Cooking it up Spicy in Vietnam
Trip Start
Nov 12, 2008
1
11
17
Trip End
Dec 02, 2008
Hoi An,
Vietnam
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Yesterday brought breakfast at the hotel and then thanks to Jen and Marie's determination we ended up in a cooking class. The cab took us into town but we weren't really sure about where we were supposed to go. The driver kept saying we needed to go to the "high school" and that he couldn't drive any further since there are no cars allowed in the middle of Hoi An. That's when we realized that as helpful as the hotel staff try to be, they only provide half the information - so they are only halfway helpful which is a problem when you're getting dropped off blocks away from where you should be at that same moment in time.
Luckily the cab driver wrote on the map and at the same time, a young guy offered to walk us there (for a small fee of course) but that seemed to work and away we went. At the "high school" which is actually not a high school, nor is it pronounced "high school" instead it's a cafe where we were greeted by the Vietnamese chef - a short high energy joke cracking, self proclaimed "toy boy" who had a strong Australian accent. He gathered our tour of nine together and we headed to the van. We were seven Americans and a German couple. Everyone turned out to be very fun and it made for a great day.
The first stop turned out to be an organic farm where they grow herbs and other foods as kind of a sharecropping kind of arrangement. The old couple who we bought herbs from joked with us through our chef and then took us inside the house? cafe? to serve us tea. This seems to be the land of ginger so I got a special tea that was ginger-free and therefore guarenteed not to kill me. Nothing shouts fun like the need to take an emergency trip to the hospital in a third world country - so now that I know, I'm on the lookout for it. There was also this older woman who had clearly lost her mind a while ago and she kept trying to tell Jen something important but no one knew what it was but Jen did try a few times. Leaving we walked along a riverside path where we saw a dog in a cage on the back of a motorbike. Our chef explained very matter of factly that it was going to be traded, perhaps for a rice-cooker or something else useful that the family needs. And yes, it would be traded so that who ever ends up with it can eat it.
The next stop was the Hoi An market where we were still early enough to see all of the buckets of live fish, to see the chicken, pig and cow parts being hacked up and displayed, as well as all of the fabulously colorful vegetables and fruits (which didn't smell the same way as the butcher area did, thankfully). At the market, chef bought different food (catfish that was still moving in the plastic bag much to our...delight), rice noodles and more vegetables so we could have food to make at the cooking class. And our last stop was the restaurant itself. Next to the river, the location was gorgeous with palm trees and an overhang to keep us from the rain that kept pouring down from the sky. It was a great background of sound though on the hot, humid day as rain landed in the river and on the ground outside of our protected area.
A word about the food (see, Lisa, I just haven't had time to talk about it). The food we made in the cooking class may have been some of the best we've had since the beginning of the trip. While we all loved the curries and Amok in Cambodia, the Vietnamese food, while good hasn't been staggeringly good (although the Pho has often been tasty as have the spring rolls). The food that was cooked so fresh by ourselves and the chef and that transformed right in front of our eyes - that tasted amazing. We ate our four things like it was thanksgiving, from the giant bowl of Pho (rice noodle soup - with rice noodles made by our very own hands), to the lemongrass grilled shrimp (wrapped in a banana leaf before grilling), to the green papaya, mango salad with chicken that was served in a banana flower leaf, to the clay pot prepared catfish (not as thrilled with this one). And all of it was topped off with a few beers (la Tigre) and fresh fruit.
It was a feast that ended with a boat ride along the river into town.
More later though - I'm late to meet the others for today's activities!
