My Kitchen Rules

Four days in Steamy Saigon has ended. What can I say...After Hoi An we put the bike on the train for the last little bit. The boys had had enough of the heat and dust they said and I also had the feeling that they could not keep up with me. I would have been ok to go and head for the higher mountains of Dalat. We are with the three of us so that is how it goes.

I prefer leaving between six and seven AM when it is cool and take a break around midday but usually at 8 am I can still hear some snoring. The bikes were packed up at the railway station and followed us a day later in the goods train. Meanwhile after arriving in Saigon I put the bikes up for sale at various websites and printed some single sheet brochures which were hung up in hostels and put on lamp posts in the busy main street where a lot of tourist hangs out. On Friday about 2 pm we collected the bikes, gave them a clean (meaning paying someone a few dollars to get them polished) and on Saturday around 11 AM had sold all three of them

A new plan followed resulting in a dash across the road to make a booking for the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on 18/05. Yesterday was an interesting day. Paul & Paul went on a tour of the Mekong Delta which I had enjoyed some time ago; I thought to do something different- How about going right out the box and do cooking course for half a day.

At 8 am I was picked up from the agent by a young man from the culinary art school and taken on the back of his scooter to the Ben Tanh Market to buy the ingredients and get some lessons about the many unusual vegetable items on display. Everything was bought fresh including the spices which were purchased in its raw form. AT the school I was met by a lady of 50 who was the head chef and two more assistants. With a chef's hat and an apron I entered the 35 degree heat in the kitchen and got to work on making rice paper salad rolls, beef noodle soup, and a host of other culinary wonders. An interesting part of this course was that I was the only student. Four teachers/assistant and one student- great! The only hard part was me eating on my own and them watching every bite I took. But in the end it was great fun. The heat was a bit much; you can see that my shirt was soaked. Before leaving i had to listen to a speech by the chef which was translated into English by my scooter driver/chef’s assistant and I was given a certificate that i am now a fully qualified Executive Che; who would be sought after in 5 star restaurants around the worlds. Well enough if that, another great day in this wonderful country.