Hanoi Food Tours and Cooking Classes: What You Eat, Where the Good Ones Go, and Egg Coffee Explained

Hanoi's food culture is specialisation: a stall makes one thing, has made it for decades, and closes when it sells out. Pho for breakfast, bun cha at lunch (grilled pork patties in a bowl of fish-sauce broth with rice noodles, the dish Obama ate on Ly Quoc Su in 2016), banh cuon steamed rice rolls, cha ca turmeric fish with dill, banh mi, and sticky rice from the Old Quarter carts. A food tour strings six or seven of these together in the order Hanoians eat them, with a guide who knows which of the three pho stalls on a street is the one.

Ca phe trung was invented in 1946 at Cafe Giang, when milk was scarce and Nguyen Van Giang whisked egg yolk with sugar and condensed milk over strong robusta instead; the cafe still runs on Nguyen Huu Huan, down an alley, and its offshoots and imitators are all over the Old Quarter. Hanoi's cafe culture is the other half of a food tour: coconut coffee, yogurt coffee, and the balcony cafes over Hoan Kiem lake. Bia hoi, fresh draught beer at a few thousand dong a glass on plastic stools at Ta Hien corner, is the evening.

Classes start with a market walk (Dong Xuan or a neighbourhood wet market) to buy herbs, rice paper and pork, then cook four or five dishes in a home kitchen or a restaurant classroom: spring rolls, pho or bun cha, banh xeo, a green papaya salad, and eat them. Half-day classes run USD 30 to 55, with the market visit adding an hour. The good ones explain the fish sauce, the herb plate and why Hanoi food is less sweet than Saigon's. Vegetarian menus exist at most schools; say so when booking.

Walking food tours in the Old Quarter, USD 25 to 45 in a small group, USD 60 to 90 private, are the standard and run best from 17:00 when the bun cha grills and the bia hoi corners open. Motorbike food tours cross the river to Long Bien and the French Quarter for dishes the Old Quarter does not do, and cost a little more. Morning tours cover pho, banh cuon and the markets. The street food guide lists the dishes by street if you go alone.

Eat where locals queue and where the pot is boiling; a guide's stalls are chosen by turnover. Say 'khong cay' for not spicy, 'khong hanh' for no coriander. Fish sauce is in nearly everything, so vegetarians and shellfish allergies need to be named at booking, not on the street. Tours include all food and usually one or two drinks; carry small notes for extras. Pair an evening food tour with the Old Quarter guide walk earlier in the day.