Pounding and Grinding by Hand in Cam Thanh Coconut Village

Five hours, and the teaching is built on technique rather than recipes. The physical work is the point: pounding and separating rice, grinding it, and making fresh rice paper with the traditional tools, the things Vietnamese cooking did before food processors and still does better by hand.

Four dishes, cooked step by step with the chef: bun bo nam bo, pho bo ha noi, banh xeo and goi cuon. Pho is the one most people want and fewest classes attempt.

Before the class, the market with your guide, to see how the herbs, spices, meat and seafood get chosen.

Then Cam Thanh, the coconut village, and a bamboo basket boat through the Bay Mau coconut forest. There is crab fishing, a basket boat performance, and local fishermen casting their nets.

You eat what you made, with homemade dipping sauces and seasonal fruit. Mineral water and passion fruit juice are unlimited, and you take a pair of chopsticks home.

Ten people at most, in English or Vietnamese, with the ingredients, the boat, lunch or dinner, and pick-up and drop-off in Hoi An. The meeting point is arranged with the operator after booking. Not recommended if you have a spinal injury.