Hands On

I might regret telling you this because it might result in you forcing me to make you food once you are again in my presence but let me assure you that after one cooking class I am by no means an expert Vietnamese chef. We coughed up18 smackers to take this half day course. I argue that it was well worth it. We began our morning in Hoi An with a coffee and an introduction to our guide who told us that he was the James Bond of Vietnam and to just call him 007. He took us through the market and it seemed pretty staged but supposedly we were being informed about what ingredients were what and what was good quality or not. Erin even bought some culinary utensils to make pretty food art to dress up a dish. We then took a half hour boat ride up the river to the cooking school which was located off to the side of a nice hotel and restaurant. The place was clean and looked very professional even though it seemed we were far from most signs of direct civilization. Our instructor had quite the dry sense of humor as he stood before the 20 or so of us who sat with pens in hand ready to jot down any additional notes we may need. We got to try the food he prepared and then got to go to our individual tables where we could try it for ourselves and then at the very end we got served even more food. So it was a morning where we were well fed and I feel like, although I won’t go home and make my own rice paper, I actually can make some of the recipes.

For you foodies out there (Dad, elisa) our menu consisted of: Seafood Salad with Vietnamese herbs served in a Half Pineapple (my favorite although I had the vegetarian option for fear of squid), Eggplant in Claypot, Fried Rice Paper Rolls, Fresh Rice Paper, Hoi An Pancakes (made with rice flour and tumeric powder), Food decoration and a sweet and sour, peanut and fish sauce. All very delicious. Maybe if you are nice to me I will let you use the recipes or even try to prepare some for you (although check out my ever-so-poorly rolled spring rolls and then make your decision).