Hoi An Cooking Class en Basket Boat Tour

Amazing! Turned out to be the only two on the morning tour. The initial stage of our tour involved a walk through the local market to get some produce for our cooking class,then a ferry ride to Can Thamh, an amazing basket boat adventure through coconut palms where we fished and caught some crabs. The boat people were very creative with coconut leaves. Then we cycled to the cookery class. A chef guided us through the preparation on how to use an array of spices herbs and oils to bring out amazing flavours. My husband does not cook but he loved the cooking experience and was then blown away by the food we produced. As a suggestion don't eat too much before you go. Remi was a very good guide. The tour was great value. We would do this again in a flash.

The people were lovely but they didn’t teach us much. It was more of a demonstration. Nothing was explained we just had to follow what the chef was doing and if we did it wrong an assistant just stepped in and did it for us. We are both keen cooks so we were disappointed we weren’t given the chance to learn more. The market tour was more of a walk through (we had already done this the day before). We didn’t do the basket boat ride either because it was packed with so many tourists! Seemed pointless for a cooking class. The class itself is in a gorgeous outdoor kitchen and the staff were nice. I couldn’t help but feel they were there to make money from tourists rather than have any passion for teaching.

We were picked up at our hotel by Lyna who not only spoke excellent English, but, since grow up in this area, is very knowledgeable about all aspects of life in this part of the world. She took us on the local market (very colorful) where she explained about the vegetables, noodles, fish etc. This part was also very important beside the cooking class. After a boat trip and a basket boat trip we rode with bikes through a village to restaurant kitchen where ingredients were mostly prepped and we got great instruction on seasoning, cooking and assembling 5 dishes. All included in price. Pay for drinks separately. Absolutely was one of our highlights in our 10 day trip in Vietnam. Also for all of our kids who are 17, 14 and 11 years old!

So much more than a cooking class. Picked up at hotel by Tina who proved to be knowledgeable and very informative about all aspects of the local area. Took us round the market and helped us buy some ingredients to recreate the dishes back home (optional). Then lovely boat trip with Tina pointing out items of interest. Stopped at a little village on the river, had a go at casting a net and tried to catch some little crabs in the basket boat. Lovely flat bike ride (10 mins) through village to restaurant kitchen where ingredients were mostly prepped and we got great instruction on seasoning, cooking and assembling 5 dishes. All included in price. Pay for drinks separately. Finally taxi ride back to hotel. Absolutely brilliant experience from start to finish. George and Cath.