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Vietnam Travel  > Travel Special Features  > Vietnamese specialities  > Hanoi - Cooking classes

Hanoi - Cooking classes

Visitors to Vietnam have been regularly impressed, often pleasantly surprised, and in some cases, downright shocked by Vietnamese cuisine and dining preferences. However, food and dining are integral to Vietnamese culture and social events, and now the secrets of the flavors can be discovered through cooking courses throughout Vietnam.

While Hoi An still offers the widest range of cooking classes for tourists, there are now some interesting options in the capital city as well. Cooking classes began in Hanoi at Sofitel Metropole Hotel as far back as 1999, but more recently there have been two new arrivals on the scene: Highway4 restaurant and Hidden Hanoi culinary tours, each offering something a bit different.

There was no more impressive location to start our first venture into world of Vietnamese cuisine than the Sofitel Metropole Hotel. We departed from this colonial masterpiece by cyclo with our destination being the centrally-located "19th of December" (19-12) market. Our guide, Miss Hai, decked us out in Vietnamese conical hats and led us through the tight passageways explaining a world of scents and tastes that are in large part alien to Western senses. Her knowledge was impressive, explaining the intricate world of herbs vital to Vietnamese cuisine, while taking us through the seafood section, where we could see how the food was processed on site. In Vietnamese markets everything is fresh, extremely fresh. (In term of the meat counters this might take newcomers by surprise).

Returning to the Sofitel we were sent straight to the kitchen where Miss Hai introduced the six dishes of the day: Steamed snake-head fish, Hanoi deep-fried spring rolls, Banana flower salad, Marinated pork grilled in bamboo, Grilled chicken skewers in lemon leaves, and Sautéed pumpkin branches.

Before long we were already tucking into our first culinary delight in the vast hotel kitchen - traditional Vietnamese pho (noodle soup). One thing about the Sofitel class is that there is definitely no shortage of food to experience. During the class we enjoyed a generous taste of each dish produced and the finale was settling down to a sumptuous Hanoi "street-food" buffer in the Spice Garden restaurant.