Hanoi Cooking Class: Making Vietnamese Food With Locals

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I love eating. And cooking. And shopping. This Hanoi cooking class was all three wrapped up in one big delicious food-coma-inducing bow. When I planned my trip to Vietnam, I wasn’t really sure about the food. It was something I was the least excited about. Mostly because I didn’t really know too much about Vietnamese food, but also because I’m vegetarian and it’s Asia, and who knows what to expect right? I needn’t have been worried though. The food was incredible, there were plenty of vegetarian options, and I left more in love with Vietnamese food that I ever thought possible.

Why take a cooking class?

You can visit somewhere and eat the food, and really get a sense of what the country has to offer. But you might have questions about the food, about preparation techniques, history of some traditional foods. That’s what’s perfect about a cooking class. You get to learn as you cook. See how everything is prepared and the thought behind certain meals. Plus it’s fun and at the end of it all you get to eat a crap ton of food. There’s nothing wrong with that right? I mean, after all that hard work in a kitchen (and in a hot country too), you deserve to eat your weight in delicious local food.

Cooking class or food tour?

I’ve done both. In fact, I did both while in Vietnam. I like a food tour because you get to walk around and really try different restaurants. You get to eat from the places that cook the best of everything you want to try. But with a cooking class you get to make the items yourself and learn a bit more about what goes into making the item. This is much more helpful if you find a food you like while you’re away so you can make it at home.

With a food tour you might end up trying something you loved so much and may never be able to have in your home country. Both cooking classes and food tours are high up on my activities when I go anywhere but I lean towards cooking classes. As a vegetarian I also know it’s one meal I have more control over.

Where to book your Hanoi cooking class?

Hanoi, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City. All have different types of food, and regional cuisine as well as the usual suspects on the menu. If you have more time in one place then that might make the most sense. Go where it works with your (very likely busy) itinerary. Originally we had planned to take a cooking class in two different places so we could compare the food. But we found more options for cooking classes in Hanoi and didn’t really find as many in Ho Chi Minh City. Hoi An had a lot too but our time was limited there so we opted to spend the time doing other things.

In the end, the cooking class we did in Hanoi turned out to be the best option for our itinerary, and we had the most options to work with there too. But like I said, do what works for you. Either way you can explore options on Viator which is what we did, booking it before we arrived.

Apron Up Hanoi cooking class

We ended up taking our cooking class with Apron Up in the centre of Hanoi’s old quarter. The class got really good reviews and I liked that the food they cooked was what we were looking to make anyway. The cooking class (also a restaurant where you can just go eat) was easy to find. We were staying at the wonderful Sunline Paon Hotel so it was only a few minute walk for us (longer when you don’t confidently run across the streets due to the sheer volume of motorcycles). When we arrived we were told we would be going on a tour of the local market to get some items to cook with, then we would make and eat our food.

Meet your tour group

The group size is generally up to 10 people in a class. For ours there were only 5 of us, and by complete coincidence we were all visiting from Canada. We met our Hanoi cooking class instructor and tour guide, Tang/Victoria. She is from Hanoi, had great English and was really passionate about food. It costs about $32 USD per person for the class which lasts approximately 3 hours. There was a private class option which we briefly thought about. Pricing for that varies as you get more people but for 2 people it costs about $50 USD each. I’m glad we went with the group class as we got to interact and meet with more people, but both are great options.

Market visit

With our introductions out of the way, Victoria took us on our first mission: not getting run over by motorcycles on the way to the market. Walking a few blocks, we arrived at the nearby market. We saw vendors selling fresh produce, noodles, spices and more. We had a few things to pick up for our class. The first was the noodles. They are always fresh and never older than 4 hours, and the ladies on the stalls were preparing them fresh in front of us. What was helpful was that we learned the different types of noodles, Pho noodles being one of them.

We bought some meat and tofu for the meals we would make and Victoria got us some fresh pineapple as a snack. Curious about some of the foods the vendors were cooking Victoria ordered up some sausage. Made of earth-worms. Thank goodness I’m a vegetarian. But the rest of the group tried it with mixed reactions. She Victoria also purchased some “special” eggs for later.

Get ready to cook

The kitchen we used was up about 3 floors so if you can’t take stairs this might not be the best place for you. It was a well equipped kitchen, clean and big enough for our group of 8. We all had a decent sized work space and got our own apron to wear. You’ve heard the phrase “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”? Well Vietnam is hot no matter where you are so you might as well be in the kitchen. That being said it was pretty warm once we started cooking. Plenty of water is available thank goodness. We washed our hands, took our places and prepared to, well, prepare the food.

Remember to take a reusable water bottle with you on your travels, like this one from FastTech

Hanoi cooking class begins

We were to be making 5 food items today. There were vegetarian versions of all the things we would make. In place of oyster sauce and fish sauce I got to use soy sauce or mushroom sauce. While there were staff to help in the kitchen, we did the majority of everything in all the dishes.

Pho

The broth for the noodles would be the first thing we had to tackle. The reason is that soup broth usually cooks for hours before being served to get a really great flavor. We didn’t have more than a couple of hours, so we had to maximize time to cook. We had two different broth mixtures, the vegetarian one and the meat one. They were kept separate.

We started by cooking the onions, shallots and ginger over the heat to blister them and bring out the flavor. We then cut them up and added them to the water to make the broth. The beef bone was added to the meat stock mixture, and we cut up some carrot and turnip to put into the veggie broth. This was left to cook for most of the time we were cooking.

At the end of our cooking class we came back to this, had the noodles in a bowl, added some chopped onion, chives and bean sprouts and added some broth. The result was a simple yet delicious bowl of steaming noodles and savory, salty broth. It was amazing.

Tofu balls (meat balls)

While the rest of the class set about making meatballs, I had tofu balls to work on. I’ll be honest. I hate tofu. I know, I’m a bad vegetarian, but the stuff kinda creeps me out. It’s a terrible texture, and I just can’t get away with it. Still, I set to work, hoping that the tofu balls would have enough other ingredients in them that I’d forget about the tofu part. We mixed up finely shredded carrot, beansprouts and green onions with the tofu. Adding in some seasoning we kept mixing until it became the stickiest yellow paste you’ve ever seen. Not very appetizing so far.

We rolled it into balls and it was shallow fried in hot oil until golden brown. The finished product was not the best, but I think that was more my intense distaste for tofu. It had some good flavor, I just don’t like tofu enough to really give this one a chance. The meatballs looked really good though and the others really enjoyed them. I tried giving away our tofu balls but to no avail.

Spring rolls (veggie spring rolls)

Ooh, spring rolls. Who doesn’t love spring rolls? Fried delicious goodness! We mixed up shredded carrot and papaya with finely chopped mushrooms, onions and beansprouts, adding some tofu (I purposely kept the ratio light on tofu) and seasoning. We added an egg yolk to bind all the ingredients. The easy part done, now it was time to build the spring rolls.

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We took sheets of rice paper and brushed them with soy sauce to make them a little more pliable. We added a dollop of mixture and began to roll, tucking the sides in as we went. The only thing I can think of now when I see spring rolls is the instructor yelling “roll, roll, fold, fold, roll, roll, roll” over and over again as we were reminded to tuck in the sides of the spring roll before rolling the whole way. There were some winning examples and some not so winning ones, but they all tasted great after we fried them up in oil and served the hot, crispy rolls on a plate with some nicely cut veggies.

Green papaya salad

This is one thing I didn’t really know about before Vietnam, but now might be one of my favorite things. A light, fresh salad of delicious green papaya and mixed vegetables, with a sweet, salty and tangy flavor all in one. We shredded the crunchy green papaya which tastes kind of sweet but not too sweet. It has the texture of a turnip/potato but a little chalkier if eaten with no dressing. It is really good but strange. Anyway, we mixed that with shredded carrot, basil and mint leaves and bean sprouts.

We chopped up a couple of chili peppers (maybe one too many) and mixed those in. We made the salad dressing and tossed the vegetables in the dressing. Topping it with some peanuts, that was it. All done, super easy and definitely yummy.

Egg coffee

Egg coffee is exactly as it sounds. Eggs and coffee. It sounds weird right? I hated coffee before I went to Vietnam. Couldn’t drink the stuff. But funnily enough I tried the delicious coffee of Vietnam and actually enjoyed it. Read more about the best coffee and other drinks in Vietnam. Despite my new foray into the world of coffee, I was still reluctant to try egg coffee. But it was part of the class so I decided to give it a try. It was worth it. Amazing!

Using egg yolks, a tiny drop of vodka (or rice wine), condensed milk and sugar we whipped together this creamy, custardy concoction which was then spooned into coffee cups. We poured a little fresh coffee into it and dusted with a little cocoa powder. It was like dessert in a glass.

Let the feast begin

With all of our foods prepared, and looking utterly delicious, we took them all down to the dining area in the cooking school. After carefully moving all the dishes (including a lot of bowls of soup) down two flights of stairs we sat down to eat. I was so eager to try everything (except the tofu balls), and I’m still really proud of how well we all did. The food looked amazing. I guess I’ll be opening up my Vietnamese restaurant any day now. OK, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. I mean, it might look good, but the proof is in the tasting right?

Dinner time was probably the quietest we’d all been for 3 hours. Not much talking, lots of eating and a whole lot of yummy noises. The spring rolls were really good. I mean, you can’t go wrong with a spring roll. The tofu balls, I did try them. I wasn’t keen on them. The flavor was fine, but the texture wasn’t my favorite. The pho soup was so good, I can’t believe how flavorful we got it in such a short time.

I absolutely loved the green papaya salad. Seriously, I’ve never tried anything like it. I will make that again for sure. And the egg coffee. Oh the egg coffee. I pushed most of the food aside once I tasted that, and basically cleaned the cup. It was delicious, and this was the one thing going into Vietnam I was not looking forward to trying. Try something new on your next trip. I dare you!

Vietnamese specialty foods

Then after we’d all finished our amazing array of food, our host Victoria asked if we were ready for some Vietnamese delicacies. Now, I lived in China. I’m a little gun shy of the world “delicacies”. It usually means something no-one else would ever want to eat. I was right. Victoria brought out two eggs. A quail and a duck egg. Both were “partially developed” meaning what we would find when they were cracked open was a bit more than a yolk and an egg white.

A couple of the group volunteered to try them. First the quail egg, which is pretty tiny. Down in one bite the person in our group who tried it said it was flavorful, and a little weird texture but good. She said there was a bit of a crunch. “That’ll be the beak” she was told. So glad I’m a vegetarian, yet again. Next the duck egg, and a much bigger bite. The person in our group who tried this one asked me to video it. After the first (and only) bite he looked like he was going to by physically sick. He ran off to the bathroom. He probably won’t keep that video.

Final thoughts on my Hanoi cooking class

And that was our Vietnamese cooking class. It kind of ended on a weird note, but it was such a great class. Amazing meal, wonderful cooking host and I learned so much about Vietnamese cooking. I loved being able to make things from scratch, learn about the different ingredients, and the market visit was probably one of the highlights. Our group worked hard and I think it paid off. There was no blood, plenty of sweat and only happy tears from the wonderful food we were able to create. Hanoi has some great cuisine.

The cooking class had a team of people working in the background. Washing dishes, looking after the cooking food while we prepared the next part. They worked silently and efficiently, and made it so that we had a chance to prepare a bit of everything. A really well run organization. If you’re in the North of Vietnam, you should definitely look at booking this Hanoi cooking class.

If you’ve enjoyed this post leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you taken a cooking class when you have traveled? What are your favorite travel activities when visiting a new place?