Quyen's Home Cooking Class
🕒 Sundays, lunch at 11:00 or dinner at 17:00. One group at a time. Other days sometimes possible on request.
Quyen cooks at home, in a village in the rice fields about fifteen minutes north of Tam Coc. There is no show kitchen and no stage. You cook in the kitchen this family cooks in every day, with her pans, her knives and whatever came back from the market that morning.
She starts by laying the ingredients out on the table and telling you what everything is, including the herbs you have been smelling all week without knowing the name. Then you cook side by side, at your own pace. Quyen teaches with her hands rather than a lecture, so you leave able to make this again in your own kitchen.
When the food is ready, nobody hands you a plate and walks away. Everyone sits down at the family table and eats together, and that is the whole point of this one. You came to learn a few dishes and you end up having Sunday lunch with a Vietnamese family.
Quyen has been welcoming travellers and teaching cooking for years, and she speaks good English, so no experience is needed. She takes one group at a time, up to six people, which means the class bends around you. Ask anything, slow down, spend longer on the dish you really want to get right.
Sunday is her cooking day, because she works during the week. There are two sittings: lunch at 11:00 and dinner at 17:00. Take the dinner and the drive out there is already worth it, past the limestone peaks with the sun going down behind them, and then you cook as the light goes gold over the fields and eat as it gets dark. Other days are sometimes possible on request, so just ask us.
Menus and prices
You pick your menu in the booking form.
- Vegetarian350,000₫~$13
Fresh spring rolls with tofu and herbs · Vietnamese salad with banana flower and peanuts · Tofu with lemongrass and chilli · Morning glory stir-fried with garlic · Steamed rice
- Meat450,000₫~$17
Fried spring rolls with pork (nem ran) · Vietnamese chicken salad with cabbage and herbs · Caramelised pork in a clay pot (thit kho) · Morning glory stir-fried with garlic · Steamed rice
- Fish450,000₫~$17
Fresh spring rolls with prawn and herbs · Vietnamese salad with green mango and peanuts · Fried fish with tomato and dill · Morning glory stir-fried with garlic · Steamed rice
- Meat & fish550,000₫~$21
Fried spring rolls with pork (nem ran) · Vietnamese salad with green mango and peanuts · Fried fish with tomato and dill · Caramelised pork in a clay pot (thit kho) · Morning glory stir-fried with garlic · Steamed rice
These menus are a guide. Quyen shops at the market on the morning of your class, so a dish can change with whatever is best that day. Tell us about allergies or anything you do not eat when you book, and she will cook around it.
Price is per person. Drinks are not included.
Good to know
- ✓Cook together, then eat together with the family
- ✓A real family kitchen, not a restaurant
- ✓One group at a time, six people maximum
- ✓Two hours, Sunday lunch or Sunday dinner
- ✓Everything bought fresh at the market that morning
- ✓A beautiful drive out between the mountains and the rice fields
- ✓Quyen speaks good English, no experience needed
Where it is
Ninh Giang, Tay Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh
Getting there: Quyen's home is in a village about 10 km north of Tam Coc, around 15 minutes by taxi or Grab. The drive out is worth the trip on its own: the road runs between the limestone mountains and the rice fields, and if you are coming for the evening sitting you get all of that in the late afternoon light. Show your driver the map link above and they will bring you right to the door.