Food Tours · Tour

Banh Xeo and Four More at the Apron Up School, Hanoi

The same school and the same shape as its shorter class, with banh xeo on the menu, which is the one worth crossing town for. Banh xeo is a rice flour crepe cooked to a specific crispness and folded round pork, prawn and beansprouts, and the difference between one made properly and one made badly is the whole dish. Getting the batter and the heat right is what the class is for. It starts at the largest market in Hanoi, a short walk from the school in the middle of the Old Quarter, and that has a use beyond the class: you come out knowing where to buy what for the rest of the trip. Then the ingredients, the spices and the produce, and five of the dishes Hanoi eats most, cooked from beginning to end. A vegetarian version runs for anyone who needs it. Three and a half hours. Everything gets eaten, with Vietnamese rice wine round the table, and you leave with a recipe booklet and a certificate. Up to fifteen people, in English, with a local guide, coffee and tea. Eighteen is the minimum age for the rice wine. No hotel pickup.