Taking a Cooking Class in Hanoi, Vietnam

On December 11, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes, Vietnam2 Comments

One of our favorite memories of our recent trip to Vietnam was taking a cooking class in Hanoi. This was a true cooking class, not a demonstration, where we purchased the food from a local market, prepped all of the ingredients, and did the cooking ourselves with our chef’s instruction. There were only five of us in the class, making it very intimate and interactive. We created a four course meal, which we enjoyed eating family-style after cooking everything.

Cooking Pork Meatballs and Barbequed Pork

After buying our ingredients, we went to a local house to prepare our meal. Our dinner included Banana Flower Salad (Nộm Hoa Chuối), which we made from banana leaves, a variety of vegetables, and sautéed beef. Our entrée was Vietnamese Grilled Pork With Rice Vermicelli Noodles (Bún Chả), which originated in Hanoi is a famous dish in the region. We made it with both pork meatballs as well as barbequed pork. To accompany the Bún Chả, we made Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls (Nem Rán), which are often served as an appetizer as well. For our dessert, we made Vietnamese Egg Coffee (Café Trứng), which is rich and delicious and is made with egg and condensed milk.

It took about five hours to do our shopping, prepping, and cooking, so we were quite hungry by the time our meal was actually ready. The class is offered in both the morning to create lunch or in the afternoon to create dinner, but we chose to do the dinner class and were glad that we did. Our chef was extremely knowledgeable and shared stories with us while we prepared our meal. It is an experience that we would highly recommend to anyone who visits Hanoi. After completing the class, the chef sent us all of the recipes that we made as well as others, which we are looking forward to cooking and sharing in the near future.

Whisking the Egg and Condensed Milk for the Egg Coffee

Mua Cave in the Ninh Binh Province of Vietnam

On December 10, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Vietnam4 Comments

When visiting Hanoi in Vietnam, planning a day trip to the Ninh Binh province is well worth the time. You will likely have the choice to visit several different locations during your visit and choosing to go to Mua Cave should be one of them. It isn’t about seeing the cave, there are plenty of other caves that are more impressive, but it is all about climbing the over 540 stairs to see the incredible views of the countryside.

To be clear, the steps are steep and uneven throughout much of the ascent to the top, so bring plenty of water and take your time. Despite the effort to reach the summit, the views along the way as well as when you reach the top are well worth the muscle pain. At the base of the mountain is a beautiful park with statues of horses and a fountain. It is a perfect place to sit in the shade and unwind after completing the long climb up the staircase.

Rice Paddies at the Base of the Mountain

As you near the top of the stairs, you will have the choice to go to one of two viewing areas, one lower and one that continues all of the way to the top. Obviously you can do both, but we chose just to head all of the way up to the top. Looking down, you can see the Ngo Dong River and all of the boats paddling their way through Tam Coc (or three caves). We had done the Tam Coc tour earlier in the day, so seeing it from above was a truly different experience.

Ninh Binh has been called “the Halong Bay of inner Vietnam” and the scenery will definitely let you know why. By the time we reached the top, it was late in the afternoon and the mist was rising up from the jungle vegetation below, making for stunning views. It was as difficult going down as it was climbing to the top, so give yourself plenty of time for going both directions. It is very popular with tourists for obvious regions, so expect there to be plenty of people joining you as you wind your way up the staircase.

Buying Ingredients at a Local Market in Hanoi

On December 4, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Vietnam1 Comment

We decided to take a cooking class during our trip to Hanoi, Vietnam where our chef took us to a local market to buy all of the ingredients needed for our dinner. Obviously we wouldn’t have been able to navigate the market without the help of our chef and there were plenty of ingredients that we can’t necessarily find at home. We were told that the local people of Hanoi, like in a lot of cities, go to the market every day or at least every other day in order to buy fresh ingredients for their meals.

We needed both beef and pork for our recipes, so the butchers trimmed the fat for us as we waited. There were stalls that specialized in vegetables, spices, fruit, as well as different meats. You could find live chickens as well as fresh fish swimming in buckets of water. It was very colorful as well as very busy as people navigated their motorcycles through the stalls picking up items.

Getting fresh ingredients to create local dishes was definitely an incredible experience and we are looking forward to trying our best to create some of the meals in the near future. Picking out all of our vegetables, meats, and other items was as interesting as the experience that we had actually preparing the meals afterwards. Taking a cooking class in a foreign country is definitely an experience that we would recommend and getting to go to the market truly enhances the experience. It was as close as we could get to preparing a meal like a local.