Cooking Up Something Good

Hoi An, Vietnam -- Day 2

Hello, Meg here. Today we finally got to take a cooking class.  Dean and I have wanted to do this since Thailand.  Fortunately, we found a class that would accept kids -- at half price even! -- and were picked up from our hotel at 8:30.

We met our group of fellow cooks outside the morning market.  Going through it with Kri, our Vietnamese guide, was awesome.  She would take us to various vendors and describe the items we were purchasing for the four different dishes.  The fresh vegetables and fruits were beautiful, and the market was bustling, presumably with locals, restaurateurs, and another cooking class or two.  The meat market was unbelievable.  Impressively, there was very little odor and to watch the butcher wield her cleaver, was rather intimidating.  She trimmed off the gristle and non-edible parts of a beef tenderloin as Kri described the cuts she was buying for the day.  We also got a bag of bones for our bone stock.  There’s definitely something to be said for seeing the food you’re eating prior to packaging.

After the market, we took a short boat ride down the local waterway, then a mini-van, and finally a small basket boat among water palms to our open air cooking school. We arrived to find a rice milk maker – sans electricity.  It was a large grind stone spun by hand to grind the rice, which had soaked in water for two hours.  It was neat to see the simple process, but we were all glad we had only to turn the stone for 30 seconds before giving someone else a turn.  Typically, the process takes 20 minutes, with the slurry passed through four times.  The more you grind, the thicker the milk gets, thus the process slows. We would be using rice milk in one of our dishes later in the class. 

Nose to the grindstone

We were moved along to a thatched pavilion where we were first split into groups of two in order to prepare the bone stock for the last dish, beef pho.  It was here where met with our master chef of the day, Tu.  She was a jolly woman who clearly knew her stuff!  It was neat how they arranged it.  We’d all gather round her table so she could demonstrate the proper amounts and technique. As she prepared the food, speaking in Vietnamese, Kri translated for us.  Dex and I had fun filling our pot and adding some of the bones from the market, trying our best to mimic Tu’s measurements and process. We all joked it felt like a potions class from Harry Potter – thank goodness Tu was no Professor Snape!

After our soup stock was set to simmer, we moved to another cooking area – this time each of us manning our own burner.  We usually had a dish and an accompanying sauce to prepare.  I'm convinced it's all about the sauce!  First up was a spring roll with a peanut sauce.  Tu showed us what to do and especially how to roll a pretty and tight spring roll with the rice paper -- the trickiest part. Amazingly, we not only managed the assembly process but enjoyed a very tasty roll to boot!

Next up was a fried rice milk pancake with scallions, a breakfast specialty.  Again, Tu demonstrated, Kri translated, and off we were sent to our own workstations.  When it was complete (each of our pancakes flipped like a pro), we rolled them up with lettuce and rice paper and dipped them into another tasty sauce of rice vinegar, sugar and lime juice, among other things.  Delicious and my personal favorite.

Back to Tu for the demonstration of our 3^rd dish, beef salad.  In no time, while explaining the dish, she had assembled a beautiful flower made from cucumbers, carrots and peppers.  After completing her demo, back to the skillet we went to cook the meat, Tu’s flambe technique would have the whole San Jose Fire Department at our place if we were to try it at home... but this isn’t San Jose!  I was eager to give it a try, perhaps too eager as I didn't heat the oil long enough.  The kids, on the other hand, with assistance from the other staff on hand, got good flame going with their meat.  We all attempted decorations too.  Dean and Dex going for trees, Kylie a dog and me, a fish… though nobody guessed that’s what it was.

The final dish of the day, beef soup, made use of the bone stock.  While tasty, it wasn’t our favorite.  It could also have something to do with it being the 4^th dish and the third one with meat!  The class was very fun and I was proud of the kids for doing a lot of the work and grateful they were offered assistance when they needed it.  There will be some new meals on our menu when we get home and some new cooks in the kitchen too!