Bún Chả Hương Liên (Obama Restaurant)

Bún Chả Hương Liên became the most famous restaurant in Hanoi on May 23, 2016, when President Barack Obama and chef Anthony Bourdain sat on plastic stools, drank Hanoi beer, and ate bún chả for a total bill of $6 — an episode of Bourdain's 'Parts Unknown' that generated more tourism interest in Hanoi than any government campaign. The restaurant immediately created the 'Combo Obama' (the exact meal the pair ordered) and preserved the table behind a glass partition as a quasi-shrine.

The bún chả itself — charcoal-grilled pork patties and sliced pork belly served with cold rice vermicelli, fresh herbs, and a dipping broth of fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and chilli — is Hanoi's most beloved lunch dish and was the perfect choice for Bourdain to introduce American audiences to Vietnamese food: simple, inexpensive, intensely flavoured, and impossible to eat without getting your hands dirty.

The restaurant is a 10-minute walk south of Hoàn Kiếm Lake, in a neighbourhood of residential streets and local shops that most tourists don't reach. The bún chả is excellent (Hương Liên was already popular before Obama's visit), and the experience of eating the same meal, in the same restaurant, on the same type of plastic stool, for the same price, connects you to a moment when Vietnamese food culture entered the global mainstream. The Combo Obama remains the most-ordered item on the menu, and the glass-enclosed table draws a steady stream of visitors who photograph it with the same reverence that tourists apply to far more significant landmarks.