The beauty of the capital’s cuisine expressed itself in dishes as simple as fried morning glory with mam tom, he told us, and warned against conflating it with the sort of food you might find in a hack magazine article about it (pho, bun cha, banh cuon, etc.)

Though millions of curious eaters flock to Hanoi every year in search of food that's impossibly fresh, labor-intensive and delicious—one wonders what Bang might think of it today.

VnExpress International found it daunting to track down anything in modern Hanoi that met Vu Bang's standards: a pho, for example, free of MSG and clear enough to merit “two, three bowls at a time”, bun cha that lacked a trace of char, honest com and fresh ragworms.

Bang dedicated whole chapters to dishes that are no longer here today — banh Xuan Cau, hau lon and banh khoai— back in 1953.

Food historian, restauranteur and author Nguyen Phuong Hai has cataloged roughly 200 sophisticated recipes that have disappeared from the kitchens of northern family cooks.

“Modern life has gradually chipped away at Hanoi's willingness to spend days cooking and hours eating,” wrote Hai. “Hanoi’s devotion to food declines by the day.”

In other ways, the cuisine has grown more democratic—or pedestrian—depending on whom you ask.

Vu Bang described bun thang as a delicacy meant for Tet’s final feast—one in which cooks threaded the left-overs from the preceding feasts (spring rolls, chicken, omelet, dried shrimp, spiced pork floss and salted duck egg) over rice noodles and bone broth.

The dish is no longer limited to a holiday tradition; one can find a lesser version containing one or two of those ingredients on almost any street corner in the city.