Maia will teach you to prepare two authentic Vietnamese dish from scratch. She will teach you to cook some of her favorite Vietnamese foods which you will later enjoy along with a few dishes that she will have prepared in advance. Your hands-on cooking lesson will last about 1.5 - 2 hours.
For the market tour, Maia will take you to the neighborhood Yen Phu market, which is a short taxi ride from her restaurant. At the market she'll show you a variety of goods for sale, including fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and seafood. Maia will show you how to pick the freshest vegetables from the vendors, and how to bargain and buy a few items for use in your meal. You will take a five minute taxi ride back to begin your cooking experience.
Join Maia for a casual, fun meal of some of her favorite dishes. She prepares seasonal Vietnamese dishes like stir-fried morning glory, bun cha nem (grilled pork and fried spring rolls on fresh vermicelli), stir-fried squid with vegetables, banana flower salad, and crispy fried tofu in tomato sauce. Finish your meal with a traditional Hanoi egg coffee or seasonal fruit. The menu will vary based on the season.
Please note that unlike a typical Traveling Spoon experience that takes place in a host's home, this experience takes place in your host's restaurant. While there may be other people present, your experience with Maia will remain private.
This is just a sample menu to give you an idea of the types of dishes the host cooks. Your menu will vary according to seasonal availability.
Stir-fried morning gloryBun ChaCrispy tofu in tomato saucePapaya or banana flower saladCaramel stewed porkFriendly, curious, exuberant Maia welcomes you to her restaurant in Hanoi. Here, she will introduce you to her style of Vietnamese home cooking. Maia is a social butterfly who loves to share her culture, knowledge of the Vietnamese coffee and cuisine with visitors. She runs a travel agency and will offer recommendations for places to explore and eat in Hanoi.
"Thank you so much Maia for a wonderful cooking class. It started with a tour of the local market before returning to Maia's home for a cooking class. My 11 and 9 year old sons got right into the food preparation. It was particularly nice to feel like you made a real connection with life in Vietnam - which is hard to do sometimes as a tourist. We all felt it was a highlight of our trip. Thank you again, Maia!"
"My girlfriend and I visited Maia's home in Hanoi while on vacation in SE Asia. We were looking for a hands-on introduction to Vietnamese food and found exactly what we were wanted in this experience. Maia was a delight to spend an evening with, knowledgeable about her craft, and very hospitable. Would recommend to anyone looking to learn about authentic Vietnamese food in an intimate setting."
"Maia was a lovely host! She met us exactly where she specified, hopped into our cab to get to the market, and was very knowledgeable about showing us around. The cooking class experience in her home was lovely - her home was very clean and a great space for doing some cooking. Maia was great at letting us help with the process, explaining the dishes, and telling us about Hanoi and Vietnam.The one thing I'd say is that I was really looking forward to the market tour, but unfortunately the market isn't really open at night. There were a few open stalls, but most everything closes after the morning. I wish there had been a notification about this, as I might have changed our plans to a different tour time."
"Maia has a bubbling witty personality and this energy adds greatly to the experience. I have done an individual course with her two years ago which was absolutely wonderful - she took me to her local market, then put me to work as we made various dishes including Hanoi spring rolls (I rolled about 60!! - great practice for home), pork with quails egg, several vegetable dishes and a soup. This year I brought 8 tour members with me to her home. This was Maia;s first big group and that was evident. The food was delicious but we did not do as much hands-on cooking as my friens would have liked. I talked to Maia baout this afterwards and she will learn from this and improve things, I know that for sure. My advice; talk through the details of the class with her ahead of time if you are in a large group (more than 4) and then TRUST HER to come through......In my experience she always does!"
