A delicious journey through Vietnam
In Vietnam, food and philosophy are deeply connected. The elements and Yin/Yang balance are reflected in the cooking. Tastes that represent the five elements - earth, water, fire, metal and wood - are combined with five colours and five food types.
The cuisine is renowned, and many hotels and tours offer cookery classes. On their holidays to Vietnam from the UK, holidaymakers are taking up these classes in droves.
Beginning your culinary journey in Hanoi, in Vietnam’s North; from here it is easy to travel slowly down to the South. First class on the sleeper trains is comfortable enough, and even includes an evening snack. The fantastic thing about travelling by train is that you can get off at all the culinary hotspots on the way down to the south; Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City can all be done in three to four weeks.
You’ll have a chance to see two large and buzzing cities, as well as some more tranquil places. It is advisable, if you are going to Ha Long Bay, to organise a tour from Hanoi before you get to Vietnam. This will ensure that you know what comfort level you’ll be enjoying on the journey.
In Hanoi, try Vietnam’s famous beef noodle soup, or pho. Pho in Hanoi is more simple than pho in the south. This means learning to make it yourself in a cookery class will be a tad easier.
Because all the flavours have to be so carefully balanced, less is almost certainly more in the beginning. To make pho, a broth is produced by simmering beef bones with onions, garlic and spices. Noodles are blanched, sliced sirloin steak is added, and the finished dish is garnished with spring onions, coriander chilli lime.
In Hoi An, one local delicacy is white rose dumplings, or banh bao vac. These are translucent dumplings bunched to look like roses, and filled with minced shrimp or pork. They are usually garnished with a delicate sprinkle of dried shrimp.
Down south on the Mekong Delta, a trip to see the floating food markets is a must for foodies. Here you will see everything from fruit to turtles being traded across the assembly of boats. Sample fresh dumplings again, or try something straight out of the river - like crispy Elephant Ear fish. This white fish is freshly caught then fried and rolled with noodles, chilli and lime in rice paper.
Finish the trip in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, where you might try a cookery class that teaches you an entire menu. Be sure the class includes spring rolls on the menu.
There are many ways to roll a goi cuon. Presented with a selection of meat or fish, noodles, greens and chilli to wrap in rice paper, how you experiment with such a wealth of ingredients is up to you.
Often everything at a cooking class is pre-chopped, so you can spend less time preparing and more time learning about the ingredients and how they are balanced.
