The capital Hanoi, with more than a thousand years of history, is seen as the kitchen of the northern Vietnam. The Hanoi food is known for the light and balanced taste, resulting from subtle combinations of flavoring ingredients, and from moderating in the use of the 5 basic tastes; sour, spicy, salty, sweet, and bitter. Hence, Hanoi is the city where you can truly enjoy the traditional Vietnamese cuisine. But in such a lively city that’s so hustle and bustle, where should you look? What if you’re craving authentic experience for lunch and a homestyle V ..read more

Bún chả, or grilled pork with rice vermicelli, is one of Hanoi’s most delicious street dishes. It includes charcoal grilled pork patties and slices of pork belly, cooked fish sauce, rice vermicelli, and fresh herbs. The combination features the pleasure of the grilled meat, the tempting sweet-sour tastes from the sauce and refreshing flavors from the herbs. It remains unclear about when Bún chả was first served in Hanoi, but it’s believed that Hanoians have been eating the dish as a favorite street lunch in Hanoi’s Old Quarter since the early 20thcentur ..read more

The ‘Chayfood’ is a vegan restaurant located on the eastern fringe of Hanoi’s Old Quarter, it’s just steps away from the famous Café Giang’s egg coffee on Nguyen Huu Huan Street, and about 5 minutes walking from the red bridge at Ngoc Son Temple. The restaurant is on a big street, so it’s quite easy to find. Last October, to celebrate the first day of the lunar month – when many Vietnamese eat vegetarian food for religious purposes, we went to Chayfood for a vegan meal. That was our third time eating at Chayfood, other times we had eaten there with our clients. We showed u ..read more

On our food walking tours, the most famous Vietnamese soup, phở, often confuses our clients with the word “Phố” (street). We also received questions related to our language, like “why does written Vietnamese look like English?”. Hence, the post will provide a brief history and glimpse of Vietnamese alphabet. A Brief History of Vietnamese Alphabet The history of Vietnam dates back to the Stone Age, when its first state was established in 2879BC. Along the history of the country, Vietnamese people still speak Vietnamese like we do now. The language is tod ..read more

Xin chào!  Welcome to Hanoi, and thank you for visiting my website!  My name is Buffalo Joe, and I go by Joe. I’ve created this site to offer private Hanoi food tours, and other foodie experiences with first-hand connections in Hanoi, that are deeply enriching for foodies and cultural travelers. I am 40 years old, and I came from a rice farming village on the outskirts of Hanoi, which isabout 60km (40 miles) to the south of the city center. Back to when my mum was pregnant withme for 8 months, my village was unfortunately flooded af ..read more

We love street eats and see it as the best way to explore a city, so we always prioritize a newcity visit with a guided food tour. We did that in our former trips to Asia, including Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. In our most recent vacation to Vietnam, a friend of us from New York recommended us Flavors of Hanoi for a private Hanoi Food Tour.  The company has different foodie experiences for travelers to choose from, we decided to book the “Heart & Soul of Hanoi’s Old Quarter” as we wanted to see the city ..read more

Food is the purest example and expression of an entire cultural and regional identity. The best way to discover more about a foreign city, especially one that’s as rich in history and culture as Hanoi, is through an exclusive gastronomic experience in the form of an intimate, and intuieractive tour with a local foodie guide.  Perfectly integrated into the history, architecture and culture of the 1000 year-old capital Hanoi, Flavors of Hanoi proves it as the number one private food tour in the city, capturing the ethos with its compr ..read more

As a little part of our informative food tours in Hanoi, the following blog post prepares our visitors with a brief introduction to the Vietnamese cuisine. The Background of Vietnamese Cuisine Vietnam is a rice growing country with tropical monsoon climate and diverse topography, it’s climately divided into North, Central and the South with distinctive characters that reflect the living conditions of the people there. The country is home to 54 ethnic groups, and each of them have their own cooking traditionswhile sharing histori ..read more

When you wish for a change from the noodles or other traditional Vietnamese foods, La Badiane (French, for the star anise) comes up to be a great alternative in Hanoi to go for. It’s a Hanoi’swell-known French restaurant, offering fusion of Vietnamese and French flavors withinternational gastronomy. Badiane is a spice made from a fruit, it’s aptly named for the star-shaped pods from which the spice seeds are harvested, and has a flavor that is reminiscent of licorice. In Vietnam, badiane is famed not only for its distinct flavor in c ..read more

We had many of our foodie clients from the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel, and beside food, we occasionally talked about the history of the hotel along our ways. As the property has been an important part of the city, we would like summarize its history in this blog post. According to Andreas Augustin – the author of over 50 books about legendary hotels, the Metropole opened its doors, under the name ‘Grand Hotel Metropole’, to the curious population of Hanoi in the summer of 1901. Soon, it was known more simply as the Metropole. The following advertisement was signed by ..read more