Is it a dessert? A drink? Either way, ca phe trung – or egg coffee – is a must-try Hanoi treat. Here’s where to get it.

Hanoi, long a city of storytellers, has been devastated and reborn time and time again. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai guides readers through the literature that has played a part in that renewal.

MY FIRST LESSON in pho came during a jet-lagged breakfast the morning I arrived in Hanoi, the old-meets-new capital of Vietnam. "Eat it now," said my waitress, pointing to the bowl she had just ...