Food on the Ha Giang Loop

Day 1 breakfast

Although the companies offer slightly different options, this is the general guidelines for what you are going to find. For the first morning, you will eat breakfast at the hotel/office of whichever company you have chosen. This first breakfast can range wildly depending on how big the company is that you’ve chosen. Some companies offer a buffet-style breakfast with eggs, toast, pancakes and fruit. Some companies will take you to eat banh mi (fried egg and bread sandwich) or pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). Other companies will cook eggs to order at their office. Even though they all have different options, they will provide you with something simple but delicious.

Throughout the day, all of the tours will make several stops. At many of these stops there are small stands where you can enjoy coffee or snacks such as chips or nuts. Some of these stops offer larger snack options like banh mi sandwiches but typically breakfast, lunch and dinner are filling enough that you do not need lots of snacks along the way.

Breakfast

During tour, breakfasts will be eaten at the homestays before you depart on your adventures for the day. The options at the homestays vary slightly, but there tends to be an option between a “western-style” breakfast and a Vietnamese breakfast. The ‘western’ options tend to be either eggs and toasted baguette or pancakes/crepes with honey and banana. The Vietnamese options tend to be either pho (traditional rice noodle soup) or instant noodle soup.

If you select a western-style breakfast, please be aware that the people cooking these options are rural, Vietnamese cooks that are not familiar with how these options might be cooked in your home country. Therefore, expectations need to be lower than what you would expect at home. For example, the pancakes are likely not going to be the most amazing, fluffy pancakes you’ve had in your life. For the best flavor, we would recommend leaning in to the culture and eating like a local for breakfast. However, we also understand that you might need a bit of a change up from local food and prefer to start your day with something more familiar. In this case, the western options are there for your comfort.

Lunch & Dinner

The tours will provide you with lunch and dinner. The lunches & dinners are served traditional, Vietnamese, family-style and consist of several options. Your group will stop at a local restaurant somewhere along the Ha Giang Loop route to eat. The restaurant will provide several dishes for the table including rice, vegetables, meat and a carb option. These vary between restaurants and depend on the seasonality of some of the food but generally:

– Vegetables: carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, morning glory, pumpkin, spinach, squash, tofu

– Meat: chicken, beef, pork or fish (usually provide 2 meat options)

– Carbs: spring rolls, dumplings, steamed buns, fried noodles, potatoes, french fries

Dietary restrictions

Because there are so many dish options on the table, dietary restrictions are easily accommodated. Vegetarianism is quite common in Vietnam due to the high presence of Buddhist religion so restaurants are used to catering to this dietary requirement. If you have a dietary restriction or food allergy, make sure you identify it with your guide at the beginning and consistently check in with them as they may not be as familiar with Western-style allergies (i.e. peanut allergies are uncommon in Vietnam).

Meat options

A note on the meat: different cultures have different ‘norms’ when it comes to consuming meat. If you come from a culture that is very selective on the parts of animals that you consume, Vietnam might be more of a shock when it comes to meat-eating. In Vietnam, a large portion of the animal is considered edible and people tend to use the whole animal when cooking. If this worries you, rest assured that the restaurants which are selected by the tour companies for lunch are VERY used to serving foreigners and are fully aware of the different mentalities on eating meat. Long story short, they are not going to serve ‘unidentified’ meat. You can be confident that if they say it’s chicken, it is in fact chicken. Likewise, they will serve the parts of the chicken that they know you will eat (i.e. chicken breast). Vietnamese people value food and do not like to see things go to waste, therefore they are going to serve you things that you will actually eat.

Happy Water

In Ha Giang, it is common to enjoy a small shot of ‘happy water’ during dinner. This is not just something that happens on the loop – it is actually part of their culture. Happy water is an alcohol made out of corn or rice wine. The tours will likely invite you to enjoy a shot with them as it is their way of sharing their culture. The extent to which this happens depends on the company that you choose – party companies indulge heavily in this drinking culture. Smaller companies will likely offer it, but respect your decision if you choose not to participate. Not all companies will offer unlimited happy water, so if that is something that is important to you, enquire with your chosen tour as to whether its included in the price or not.