Cooking and Tasting Class (Jan. 14, 2015)

Today I got up in decent time, skipped breakfast and got myself ready to take back the motor bike, and go to my Cooking/Tasting Class for 11:00 am. It was a bit rainy out, so I took out one of my huge plastic garbage bags, to cover my suitcase with so it wouldn’t get wet on the way into town. By the time I was ready to tie the suitcase onto the back of the bike, it was lovely and sunny, so I put away my bag and proceeded to get ready.

It was funny because I needed to top up the gas before returning the bike, but then thought, if the suitcase is tied onto the bike, then how am I going to access the gas tank, which is under the seat…….hmm. So I told one of the girls who works at the hostel, my dilemma and she promptly sent one of the guys somewhere to buy me a liter of gas, which showed up minutes later, in a plastic water bottle. You can get anything from gas, to cooking oil to homemade rice wine in a plastic water bottle. I thanked him, filled up the tank, then two of the older ladies that work at the hostel, helped me tie the suitcase onto the bike. It was so secure, and not a problem in the least. They did a fantastic job and we all laughed so much while doing it. Everyone in Vietnam puts incredible things onto the bikes, so I don’t think it was much for them. In fact the way they secured the suitcase, led me to believe that they’d done this many times before.

The group from the hostel and a
couple of tourists, keeping warm

Two people who work at the hostel,
helping me secure Mr. Suitcase

I said my goodbyes and rode off to drop my suitcase at the bus station for them to put it into their luggage storage for the day while I was off doing my class and other things, until my 5:00 pm bus to Nha Trang, and then to Dalat. It was perfect, and I got to the bike place in good time. The girl who rented me the bike, gave me a ride closer to where I needed to go for the cooking class, so I walked the rest of the way, and was there about 10 minutes early. By now I was starving because I hadn’t eaten breakfast as Jamie and Sean told me that you just ate for the whole two hours and to go hungry. I was ready!!!!

This class was so cool. It was in a huge sectioned restaurant/food area that was used primarily for this purpose and was super well set up. There were stations for each type of food and preparation, and the groups were no larger than 6 people per guide. Ours was 5 people. Two older Australian sisters, two young girls from Denmark, and me. Our guide was very nice, and allowed us to eat whatever we wanted, including seconds.

So the first thing we did was to make Vietnamese pancakes with rice flour, shrimp, pork and greens. It was a good first thing, though we didn’t eat it just then. That would be saved for our lunch as the guide kept saying.

The cooking school/restaurant

Pancake ingredients

Pancake cooking on iron skillet

Then she took us to several other stations where we tried to cook/use/chop some of the items that would also be for our lunch.

Me chopping noodles

Different noodle types

Mixture for dumplings

Spices for chicken 

Chef making rose dumplings

Noodle bowls

Tart cases

Dumplings

Fresh juices to have whenever

Black pepper pig brains

Duck Embryo

Minuature snails

Silkworm Salad

Cold cuts including pig's ear

Baby bananas for salad

Making rice noodles

Me at lunch table

Salad additions

Beef in banana leaves; chicken

My favourite station was by far the ‘Weird and Wonderful Station’. Ok, Liviah, now you can stop asking whether I ate spiders yet, because I have now officially eaten a lot of other weird stuff since the spiders cropped up. They didn’t have spiders, but there were many other great and wonderful things. I loved everything I tried, which included Pig Brains, Duck Embryo, Silk Worm, Jelly Fish, and some other great stuff. No one else in my group tried the Duck and I think one other person tried the Silk Worms. They sure missed out on some yummy food because all of it was great.

The last few stations we made some dumplings, a banana leaf thing, and some salads. Everything we tried and made was fantastic.

Then we sat down to eat our lunch, and by this time, we were all getting full from trying all the other things. Well, that didn’t stop us, as we ate all of the many courses that were served, and topped it off with a scoop of homemade Lemongrass Ice Cream on the way out. Wow, what a wonderful last thing to do in Hoi An. I totally enjoyed it and would try it again.

After I finished with my class, I walked over to the tailor’s to get my shirts. They had finished both of them and the purple one was nice as well. I got them to put flared sleeves on it, and it seems nice. I think it’s a bit bigger than the pink one, and might need to be taken in a tiny bit, but is fine for now, and the rest of the trip. I didn’t really have time to get into that, and it’s minor. The lady seemed to think it was the exact same as the pink one, but I feel it wasn’t cut as precisely. She said it looks different because of the colour and we measured them against one another, and they do seem pretty much the same, so maybe I’m imagining it. In any case, I’m happy to have them both, and will make great use of them. If it needs a dart, I’m sure I can add that easily to take it in a bit.

Coral blouse

Purple blouse

I walked around for a while until it was time to make my way back to the bus station to catch my bus. I decided to stop and get a couple of Bahn’s for the trip, as it was going to be 12 hours to Nha Trang, and then another 4 to Dalat, so I could store them quite easily in my bag, wrapped up. I met up with Edward, the guy from Singapore, at the Bahn shop and he hung out with me for an hour or so before the bus came. He is drawing his journey as well, so we shared our art and talked for the rest of the time. It was really nice and perhaps we will meet up again in Saigon.

Then I got on the bus, watched the scenery go by, ate one of the Bahn’s, took a Gravol and slept the rest of the trip to Nha Trang. Great ride and through the night, so it was perfect.