CULINARY EXTRAVAGANZAS

Rare is the hotel that doesn’t make noise about a winemaker’s dinner now and then, or a food promotion the likes of which you’ve never tasted. And why not? The appeal of any given hotel room is fi ed. But food, well, the sky’s the limit. Here’s where a hotel really gets to show off its creativity and its panache. A number of hotels across Asia are stepping up to the table with food festivals, seafood markets and even camels. Here’s some of what’s cooking from Hanoi to Muscat.

LAGUNA LANG CO

In Vietnam, taking it to the streets is never a bad idea in a culinary sense. In one of Asia’s top destinations for food, some of the tastiest morsels can be sampled for cents on sidewalks the length and breadth of the country. Indeed, guests who are cloistered away in luxury resorts and hotels often get to merely skim the surface of the nation’s gastronomic traditions, which are often best represented via a humble vendor in a conical hat than a maestro in chef whites. At Laguna Lang Co, though, guests can have the best of every world thanks to a weekly celebration of Vietnamese street food, which takes place on the front lawn of the Angsana resort every Wednesday and Thursday. Organised as part of Laguna Lang Co’s “Seedlings” program — a vocational training scheme for young locals — the authentic foodie extravaganza serves up a full range of street food classics with dishes including bánh xèo (sizzling Vietnamese pancake) and bún bò Hue (spicy beef noodle soup).

TANAH GAJAH

A RESORT BY HADIPRANA