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Published: September 29th 2007
Good Morning People!
Today, we took our time and again had a bit of a lie in and a lazy day. Ladies and Gents, today we did nought!
Actually, my companion went swimming in the pool while I dangled my legs, drank orange juice, ate melons, and updated my diary. Hoi An closes early so its difficult to complete my blog at the moment.
We lazed in the hotel pool just below our room, which is pretty cool. My companion has been in and out there since we've been here.
The night before, we had booked our cookery class which became a private class for two. The name of our cookery school was the "Red Bridge Restaurant and Cookery School".
We attempted to pick up my companion's shoes but they were not as we expected and were slightly loose, so we told the shoe-maker that we would be back to collect then at 18:00, as our cookery course started at 13:00.
The cookery courses are enormously popular and are thrice a day, 08:30, 11:30 and 13:00. Mimimum 2, maximum 20. The other times were fully booked and so we picked the 13:00 slot. Surprise, surprise,
The Redbridge Cookery School
We are the new Jamie Oliver!we were the only particiants. a private group of two.
We were given a non-alcoholic welcome drink of our choice so my companion chose lemonade and I chose fruit shake. We then met our guide who took us on a market tour where he identified, and tasted various herbs and vegetables. He also showed us some fruit and various knives and vegetable cutters used to make decorations and fancy bits. We bought a packet of knives. We'll have to worry about
NOT leaving them in hand-luggage, later!
The Cookery course is all inclusive and apart from the market tour, a boat cruise, swimming possibilities
AND the cookery lesson, were also all included.
After the market, we strolled along the promenade, then took our private boat tour along the river where we saw fishermen, their huge nets which are surrounded by electricity wires and flourescent light bulbs to entice the fish. We thought it looked dangerous 'cos the light bulbs are lowered into the water and with electricity, I reckon its not the most logical situation, but apparantly, it works!
We also saw the fabulous waterside homes which could stand anywhere in the world and probably cost
Our Menu
Warm Squid Salad in Half a Pineapple more. The dong is a non-convertable currency so property is sold and bought in hard currency, or gold. Bearing in mind the per capita income of the average Vietnamese and the constant upward increase in the value of gold, property in Vietnam ain't cheap!
We also passed a little island which can be docked and which you can land at and lots of water "buses" filled with school children and their bicycles or adults and their various wares and or motorbikes. We felt slightly guilty, here we were in a huge jetty for the two of us alone and on the other side of the river, other jetties packed full to capapcity in the scorching sun.
We arrived at the restaurant area which was a magnificent waterside property surrounded by lovely palm trees, carved elephant shaped water lily ponds, flowers and lots of herb gardens. We were shown around the herb gardens and then directed to our "kitchen".
Our chef was called Ngoc. He had a great sense of humour and was very professional. The kitchen was outdoor in the garden but was partitioned off with raffia curtains. Various tables were prepared for different parts of our
Our Menu
Ha! You didn"t think we could do it, did ya! course. Gas stoves, pots, chopping board, bowls and other utensils were put on the tables for us to use when necessary.
Ngoc demonstrated first how things were done in Vietnam, what the ingredients were and how to make same in our own countries. Step-by-step we watched him first and then did the various courses ourselves. The various courses are thus: Warm Squid in Half a Pineapple, Vietnamese Eggplant in a Clay Pot, Fresh rice paper rolls of shrimps (spring roll), how to make fresh rice paper itself, Hoi An pancakes, Food Decorations, Sweet and Sour Sauce, Peanut Sauce, Fish Sauce and Steamed Ocean Fish on a bed of Fresh Vegetables.
Ngoc showed us how to make the warm squid in half a pineapple and how to make the sauces, but we did the rest ourselves. I made a mean rice paper and Hoi An pancakes and my companion made lovely spring rolls.
My spring rolls were probably not fit to be presented to polite spociety, and my tomato rose broke a hundred times, but I ate them anyway!
After two hours or so, we got to go to the main restaurant itself where all the above were
Our Menu
Ngoc - The Grand Chef! re-presented to us, course by course. We did very well if I say so myself!
We were given the recipe so we could probably re-create the meal over again. We plan to have a Vietnamese dinner for our friends and family, so watch this space!
A swimming session was also included but we were so fit to bursting that we abandoned that part and cruised back to the mainland in order to pick up my companion's shoes.
The rest of the evening was spent in "The Cargo Club' which I mentioned yesterday. The Cargo Club is a fancy restaurant (upstairs) and bar (downstairs) with comfy sofas and cushion but most importantly, it has a Cafe and Cake shop. Scrummy, lovely (probably 1,000,000 calories) cakes!!!
My companion ordered Pistachio Mousse Cake and Ice Vietnam Coffee and I had White Chocolate Kalua which was basically all cream, with a thin layer of sponge and huge shavings of white chocolate on the top, and Strawberry Tart which reminded me of home (in England) 'cos of the crust!
This tart was a giant one with a milk custard filling covered with strawberries. Delicious. All for a nothing price of
$6. I could have had every cake in there. Every day. It would have been very, very naughty, but unashamably very, very, nice!
We wer determined to start the way we wanted to go on. After the naughty cakes, we had cocktails in a riverside bar. It was a little after Happy Hour but they were very happy to accomoodate us at the Happy Hour price of $1.5.
Thereafter, we hopped to another bar to have fresh beer at 15 cents a glass. By this time it was getting late (22:00), so we offered to buy more beer but to drink it on a bench on the promenade, and leave the glasses outside their door so that they could lock up, as in Vietnam you'll be lucky to find a decent place to eat at 21:00, never mind 23:00 unless you're lucky or know where to go.
Au Revoir!
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