Blue Butterfly Cooking Class in Hanoi: Shop, Then Cook

Learning to cook a country's food is a way of learning the country, and Vietnamese cooking makes that easy: it is healthy, it is simple to make once someone has shown you, and it runs through everything here.

Four and a half hours, half of it shopping. The class starts with a market, choosing the fresh ingredients rather than finding them laid out, which is the part that turns a recipe into something you can repeat.

Then the kitchen on Ma May, with a professional instructor, hands on. The classes run every day, morning and afternoon.

What comes with it is generous: a herbal welcome drink, snacks, Hanoi beer, soft drinks, coffee and bottled water, lunch or dinner depending on the session, and seasonal fruit afterwards.

Pickup is included from hotels in the Old Quarter and the French Quarter.

Up to fifteen people, in English, and one booking is enough for the class to run. The venue is wheelchair accessible. Not recommended with a spinal injury.