Cooking with Ngan

One of the plans of the trip is to try a cooking course in most of the countries we end up visiting. Tash had found 'the waterwheel cooking class' as number one on trip advisor. You of course have to take these things with a pinch of salt. The number one curry house in my home town is horrendous and has been rated by people with no mouth.

We met our guide Ngan who had us cycle down the road to the local market to buy some produce and also point our some common ingredients in Vietnamese cooking. This was very good and helped fill in some blanks. For example I hadn't been able to work out the unique taste in the Bun Cha that I have previously mentioned, turns out this is known as 'Cinnamon Basil' There is also another type they use to flavour drinks 'Lemon Basil'.

We then cycled 4km to the cooking school. It's based at Tra Que vegetable village that is based on organic farming methods. We walked around the site and were tested on some of the vegetables that we came across at the market (becomes harder when something is in the ground and you can only see the leaves). There are also many types of mint I have never heard of; 'Vietnamese Mint' which leaves a peppery taste in the mouth and 'Fish Mint' actually smells of fish! I asked how they stop bugs from eating the plants, they use a mix of black pepper,chilli and water - I will use this idea if my fingers ever turn green. Ngan also said they catch the shrimp from the river next to the farm so there is not much they actually have to buy in. She is also quite the comedian throwing in lots of jokes and silly things whilst she is talking to try and catch you out. We ended up cooking with just the 3 of us as there was a bit ground on the other side that we could squeeze into (couldn't have worked out any better).

For the cooking part we made and then ate 4 dishes. I could talk all day about this, we had great fun making a different type of spring roll that was was wrapped in spring onions, some Green Papaya salad, Fish wrapped in Banana Leaves and Vietnamese pork pancakes. We had a competition to see who could name the most ingredients, I beat Tash something like 9-2 and won a mandolin veg grater in the process - disappointed it wasn't a whitewash! I was quickly beaten to a pulp when we started making food animals - I made lots of vegetables look horrendous whilst Tash made a rabbit, a swan and some flowers.

It was time to cycle off and wave goodbye to another jolly person we had met along the way. People here either can't do enough for you and are so friendly or are the opposite!

In the afternoon we went to a near by spa, I had my feet cleaned in some kind of lemongrass/ginger and lime wash, drank some rather good ginger tea and had a little Vietnamese lady give a great message, although she did feel like a cat pudging on my shoulders at one point!

For dinner I had the classic dish of Vietnam 'Vegetable Jalfrezi'. Tash has been craving a curry and it's common for me to hunt one down on every trip away I had. I was looking over trip advisor in the hotel lobby to find the best Indian in Hoi An when a Indian girl came over to tell me about one that she and her mum had just gone to. We took it on her recommendation and again the food was great and well priced. We have eaten very well in Hoi An so far!

Temple count: 48
Noodle count: 9
Hours travelled: 52