A tasty lesson
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
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136
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Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Hoi An,
Vietnam
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
the front entrance
. Just try to be respectful. First we found Quan Cong Temple, a little place devoted to a Chinese warrior. There's some pretty nifty papier mache work, and we particularly admired the roof spouts on the inside of the little courtyard. What there isn't is a lot of information or background, so you might want to tote an informative guide book or something like it.
Next we went to the Fujian Chinese Congregation's assembly hall. It was first for community meetings and then became also a temple to worship Thien Hau. She was supposed to save drowning sailors, and the seriously questionable looking guardians on either side of her (one's red and the other's green) wandered around looking for souls for her to save. There's a mural of the founding families on one wall - the families fled Fujian, China after the fall of the Ming dynasty. And there's a replica of a Chinese trading boat. It's very colorful. Again, Travis and I really enjoyed the tile mosaics about the hall. In the front courtyard was a fish jumping out of a pool and in the back was a super fun free-standing dragon. Twas a most interesting place.
To be perfectly honest, none of the museums sounded in any way thrilling, but the ceramics museum was located in an old house and had another nifty mosaic pool. The mosaic wasn't as neat as the dragon, but who can beat a dragon? Dragons are quite nifty. I found wandering around the old house more interesting than the ceramics, but you can learn all about Hoi An ceramics and where they were traded. The trading route map is rather interesting. I think that we of the Atlantic variety don't really think much about Pacific trade routes, so the map was definitely illuminating
nice gate
. Our last stop before our class was the Tran House. This is a private house, but you can see an ancestral-based Vietnamese house, which is spiffy, and a member of the family will even show you around and explain things to you. The only trick is that there's a gift shop at the end of the tour. But nothing's forced and the souvenirs aren't all that expensive. Definitely the neatest thing about this house is looking at the ancestor tablets. The more recent ancestors get photos, but the old ones still have their tablets, which go on a higher level of the altar the older and more revered they are. We also learned about a wishing trick that you can do with old coins. The coins have a male and female side, so you shake them and make a wish and drop them. If one of each side is facing up, your wish will come true. If not you get two more tries. Travis and I both didn't get our wish. Oh well.
After a lunch of watermelon we were on our way to learn how to cook some yummy Vietnamese food. We opted for the "learn to cook three foods" lesson, and our choices were minced pork fried spring rolls, shrimp fried with chili and lemongrass, and fish in banana leaf.
Before we actually started cooking we took a field trip to the market
fish mosaic sculpture
. I thought this would involve purchasing supplies, but it actually ended up being a lesson in buying things. So we learned what to look for or feel for in a load of vegetables and fishes. And we learned what some things were that we'd never seen before. If you ever want to know I'll give you the skinny. Our instructor was quite brisk, which isn't surprising considering that she teaches at least two lessons every day. Our day there were three lessons. Everything got juggled, so we had the shrimp and fish marinating in their sauces before getting to the spring rolls, which were finished first. But they had to drain, so then we cooked the other foods. My favorite moment was frying the shrimp. I love making things fly out of the pan and then fall back in. Travis didn't have the same experience with it that I did, though, so he was much more careful about his cooking. But it was all tasty. Yup, after we cooked all our food we got to eat it. I guess we should invite some people to test our new cooking skills when we get home! Food is good.
In the evening I picked up my clothes, an excellent end to a great day.
Erin
Comments
Awesome...
Food looks awesome especially the spring rolls. Did you get to make some summer rolls as well? Ya, have a huge return home cooking party when you return. haha.