My Cooking Is So Fabulous Even The Smoke Alarm Cheers Me On

Location: Hoi An, Vietnam

I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. 

I get to the end and think, ‘well that’s never going to happen’.

Food is definitely one of the highlights when visiting Vietnam.  And what better way to enjoy it than by taking a cooking lesson?  I mean, me, in a kitchen, cooking.  What can go wrong? 

Our tour started in the market, where we shopped for the needed ingredients.  Everything is fresh in Vietnam, from the produce to the meat!  Hoi An even has a ‘wet market’ – a market dedicated to seafood, freshly caught that very morning.

The market is a busy, happening place in the morning!  8 foreigners conspicuously stand out and it’s a hard juggle trying to take it all in, sneak in some photos and not get in any local’s way – otherwise you’re likely to get pushed out of the way.

Shrimp featured in two of our dishes, so it’s important to make sure we got the best ones!  Fresh crab was also up for sale.

Once we had all out ingredients, we hopped on a boat, heading in the direction of a tiny village nearby.  We were also treated to a ride in a ‘basket boat’, an ingeniously designed water craft.  During French colonial rule, a boat tax was imposed on the Vietnamese.  To counter it, the crafted large ‘baskets’ made of bamboo and used those as boats.  The continue to be in use to this day.

Finally, we were ready to start our class!  On today’s menu were 4 courses: wet spring rolls, crispy crepes with shrimp (Banh Xeo), vietnamese shrimp stir fry and beef noodle soup (Pho).   We each had our own cooking station and ingredients were pre-measured, cut and prepared for us.  Plus we didn’t have to do any clean up!  If cooking was always like this, then I’d gladly participate! 

Everything was made from scratch, the peanut sauce to the broth and even the rice milk needed for the crepes!  We started by making the beef broth, from bones picked up that morning at the market.  The next step was using a gigantic mortar and pestle to grind the rice, then we sifted it and finally used a mill (i think that’s what it’s called) to liquify it and make it into rice milk.  Hard work!  But definitely worth it as the freshness made all the difference.  Now were to get one of those at home….

The final product turned out wonderfully.  And the best part, we got to eat it all!  

  Photo, left: Beef noodle soup, otherwise known as Pho.  On the right, shrimp stir fry

        On the left, my favourite part of the meal: peanut sauce! Oh, and wet spring rolls (or summer rolls as they’re sometimes called).  The crepes were so delicious, I forgot to take a photo before I ate them!  On the right, a photo of our chef and I, proof that I actually cooked a 4 course Vietnamese meal!  Who would have thought.  

The best part of the class, was that not only did we learn how to all this delicious food, we left with the recipes.  Who wants to be a guinea pig when I try these recipes at home??