Hoi An Cooking Class

How was the Hoi An Cooking Class different from the one in Hanoi?  It was held on the second floor of a restaurant that's built specifically to show off how different Vietnamese foods were made.  It was run by the renowned chef Ms. Vy, author of the book "Taste Vietnam".  Before the class, we were taken to market as in the other classes but we were also walked through the main floor of the restaurant where there was a live demonstration at each station of different kinds of foods.  At some stations, for example, the pancakes station, we even got to try flipping the rice pancakes from the steamer onto the basket stand.  It was quite fun!

Morning Glory - we had this tasty vegetable at every meal we had in Hoi An, including lunch!  We hardly ever see greens at North American Vietnamese restaurants, but this is one veggie that is constant at all the Vietnamese cities, more so in the south than in the north.

Trying out different spices

Demonstrating how a green onion splicing tool works resulted in instant purchases!

Back at the restaurant, we dropped by different stations to see how different foods were made.  These were steamers for different kinds of foods.

Trying at cutting flat noodles

There is a trick to lifting the pancake out of the steamer with a chopstick

And flipping it onto the basket

Machine spewing out fine vermicelli noodles

Bright airy professional classroom with mirror right above the instructor

Spring rolls:  the secret to not soaking your dried rice paper when making spring rolls - use a wet towel to moisten it instead

line up your ingredients

Roll it up and it's ready to eat!

Grilled pork marinade (9 ingredients: fish sauce, salt, orange sugar, garlic, chilli sauce, green fresh lemon leaf, 5 spice, lemongrass, sesame oil)

Banh Xeo:  crispy fried pancake, a little like an omelette

Add your salad on top

Roll it up and dip in sauce to eat - it's very delicious again because of the contrast in textures between the pancake and salad!

Mango salad (green mango is supposed to be good for sleep) - easy to make

Perfect with the grilled pork which we had for lunch - don't forget to add a generous sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds on top!