"Phở" - rice noodle soup with beef or chicken, is considered Vietnam’s national dish and is eaten everywhere on the street. Chefs protect their Pho recipe like a treasure, but in Hidden Hanoi's cooking class, we will secretly show you all our Hidden ingredients as well as simplify the recipe and method so that you can recreate it at home for your family and friends.

Coffee was introduced to Vietnam in the early 1900 by the French. Then slowly it becomes a very popular drink here. Coffee with egg sounds a little bit weird but actually, it has amazing flavor. It is not a drink but becomes a cool dessert as well. The legend of the Egg coffee started in 1946 after the Second World War finished with the problem of getting imported fresh milk in Vietnam. So a bartender who made coffee at that time invented a new way of drinking coffee with what we have a lot here: Eggs and sugar. So you now then could be able to witness the beauty of “Vietnamese Latte” with its special texture and flavor.

Would you like to experience what it likes in the family kitchen in Hanoi? Would you wonder how we cook? Why and when and where? Would you like to dine authentic meal with us just like a friend. Let join us in host's house for outstanding and unique activity while you are here.

 For a thousand years being the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi has gain for itself the finest cuisines in the whole country. Wherever the dishes come from, we twisted and modified and made it became our own version. Hanoian also has a different way of dining. Carefully, gently, elegantly but simple and well balanced are what we focus on not only in our traditional cuisines but also in our daily family meal. Each menu has 4 dishes. You could choose 1 dish from each option below for full menu. We have both Vegetarian and Vegan option as well:

• Fresh Bún Noodle and Mixed Herb Salad.

• Nước mắm (fish sauce) Soup with Green Papaya and Carrot.

• Marinated and BBQ’d Pork.

• Fried Vietnamese Spring Rolls.

This menu is a specialty on Hanoi’s streets. Typically served at lunch, the soup is served cold in Summer and warm in Winter.

• Cabbage Rolls filled with Pork and Mushrooms.

• Claypot Stewed Chicken with Lotus Seeds and Mushrooms.

• Banana Flower Salad.

• Green Wasabi Leaves Soup.

These meals are most often eaten when the weather is cooler. The ingredients are readily available in most countries and the recipes can be easily adapted to suit individual tastes.

• Fresh rice paper Spring Rolls with Prawns
• Prawns with Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Green Papaya Salad
• Sour Fish Soup

 This lightly balanced summer meal showcases several typical Vietnamese cooking techniques such as rolling, stir-frying and dipping!

Fresh, Organic, In-Season Vegetables / Vietnamese Mixed Vegetable Curry / Fried Tofu / Eggplants Grilled over Charcoal.

For monks in the pagodas around Hanoi, they follow a strict Vegetarian diet that disallows many common household ingredients, like fish sauce. Here, we're proud to show you the menu, comprised of Vegetarian and Vegan dishes, of they typically eat. Carefully prepare your meal and dine like the enlightened!

This is the sort of meal Vietnamese country folk might eat after a long day's work of harvesting. They will harvest water spinach and collect small clams from the local ponds to make a simple, yet delicious soup eaten with salted or fried small eggplants and served with rice crackers.

If you're looking to spend time with your kids and help them learn critical life skills, look no further. In our cooking class made for kids, they'll be given an opportunity to learn how to cook, work in a team, manage time, and enjoy their hard-work together!

Weekly classes for kids begin at:

• 9:30 AM on Saturday for English speaking classes.

• 2:00 PM on Saturday for Vietnamese speaking classes.

Please watch out for our weekly menu updates on our page, Hidden Hanoi!

Option 1, Breakfast:
Phở, Bánh Cuốn – steamed rice pancakes, local coffee with homemade yogurt and a visit to the market.

Do like the Hanoians do and skip one breakfast at your hotel to join our food expert for breakfast on the street. This tour shows you the best place for Phở, Bánh Cuốn, Bánh Mì and coffee, and it is also a great way to see the local life in Hanoi.

Duration: 2 hours.

Price: $30/person or 765.000 VND (min. 2 persons).

Begins at 8 AM.

Meeting point: Lane 147 Nghi Tam street, Tay Ho district.

Option 2, Lunch: 
Bún Chả – barbecued pork with fresh noodles served with fried spring rolls and fresh herbs, then green papaya salad, fresh spring rolls and Chè desert.

We'll start with one of the best Bún Chả places in town, a popular Hanoian specialty. Then take a short walk to the market off Phố Huế street, passing some more tempting food stands on the way. Explore Chợ Hôm market, one of the biggest markets in Hanoi with its colourful arrays of fruit and vegetables, sweets, meats and elaborate temple offerings.

After that, we'll stop to try some fresh spring rolls and papaya salad before finishing off with a refreshing glass of Chè, a sweet snack prepared to your own taste. Finishing off the tour nicely with a cup of coffee at one of the most popular coffee streets in town.

Duration: 2 hours.

Price: $30/person or 765.000 VND (min. 2 persons).

Start at 11:30 AM.

Meeting point: In front of house number 47c Mai Hac De street. Hoan kiem District.

Option 3, Dinner:

Option A: Dinner tour inside the Old Quarter.

Meeting at Đồng Xuân Market, one of the biggest wholesale markets in town. Starting with Hải Phòng Bánh Mì, a thin and small baguette stuffed with pate and sauce. Then a little walk around to the back of the Đồng Xuân will be Bac Qua market, where we'll stop at the place of the salad lady to try some papaya salad.

A Hanoi draft beer and pork skewers come along at just the right time for an early night. Grill hotpot or fried Phở would be our main course. The coffee at the end will be a nice touch to finish the night with us.

Duration: 2 hours.

Price: $30/person or 765.000 VND (min. 2 persons).

Begins at 6 PM.

Meeting point: In front of Dong Xuan market, Hoan Kiem District.

Option B Dinner tour outside of Old quarter

Beef spring rolls – Phở cuốn or Hotpot – Lẩu.

Yên Phú is a popular street for late night dinners. You will have a chance to see the many other kinds of street foods that are only served after dark: Pork skewers, Bánh Mì with honey and butter, Ô Mai, etc.

While on our walk along West Lake, you may see more and more people sitting on the grass mats by the lake eating Lẩu (Hot pot soup). If you'd like, we can stop to join them or we can continue heading over to the Beer garden to taste some Hanoi beer and morning glory or banana flower salad.

Then we will walk to a village popular for Phở Cuốn that used Bánh Phở, fresh rice sheets, to roll beef and herbs in while served with a delightful Hanoi style fish sauce and pickled vegetables.

Duration: 2 hours.

Price: $30/person or 765.000 VND (min. 2 persons).

Begins at 6 PM.

Meeting point: 145 Nghi Tam street, Tay Ho district.

The above prices includes food and drink.

Topics: Traditional Architecture, Vietnamese Social Structures and lifestyles in the Old Quarter.

We begin this experience in a very local coffee shop located at the bottom of the Old Quarter over looking Hoàn Kiếm Lake (the Lake of the Returned Sword), which holds one of the most popular remnants of traditional architecture.

You will learn why the houses in the old quarter are very narrow, why most the street names are started with Hang, and much more. Then you have a walk into the 36 streets and guilds with the guidance of a very knowledgeable guide.

The tour is finished by 30 minutes, relaxing on cycles and watching around the streets specialised in a specific product.

Duration: 2 hours.

Price: $30/person or 765,000 VND (min. 2 persons)

Begins at 9 AM Could be earlier due to the weather or later due to client’s requirement).

Meeting Place: 13 Dinh Tien Hoang St, Hoan Kiem. (Please wait in front of the house number 13, do not go in before meeting your guide).

Topics: The diversity of Hanoi’s Twentieth-century architecture, French colonialism, and Vietnamese Buddhism.

Hidden Hanoi is all about unlocking the city’s secrets, and this tour is no exception.

Hanoi’s French Quarter, which is the grid of streets south of Hoàn Kiếm Lake, is unique among Asian capital cities. It is packed with buildings from different eras in the city’s history. For example, it features ancient pagodas; classical European architecture; international modernist architecture (Avant-Garde Art Deco residences) as well as a fusion between Asian and French style architecture. Each of these styles is a tangible sign of the ideological shifts, which have influenced Vietnamese culture over the centuries. Much more than just bricks and mortar, they are monuments to the vision of French, Vietnamese and Soviet thinkers and architects.

Duration: 3 ½ hours

Price: $40/person or 940.000vnd (min. 2 persons).

Begins at 8:30 AM (Could be earlier due to the weather or later due to client’s requirement).

Meeting Place: 82 Tran Hung Dao street (picture), opposite the Friendship palace.