Food Tours · Tour

Cooking with Chef Tam in the Water Coconut Village, Hoi An

The class has a name attached to it, which among the near-identical Hoi An tours is worth something: Mr Tam, who has spent a long career in Vietnamese kitchens and teaches what he learned there rather than a script. The day starts with the pick-up and the local market, walked alongside the chef, learning what the ingredients are before they become the lesson. Then the water coconut village. Catching purple crabs in the canal by hand, and paddling a bamboo basket boat along the river through the countryside, the round woven kind that is a boat and a bowl at the same time. The cooking is done in a coconut house, four dishes, all of them by you rather than watched. You take the recipes home, which is the point: this is meant to be repeatable. Morning runs 8:45 to 13:00, afternoon 13:30 to 18:00, one class per group. Ten people at most, in English, with lunch, bottled water, the boat and the transport. Vegetarian and dietary requirements are catered for. The whole thing is wheelchair accessible, transport included, which very few tours in this village can say. Prams are fine and infant seats are available.