First real, unguided, dinner experience in Ha Noi

Today we ventured outside the hotel to look for a place to have dinner. The place we ended up at was just across the street, inside a small little alley. From the look on the outside, we almost did not want to go in. But we were tired from a full day of training, and intense heat and high humidity and the jet lag did not help. We walked through the alley and on our left was a small room with just two tables and some plastic chairs, and there was a strong smell of sewer. I asked the lady for a menu (I was not even sure I used the right Vietnamese word for 'menu'), and she pointed me to a basket containing three kinds of noodles (pho, mien, and bun) and asked me to pick one. Next to the basket was a huge pot of boiling broth and a cabinet containing a cooked bird. Pointing at the bird, I asked her what kind of meat I would get with the noodles, and she said 'ngan'. I asked whether that meant chicken, duck, or goose, and she said neither. Even so I went ahead and ordered two bowls of "pho ngan". We don't know exactly what we ate for dinner today, but it tasted good. One of the rules we learned from training was: as long as the food is cooked and hot, it should be safe...