Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City
About This Journey
Culinary adventure through the flavors of Vietnam - street food and cooking classes
📅 Daily Journal Entries
Ho Chi Minh City - Street Food Paradise Begins
Landed in Ho Chi Minh City and immediately thrown into sensory overload - motorbikes everywhere, incredible aromas wafting from street stalls, and the energy of 9 million people living at full speed.
First meal: pho from a tiny plastic stool on the sidewalk. The broth was complex - star anise, cinnamon, ginger simmered for hours. Fresh herbs, lime, and chili on the side. This is what authentic Vietnamese food tastes like.
Evening food tour through District 1 - banh mi from street vendors, fresh spring rolls, and cao lau noodles. Each dish tells the story of Vietnamese history through French, Chinese, and indigenous influences.
Stayed up until 2 AM exploring night markets and late-night pho stalls. Vietnamese food culture never sleeps - theres always someone making fresh noodles or grilling meat on tiny charcoal braziers.
Cooking Class - Learning Authentic Techniques
Full day cooking class starting with market visit at 6 AM. My teacher, Mrs. Linh, guided me through selecting ingredients - how to choose perfect dragon fruit, which fish sauce brands are best, recognizing fresh herbs by smell.
Learned to make pho from scratch - charring ginger and onions over open flame, toasting spices, simmering beef bones for 12 hours. The complexity behind this seemingly simple soup is incredible.
Practiced knife skills cutting vegetables for fresh spring rolls. The precision required for paper-thin cucumber slices and perfect herb portions - Vietnamese cooking is as much about technique as ingredients.
Made banh xeo (Vietnamese pancakes) using rice flour batter with turmeric. The sizzle as batter hits hot coconut oil, the art of achieving perfect crispy edges - cooking becomes meditation when done properly.
Mekong Delta - Farm to Table Experience
Two-day Mekong Delta trip to understand Vietnamese ingredients at their source. Traveled by traditional wooden boat through floating markets and riverside villages.
Visited coconut farm where entire families work together - climbing 20-meter palms, processing coconut milk, making coconut candy by hand. Tasted coconut water straight from the source - impossibly sweet and refreshing.
Lunch prepared by farming family using ingredients grown within 100 meters - elephant ear fish grilled in banana leaves, rice paper made from scratch, vegetables picked minutes before cooking.
Evening fishing with local fishermen, then grilling our catch seasoned with lemongrass and chilies. Eating under stars while floating on the Mekong - Vietnam taught me that best meals come from understanding ingredients journey from source to plate.
Hanoi - Northern Flavors and Food Culture
Final days exploring Hanois food scene - completely different from Ho Chi Minh City. Northern Vietnamese cuisine is more subtle, emphasizing fresh herbs and lighter broths.
Tried bun bo Hue - spicy beef noodle soup from Central Vietnam. The lemongrass and chili oil create heat thats warming rather than burning. Each Vietnamese region has distinct flavor profiles reflecting local ingredients and history.
Visited centuries-old family restaurant where recipes pass through generations unchanged. The owner showed me her grandmothers mortar and pestle, still used daily for grinding spice pastes.
Final meal: cao lau in Hoi An-style restaurant. These thick noodles can only be made with water from specific wells - Vietnamese cuisine is deeply connected to geography and place. This culinary journey taught me that food is cultural identity expressed through flavor.
Shared By
Yagmur Makas
Travel Enthusiast