonald's, you can always know that Joseph is sensing it somewhere.

[00:12:32]>> I'm just going to be honest. all this Ho Chi Min stuff. I feel like I'm in North Korea. I mean, it it's everywhere. Uh, for historical reasons, I'm not a big fan of Ho Chi Min. Uh, his they they see him as like a sweet old grandpa who tried to unify Vietnam, but like his inability or unwillingness to communicate with particularly the United States and Lyndon Johnson, who Lyndon Johnson repeatedly tried to get him on the phone and be like, "Yo, let's let's figure this out." He just kept ignoring them. This guy caused the lives of millions of Vietnamese and they celebrate him. It's just like, okay, so back behind me, we showed you a little bit of the French area. Uh, as I said, this was technically part of France for a very long time. There's very little of that left over. Uh, a combination of two things. um mostly down to the fact that uh a lot of it was destroyed during World War II, but the Vietnamese themselves got rid of a lot of it just because they did not like the French. Uh and to this day, I'm not going to say they dislike the French, but the second language of choice is English. Uh which a lot of people find odd because they're like they want good relations with the United States. So, the common thing is people assume they must hate the Americans, but they don't. They hate the French and they hate the Chinese. the Americans, they're kind of like whatever.

[00:13:51]It's not my opinion. It's just what I've been told repeatedly. Just randomly stumbled across the embassy of Indonesia.

[00:13:58]Okay, I guess it makes sense. This is the capital of Vietnam, so this is where all the embassies would be. I have no idea where the US embassy would be, but I'm sure it's around. Okay, I checked.

[00:14:09]The US embassy is like three miles away.

[00:14:11]I can't get there on foot. I'm limited to what I can do on feet. Uh there is no Uber here. There are alternative apps of their own thing. I don't really need to do any of that, so I'm not going to. I will be rendevoing with other people that my mother knew. Uh, so we'll see where we end up. All right, we have a fun thing. So, right here, this buna place. Buncha is like a Vietnamese food.

[00:14:32]It's kind of like a fur. It's a soup and noodles and separated and there's stuff in it. I'm sure we'll have it later. Uh, this place is famous for one particular reason. In 2016, former president, but then President Barack Obama came out to Vietnam and just decided to waltz in here and order a meal. This place was so honored to meet him and have him here that they actually set up a thing called the Obama combo. So, you can order that and get exactly the type of bunch he got along with a beer. And I know there's something else, but they even marked off the spot. Unfortunately, it's closed because of the Tet holiday. But yeah, this this is a thing. One other thing worth pointing out about this place is there's actually a fake version of this here. like this is the real one. Uh the the there's a fake one called just like Buncha Obama where he never went to, but a place renamed itself that hoping to trap tourists. Incidentally, I have seen multiple white people come by and look at this place specifically because of Obama. People back there, these people up front. This is a thing people come here. I'm white. We're all attracted to come in here for looking at a place that Obama had food at. See, taking photos, not just me.

[00:15:33]>> I am bummed that I can't eat there because it would have been perfect if we just go have a meal at the Obama F place. Um, but you can't. They're not open until like the day after I leave just because of Ted. So, gives us incentive to come back. Okay. So, you'll see these little plastic chairs and stuff out. This This is a restaurant.

[00:15:51]This is like the dining situation.

[00:15:54]There's a lot of street dining like that. Uh, I'm not for that. I'm going to do like more normal seating, but that's very white of me. Something dumb just occurred to me. Um, so my mom, like I said, came here a million times. Uh, it just hit me that I she had left me a bag of like Vietnamese currency.

[00:16:15]Completely forgot to bring that with me.

[00:16:17]Oh well. They have a Circle K here, which is cool. Some of the drinks that say currently designed for a Vietnamese Coca-Cola. Interestingly, they have the Japanese laxative Coca-Cola. Uh, we have other types of Sprite, lime, and raspberry Pepsis. Cool.

[00:16:39]Yes.

[00:16:40]>> What the hell is true juice milk? What?

[00:16:44]Oh, if only that was a smaller bag. That would be cool. Wow. I'd love to have that. Actually, they have a few of them.

[00:16:51]Another f flavor. That's cool. But unfortunately, they're just too big for me to bring back. That's the X-Men ability. I don't remember. I mean, some of them could make fire, I guess. But the power of smelling good. Okay. Lots of Milo drinks. Oval team, interestingly enough. and soy fresh Hershey's chocolate moment. Never seen that one before. I also like that we have this like evil pear. Behold Mr. Gorilla.

[00:17:16]All right. Okay. So, here's what I picked up when I was out scourging or scrging around for food. Uh I got a couple of coffees, obviously Vietnamese style, but Nes Cafe and Boss. So, Nes Cafe International. Everybody knows Nestle. Boss Japanese. I got a coconut water. Then for my cousin, this all for my cousin. Uh, he really likes these Kit Kat bites, which don't exist in the US.

[00:17:38]Uh, but I've only get enough of Japanese ones. I didn't know they existed here.

[00:17:41]Something called a pink strawberry Kit Kat. Milo nuggets. Why not? Uh, cookies and cream Kit Kat chunky edition. And then a strawberry Snickers. So, he's going to get fat. No, he's one of those dudes who just never gets fat. So, I have to live vicariously. Fast forward a bit. I am now within. How you doing, man?

[00:18:01]>> Yeah, he's uh it's a long story. more of the extended Vietnamese family, let's put it that way. Uh, where are we now?

[00:18:08]>> Um, so I think we're at the Ho Chi Ming's uh tomb. I think it's the tomb of >> the tomb of Ho Chi Min.

[00:18:15]>> Yeah, >> he's uh right there uh that big building back there. Now, we can't go in there cuz we're just not going to, but uh we thought we'd show you the site uh just cuz this is a massive complex and it's uh aesthetically quite pleasing. A lot of the flags, the big Ho Chi Min tomb in the center.

[00:18:36]>> Do we have any idea what that building is?

[00:18:38]>> It's the It's This one is like the Congress like >> Oh, it's a Congress type building.

[00:18:43]Government building. Government building. Got it.

[00:18:47]>> Got it. So, that's a official like government building. And then there is the tomb of Ho Chi Min. The Sega Pluto has arrived at Hochi Min's grave cuz that's a thing. Well, here we are standing in front of it. Uh, obviously not an American president grave, but I mean we ran out of those, so I had to do something different. Well, I can safely say if you ever come to Hanoi, pretty cool thing to actually go check out.

[00:19:09]That's I mean that's much bigger than most US presidential graves. There's a few that I think could give it a run for its money, but some of the presidents that didn't deserve it, you know. All right, all things being equal here, we uh we showed you something that President Obama was associated with. We showed you something that Ho Chi Min is associated with. Here's one for you. You guys remember Senator John McCain, the guy who ran against Barack Obama. He actually has memorial here. Uh he was famously, you know, captured in the Vietnam War. They have a plaque over there explaining it. He came here in 2017 when he was still alive on like a diplomatic mission and all's all's forgiven type deal. But yeah, this is this is a memorial to John McCain.

[00:19:54]>> So this is a pagota of some kind. Um, yeah, it's most likely.

[00:19:58]>> Yeah, I I saw the word pagod on something, so I have to assume that's what it is. Thing people go, it's a religious thing.

[00:20:06]>> Yeah, I just like the architecture. I think it's cool. There's a very particular set of instructions that must be honored in there.

[00:20:14]>> Don't wear shorts. I've never >> Vietnamese version don't wear the t-shirt as well.

[00:20:19]>> Don't. They said in the Vietnamese says don't wear a t-shirt either.

[00:20:21]>> T-shirt. No, no shorts.

[00:20:22]>> Okay, here it's just shorts in English.

[00:20:25]So, you can you can get away with a t-shirt. I got Oh, I'm wearing a t-shirt. So, I Okay, white people perks.

[00:20:30]Foreigner perk. By the way, these motorcycles very standard. Uh, and you're expected to just walk through this. It's chaos. But, uh, we do it.

[00:20:38]Case in point, even on the sidewalk.

[00:20:41]It's just, it never stops. And that'll do it for part three. Thank you so much for watching. Please stay tuned to part four of again this six-part series in which we're going to continue to see some odd sites and ultimately head back to Hong Kong. But until we do that, if you guys could do me a favor, please like this video, comment down below, subscribe if you haven't done that before, and check out all my social media stuff in the description. I've got Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Discord, Patreon, Spreadshirt, etc. I appreciate the support on those platforms. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you all later.