My wonderful food experience in Saigon: Cooking Class & Market Tour

My wonderful food experience in Saigon: Cooking Class & Market Tour

Last winter, I took a one-week college leave to join my family trip in Saigon with https://www.hellovietnam.com/. To my surprise, this bustling city was much more fantastic than I’ve ever imagined. Everything, from outstanding landscapes, hectic life, hospitable people, to modern high rise buildings and crowded shopping centers, all leaves me in awe. Above those wonderful Saigon things, what impressed me most about this Southern city was its amazing foods and my joining its open-aired local markets. Follow my steps and I will tell you about my exciting Saigon experience: cooking class and market tour.

Ben Thanh market

•       Prices: $56.25

•       Duration: 5 hours

Highlights:

•       Half-day cooking class and market tour in Saigon

•       Select spices and fresh vegetable at Ben Thanh market

•       Make yummy Saigonese dishes, including soup/ salad for appetizer, on tray and dessert with the instruction of expert local chefs

•       Have a chance to expose and first-handly experience Southern Vietnam culture, especially its culinary heritage

•       Dine on an exquisite meal with like-minded cuisine crushers

•       Small-sized tour limited to 20 people to ensure a private and full experience with your guide

Embarking on that Saigon tour, I had had such a great time learning how to make a well-decorated and yummy Vietnamese plates, as well as walking down Saigon street and shopping in one of the most bustling flea markets.

Our tour kicked off with pickup from the hotel we stayed. Followed the lead of an expert guide to visit Ben Thanh Market, we had a chance to wander pass numerous stalls selling a wide range of goods, from foods and beverages, souvenirs, clothes, and accessories, to technological devices and household gadgets. Not only that, we gained considerable knowledge as to choosing fresh ingredients and aromatic herbs, learned how to get a real bargain in a local market and bring home fresh, qualified ingredients to cook a typical Vietnamese meal. The chefs also shared with us stories about this market, a shopping hub, and a historic destination. Not until that visit in Saigon did I find out that Ben Thanh market is the oldest surviving market of its kind in this populated city.

Left the market, we headed to the Vietnam Cookery Center, which was just within a throwing stone to Ben Thanh market for a real-life lesson in Vietnamese food. We were given great access to traditional equipment, expert chefs’ guidance and fresh ingredient essential to prepare the nation’s most popular dishes. The small-sized cooking class offered us plenty of space and time for interacting with new friends as well as preparing papaya salad, coconut-centric dishes, and chicken curry, with the help of the chefs. Once stepped outside the kitchen, I and my fellow classmates sat together and yay, we enjoyed our final products and it was totally worth our first time cooking Vietnamese food, looked stunning and tasted out of this world! Yummy!

We head back to our hotel late that evening with a full belly and a new understanding of Vietnamese culture, cooking styles and its flavorful cuisine. And that was my Saigon experience: cooking class and market tour. It’s your turn to go discover this amazing city. Let’s go with https://www.hellovietnam.com/