VIETNAMESE COOKING CLASS
Have you been to a Vietnamese market where you see pig heads so disturbing that your sister decides to be a vegetarian for the day?!?! Well, I have, and believe me, many parts of touring the market were beyond disturbing!
In Hoi An, we signed up for a cooking class. Our guide’s name was Susu and she had an imposing personality, a booming voice, and a very loud forced laugh. She would burst into laughter when nothing funny was happening!
First, we went to the market to get the ingredients for the dishes we would later make. We saw many live and dead animals and lots of exotic fruits and vegetables. We sampled banana flowers which tasted just like celery and not banana (thankfully)! The market was both indoor and outdoor, and even though there was fresh air the odor was terrible! Imagine the smells of muddy water, fruits and vegetables, raw fish, and raw meat all mixed together… Not the best!
Right before the cooking class, we went crab fishing in “coconut boats.” The boats looked exactly like half of a coconut! They rocked a lot and there was only one wooden plank to sit on — it wasn’t that comfortable!! We paddled about ten meters and then stopped to catch crabs. We were in the reeds. Not next to the reeds, in the reeds. We were handed a pole with a string attached, and at the end of the string was a piece of meat (I don't know what the meat really was…). We kneeled in the boat and waited for a little crab to pinch onto the meat. Then we put the crabs in a bucket, but most of the time, they didn’t make it into the bucket, just into the boat. I especially hated that part. I didn’t love the whole experience, but if you want to go crab fishing in Vietnam — go ahead!! ;)
The actual cooking class was…satisfactory. We each got our own stations with cutting boards, knives, aprons, and chef’s hats. While we were cooking, we really had no idea what we were making! We just saw ingredients but we were not informed what dish we would later be eating! In my opinion, it was like we were Susu’s sous chefs and she was the head chef. The whole time she was barking orders at us, and for much of the time, was also on her phone!! The only way we were allowed to cook was the way she wanted it to be done. More than one time, she would tell me what to do and then just do it herself!
The dishes were quite delicious, though. We made many Vietnamese dishes, some of them originated in Hoi An. We made a Vietnamese pancake, a banana flower, mint, and papaya salad with a delicious dressing, grilled eggplant with a peanut, shallot and ginger sauce (not as good as the sauces from The Saucy Spoon, but close!!), chicken Cau Lau (which is a noodle dish only served in Hoi An), and for dessert, bananas with caramel. The best part was that we got the recipes of the dishes we made, so I can share the yummy goodness with all of you at home!
So far we have done two cooking classes: this one in Hoi An, and another in Brazil with Chef Yara. They were very different! Chef Yara explained the history of the dishes we were making, and then taught us how to properly make and prepare the dish. She was also very calm and we were in no rush. Susu, on the other hand, did not explain the history of the dishes to us whatsoever, and did not really tell us how to make the dish. She told us what to do or she did it herself. She was also definitely not calm, but instead, very intense. We are planning to participate in another cooking class in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I can’t wait to see how it compares to these other two classes!