We got this walking map from the hostel around the corner from our hotel. It was great, and it had a top 10 things to do in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. One of them was to visit the famed "Fruit Shake Street". After an early dinner one night, we thought a fruit shake would be a great dessert, so we walked over to the Old Quarter.
We turned onto this short street, and we just saw tons of locals (teens, families, young professionals, older people) sitting on short and small plastic stools on the street, madly scooping up fruit/ice out of glasses, and drinking fruit shakes! The women serving were working like crazy, cutting fruit, pouring condensed milk, working the blenders. One woman called us over and wiped off two stools for us. We sat down, and just pointed to the glasses of fruit that were on the counter (we didn’t know that Vietnamese word for "fruit shake, or any fruit for that matter).
We assumed that they would pour all the fruit into a blender and make it into a shake, but in fact, they just gave us the glasses, served with a long spoon and a bowl of shaved ice. After watching some of the locals, we spooned the shaved ice into our glasses of fruit and mixed it up with the condensed milk at the bottom. The fruit was a diverse mix, including pieces of avocado, apple, dragon fruit and more. It was good, but probably not the best fruit experience I’d ever had. But it was amusing, and fun, and there was a rush (and slightly terrifying), sitting next to the zooming motorbike traffic. It was also great for people watching!
Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the street, but if you pick up a certain map, you’ll see it.