Vietnam Culinary Delights

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast at your hotel. After breakfast, your guide will show you the city. Pay a visit to the famous sights of the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum and the Post Office. Check out and sample Vietnamese local snacks at the Ben Thanh Market and the Binh Tay Market in Chinatown. Stock up on unusual goods at the Binh Tay Market, the city’s main wholesale center. Enjoy a welcome lunch at the cozy Secret House with authentic family shared style meal in the village feel ambiance. Remainder of the afternoon is free at leisure. This evening, you will be picked up from the hotel at 19:00 and delve into Saigon’s nightlife. Our first stop of the night is a local yet famous sizzling cake restaurant, also known as Vietnamese Pancake (Southern style) and learn how to make the best roll! Hop back on our scooters and ride through crisscross back alleys of District 4 passing a whole lots of food stall area which is well known with locals as “Street food heaven”. Despite the size of the road (some section it gets as small as enough for 2 motorbikes at a time), hundreds of local food stalls & carts selling side by side with all kinds of street food for miles long. Stop on a the way to have a taste of delicate yet trendy seafood such as stir-fried pincers, steamed clams with lemongrass, steamed tofu with mushrooms, fried rice with garlic (vegetarian & Jewish menu is available). We’ll then drive you to a riverside park near Bach Dang Pier for an awesome view of District 1 at night. Ride further more to a hidden coffee shop on a quiet street, listen to romantic melody perform by Vietnamese singer with beautiful voice in a cozy atmosphere. Before heading back to your hotel, we travel up top of one of highest building in Saigon, grab a beer, enjoy the music and watch traffic matrix flowing all around below you or look out for awesome view of the vibrant city at night. All will give you experience of lifetime. Overnight in Ho Chi Minh city.

Learn to cook authentic Vietnamese food yourself! Your friends and family at home will be impressed with your skills after you take a Saigon cooking class. You will tour a local market with your chef, who will show you the ingredients you will be using. You will learn how to cook three different Vietnamese dishes - after which you have the reward of eating your scrumptious creations. That evening, peruse the Ben Thanh night market - which has a completely different atmosphere from the market during the day. There are tons of fresh dishes to choose from at the several food stalls.

This late morning at around 10:30, be met at the hotel and transferred to a local family’s home whose host is a mini celebrity chef. Pay a visit to a local market with your chef who will teach you to select local ingredients. You will learn to cook Northern specialties. Then get hands-on to prepare a traditional Hanoi family meal tray which normally includes the five fundamental tastes - spicy, sour, bitter, salty and sweet that also represent the elements such as metal, wood, fire, water and earth in Vietnamese culture. It is common to also find eggplant pickles that is a must for every meal. Once ready, take a seat and practice the dining etiquette that was just learned while indulging in the meal and tuck-in just like how a traditional local does. Bid farewell to the host with a little hand-made souvenir gift. Spend the remainder of the day at leisure. Tonight, enjoy a farewell dinner with wine-pairing. Be served a fusion menu at the relaxing ambiance of one local restaurant. The ultimate food and wine pairing is when the flavors of both are good on their own, but together they make a blockbuster combination and accentuate the best in each other. Overnight in Hanoi.