Chef Duyen picked us up promptly at our hotel. We were then taken by private car to Long Bien market amongst the very busy fruit and vegetable wholesalers. Chef Duyen explained everything we saw whilst navigating through the market, with great enthusiasm and knowledge. We were able to try so much new produce that we still can’t remember it all.
We later went through the rest of the market complex, including the market temple and the seafood and meat markets. The temple is very small and peaceful but well worth seeing.
The vibrancy and energy of Long Bien market was quite incredible. I don’t think we saw any other tourists in our 3/4 hours there. Along the way, we were offered a huge array of things by Chef Duyen to smell and to taste from many different sellers, including bun cha, pho, fish cakes and sticky rice . The food was excellent. Chef Duyen very kindly took many excellent pictures and videos for us along the way.
During the tour, Chef Duyen told us many things about Vietnam and about her life. We appreciated this a great deal and it was one of the unexpected highlights of the tour. The food you will taste is excellent, as you would expect, but for us, the real highlight was being able to experience a side of Vietnam that we likely otherwise could never have experienced on our own, whilst learning much more about Vietnam whilst doing so.
I have been on quite a lot of food tours recently (LA, Buenos Aires, Seattle, Mexico City) and this was by some measure my favourite.
I would highly recommend this unique experience.