The food tour started in Hanoi where I met the rest of the group – we were 14 – with a wonderful guide called Khoa.
The first day was a marathon of food tasting which ended with a cooking class at KOTO (Know one teach one), a social enterprise which trains street kids to become chefs, waitresses and kitchen managers. We start off with Pho Bo – traditional beef noodle soup for breakfast at a very simple café where we sat on plastic chairs – it was delicious – and set us up for the rest of the day. We wandered around old Hanoi through the streets competing with motorbikes and cars although it wasn’t as bad as Saigon. On the way we tasted Bun Ca (small pork patties), rice noodle rolls, doughnuts, tea ceremony, egg coffee and various other things which I have forgotten…
The cooking class at KOTO was done in small groups which was interesting as we all had very strong opinions on what to do and what order we should follow…
We made a green papaya salad, fresh spring rolls, marinated pork and Bun Ca. We then ate all the food or as much of it as we could as portions seem to be very big. Of course we had to buy the cute aprons and we were given a Vietnamese peeler which looks like a lethal weapon – one for checked luggage then!
Anna's Travels 