Today is our third day in Hoi An, a small, but bustling old city on the coast of central Vietnam. This morning I took a 3 1/2 hour cooking class with the Morning Glory restaurant--recommended by our guide. Both the instruction and the foods cooked were superb.
We began with a tour through the local market. The picture shows one of the vendors with a variety of herbs and onions. Vietnamese food uses LOTS of fresh herbs and greens, so the preparation takes quite a while. I learned how turmeric looks when it's fresh--a bit like ginger, along with small and regular sized garlic, a couple types of ginger, Thai and other mints. It's unending--or so it seems. I have no idea whether I'll be able to pick any of these things out in our local Seattle markets, but it will be fun trying.
This was a combination observation and hands on class, which was great. We watched a pho soup being made, got our hands mixed up in making a very complex marinade for boned chicken thighs, put together fresh spring rolls (that means not fried), learned how to use a very peculiar looking grater style knife to peel a mango and then slice it into strips for a green mango salad, and made thin rice flour pancakes that we then rolled around a bunch of meat, fish and vegetable stuffing. The resulting food was the best I've eaten in Vietnam. We were given all the recipes for the class, plus others we didn't do, plus a little version of the grater knife. Later I went shopping in the market to get a larger version of that same knife. It will be entertaining to show my friends, even if I don't use it much.
We plan to go back to this restaurant tomorrow to have a grand lunch. Phil decided not to take the class, so I want him to share in some of the good food.
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