Hoa Binh's kitchen is defined by the highlands around it. The Da River produces excellent freshwater fish — grilled whole or served in soup — and the hills supply wild herbs, jungle snails, and free-range hill chicken that tastes nothing like the factory version. Sticky rice, steamed or grilled in bamboo tubes, is eaten at every meal in Muong and Thai households. Rice wine, drunk communally through long bamboo straws from a communal jar, is the traditional accompaniment.
Restaurants in the city are plain but reliable. The more interesting eating happens in the villages — homestays in the Muong Bi valley and around Thung Nai serve family meals that put the urban restaurants to shame.