Start walking through the maze of bustling streets that make up Hanoi’s Old Quarter, tempting your tastebuds with the famed Hanoi dish "Pho" at a local eatery. Watch in awe as the skilled chef demonstrate for you how this tasty dish is put together. Continue to the atmospheric heart of the Old Quarter, you wander past street stalls and quiet residential lanes where you can observe local life that has changed little since Hanoi was founded over 1,000 years ago. Then ventures deep into lane close to Hoan Kiem lake, an old well can be found with a diameter of nearly two meters. Indeed, the well has been used in the past to supply water to people living in the local residential area. Continue to Chè (sweet soup), a traditional dessert of Vietnamese people. The ingredients of Chè are diverse from mung beans, black eyed beans to tapioca, fruits, flower etc... At "Chè Bốn Mùa", the sugar of the sweet soup is cooked with jasmine flower. When you eat Chè, you can really smell and taste the delicate sense of this beautiful flower.
Your next stop is a stall selling bun cha, a classic Vietnamese dish served with grilled fatty pork (chả) over a plate of white rice noodles (bún) and herbs with a flavorsome dipping sauce. If bún is not your favor, try tasting a Vietnamese "bánh mỳ", a combination of sandwich and baguette made with wheat and rice flour. Thinly sliced carrots, pickles, cucumbers, liver pâté, mayonnaise and various meats are put into this bread and covered by a little sauce; which make you salivating.
Your local guide will then take you to one of Hanoi’s best-kept secrets, a hidden café with stunning views over the picturesque Hoan Kiem Lake. This hard-to-find café is one of the few lefts in the city that still serves egg coffee, a scrumptious local delicacy that we will sample whilst admiring the hustle and bustle of the city central below. Of course, if coffee is not your style, a cold beer awaits.
Please note that this tour visits independent, family-owned businesses whose operating schedules and menus may change. Therefore, street food venues and local dishes often vary; your local guide will make any final adjustments on the spot
