Chef Khai Duong's Culinary Tour Of Vietnam

Chef Khai Duong, Executive Chef and Managing Partner of San Francisco's Ana Mandara restaurant, has been taking groups on culinary tours of Vietnam for the last several years.

He recently completed his April 2007 tour, which has been the largest and the longest in duration, 40 people over 14 days. One of Chef Khai's long-time colleagues, Chef Lawrence Chu, was part of this tour, as were other food industry principals. The focus was on the best cuisine in the country, whether at a five-star hotel, on a cruise or from food purchased at a farmer's market, then cooked at one of the many island accommodations by Duong and colleagues.

The extensive itinerary included Chef Khai's home, Nha Trang, on the lush south coast, the Bac Waterfall, Ham Rong Mountain and suspension bridge, Ha Long Bay (UNESCO Heritage site), Ngoc Son Temple, the Imperial Palace in Hanoi, the Perfume River, the Unification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral and Caibe Floating Market of Ho Chi Minh City, and many others, including traditional cultural exhibitions and celebrations.

This tour also included an instructor from the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, California. The tour was filmed for instructional purposes and will be available for use by the media.

For more information on publishing the images and video footage of this culinary tour, please contact: Kimberly Hathaway, Hathaway PR, 415-989-0230, or email hprmedia@hathawaypr.com. BLOG: http://www.anamandara.blogspot.com/

Blog entries follow and will be updated with text and visuals through out May.

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Chef Khai's blog entries:


Day 1 - April 17
Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi and took a tour of the city. We went out to a beautiful restaurant, PHO VUON on Ngo Thoi Nhiem street, for a quick lunch before we headed back out on our tour of the city. We all enjoyed Pho (beef soup). After the tour we went back to Hotel, where we checked in and relaxed. At night, we ate dinner at WILD RICE. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was very good. The tour group enjoyed their meal and their first taste of Vietnamese cuisine in Vietnam. A great first day was enjoyed by all. (pictures of the restaurant and dishes to come).

Day 2 - April 18
Hanoi - Train to Sapa

We ate breakfast at the Gouman Hotel. We then visited Ho Chi Minh City Mausoleum and One Pillar Pagoda, West Lake, Tran Qouc Pagoda, and Literature Temple. We had lunch at QUAN NGON. The tour was impressed by the cuisine and the extensive selection of Tapas dishes (photos coming). In the afternoon, we visited BAT TRANG VILLAGE. The village is well known for their beautiful china wares. At night, we went to Vietnam's famous Emperor Restaurant in Hanoi, where both the food and the service were superb. We then took a beautiful old French Victoria night train from the Hanoi Rail Way Station to Lao Cai..

Day 3 - April 19
Sapa

Due to a derailed train traveling in the other direction we did not arrive at the Lao Cai Railway station in morning as planned. We had honey-lemongrass pork with purple cabbage and rice on the train for lunch. It was good, because we were hungry. We arrived in SaPa in the evening and checked into the Victoria Hotel. All my guests were very impressed with the hotels. We ate French food at the hotel for dinner. It was a nice change of pace. The thick fog that rolled in late night early morning reminded us of a San Francisco night. In the high land, Sapa is about 1,600 meters above sea level.