Back to when Joe’s mum was pregnant with him for 8 months, their village was unfortunately flooded after an intense typhoon, so everyone in the village was evacuated to a temple on a nearby hill.
In a hurry, his family arranged for his mum to ride on the water buffalo in stead of walking to the temple. Along the way, Joe was accidentally born on the back of the buffalo. Hence the name Buffalo Joe.
Joe’s village lies on the bank of the Red River on the outskirts of Hanoi, it has a green rice field on one side and a range of limestone mountain on the other. Across the river, corn fields stretch to the foot of a thousand-year-old dyke.
His family has land on which they grow two crops of rice each year. To start a crop, the rice field is flooded, then the water buffalo is used to plough and harrow the soil. After that, rice seedlings are transplanted by hand.
One of the most memorable moments of his childhood was helping his grandma cook. Each time grandma asked him “Are you hungry?”, he knew that she had something for him to eat.
Whenever herbs were spread out on the kitchen’s floor, he knew a family reunion was coming. As everyone was home, he loved pretending to be the chef, and proudly carried dishes to the dining room only to say “I’ve just finished cooking this”.
With a dream to try foods everywhere, he went to university to become a tourist guide. His first street food was a hot bowl of beef noodle soup – Pho bo, and he loved it!
During his studies, it was the chaotic webs of alleys in the city are where he ate the most. Every weekend, he went out searching for new eateries, and tempted by the flavors and authentic foods in each neighborhood.
After graduating, Joe worked for Handspan Travel, Exo Travel, and Trails of Indochina as a tour guide. Prior to founding Flavors of Hanoi, Joe worked with Overseas Adventure Travel as a trip leader.
Joe then decided to devote his full-time efforts to expose visitors with the authentic flavors of Hanoi through street eats. The result is Flavors of Hanoi, which is all about personal foodie experiences.
Because he believes that if there’s anything we humans have in common, it’s that we like to eat. Many of us think food is the best way to learn about a city, while others just find consuming delicious things to be pleasurable.
Also, the best places to eat are often found on tiny alleys where locals eat, hidden somewhere on the second floor, or on the basket behind a vendor’s bicycle. That’s where the daily life of the people come to life!
We’re a local foodie tour company, offering foodie experiences that help travelers truly explore and learn about Hanoi, the daily life of the Hanoians, and authentic tastes found in the city.
On our mindfully curated food crawls, our foodie guides would thoughtfully pick out a place for a local drink, a secret spot for the most typical food tasting, and a hidden gem to get to know about the people.
We like to keep things small and boutique, even there are more travelers coming to Vietnam on their vacations, and it’s been a long time since Joe’s first street food, but something remains the same.
Flavors of Hanoi highlights small outlets and family-run eateries, that are frequented by locals. We run private tours only, and keep the groups small – no larger that 8 people, to ensure that you have a personal experience.
We at Flavors of Hanoi, with our impeccable personalized foodie experiences, strive to delight our customers with first-hand connections in Hanoi and distinctive quality on every experience they have with us.
At the end of the day, we expect to achieve a fair and reasonable profit to ensure the prosperity of the company, and to offer long-term benefits to our customers, our food vendors, and our partners.
