Baby Mustard Cooking School

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We had not arranged any tours in Hoi An as we find sometimes it's better to play things by ear and see what we feel like doing. The rain has been a pain whilst in Hoi An and so we don't do any of the usual tours, especially ones involving water as the seas are raging. Good old trip adviser, I log on to see if I might be able to find a cooking class for the next day. There are many cooking classes advertised in restaurants and tours but some seem really expensive, up to $150 US for some cooking tours and about $50 U.S for others. I send an email through trip adviser to two potentials to see if they might have room for the following morning. I receive an email back from one of them straight away, Baby Mustard Cooking School. I marvel at how technology has helped these little businesses. If BAby Mustard were not checking their email as they came through they would have missed a booking. Amazing that I can book something sitting in a cafe, using free wifi on my phone. Baby Mustard offered a private one on one class, from 8.30am til 1pm. I was sent a list of potential dishes and asked to select three for us to cook. The price for this was $20 US. I was also given the option for an extra $2 US to be picked up on the back of her motorbike and taken to the market to buy our ingredients. No brainer.... Even if it involved riding on the back of her motorbike... Hey I am so brave now after the XO Tour in HCMC! Motorbike... No worries, I can do that. So at 8.30 am I await collection at the front doors of the resort. The concierge says... "You want taxi?" And I bravely tell him I am being collected by motor bike. Noooooo!!!!! He says..... It's too wet! It is in fact PISSING down with rain... The rain is torrential. I laugh. Yep!! I am going on the motorbike!! My lift arrives. She looks about 12 years old. She looks as big as my 12 year old niece Ruby We introduce ourselves and I follow her. Yep. I am game. After all... It's just water. She is worried about my jeans And shoes. I have on a pair of Keds (tailor swift limited edition..., not that I knew that when I bought the silly things). She wants me to go and change but I tell her don't worry, I don't care.... Let's go. I double bag myself in plastic ponchos. I get on the back of the motorbike, in the pouring rain and off we go. I don't know when I got so brave. When I think of all the reasons why I should not do this I keep,thinking of all the reasons I should do it. A) because my pa would laugh his head off if he could see me (maybe he can)B) because this year, an 18 year old I vaguely know ended up in a wheelchairC) because I am 42 not 82 D) because gorgeous ladies I have know will now never have this chanceE) because my boys think I am a wussF) because I can! Let's go! I am enjoying every second of this ride. The rain is stings me sometimes And I enjoy it all the more. My helmet strap pings off. Oops. Mum would not be happy. I risk taking my hands off holding on for dear life "look mum no hands!!!" But mum, don't worry, it's just to try and re attach my helmet. We arrive at the market. I am soaked from the knee down. My poor old Taylor Swift Keds are squelching underfoot. I fear they are fuc&@$d for good. Apologies for language (according to previously blogs I am too posh for that). We parked the motorbike.... (How cool am I?) and we head off to the market (ok I admit we have a cute red plastic basket with us... A la red riding hood. Nguyet takes me through the market to buy our ingredients. She explains everything along the way. Her English is excellent and she tells me what she does with ingredients and then I tell her what I do with them. She is interested in my recipe for beetroot dip, I think she gets a lot out of this interaction as well. I explain that my friends sit around a lot and drink wine and eat dip.... It sounds lame. But hey, we all know how lame we are right??? I am talking to a chick who kills chickens... Roasted beetroot dip is lame in comparison, believe me. She doesn't even kill the chooks quickly by chopping their heads off. They do,it slowly by slitting their throats and putting something heavy on them so they cannot move, this means the blood drains out and dosent make the meat red.... Gross I know.... And I am riding I a motorbike with her!!! She shows me the meat area, and we buy our pork and chicken. Can you believe they the wing is the most expensive part of the chook here? 4 times as expensive as a breast or thigh. She tells me that they don't like that meat as its too tender... Go figure! They like to chew on things, for the experience of eating to take its time. That's why the meat here always has bones in it, they like to chew on them and extract the flavours and prolong the dining experience. I explain that we like to gobble that food as quick as we can.,, I am sure she is impressed. ..... I explain to her that we don't actually kill our own meat. That we buy it already done In a supermarket. She explains to me that if you have "a good husband" he kills the meat for you... If you don't have "a good husband" you have to buy the meat from another man at a higher price..... Okayyyyyy....... I see why a good husband is so important!....I explain that we are not really allowed to butcher animals at our homes, that there are lots of rules about this and that we don't hang meat out in the open for people to touch and for flies to kiss. She thinks I am a bit weird. I can tell these things. This market is so interesting I cannot tell you all the things I learnt. About lady crabs and man crabs and about salted eggs and lotus seeds. I will try to explain in the photos but it really is an experience not to be missed. The colours, the smells, the rain soaking you through. The old ladies pushing you out the way.,, and I mean physically pushing you out the way... It is an experience on its own. For $2 US .... Go and see Nguyet. (That is my sales pitch). We get back on the bike (yeah I am a biker chick now...) and head towards Baby Mustard Cooking School. It's not too far from the market. If you are not brave like me (chicken!!!!) then you can arrive by taxi if you prefer. At the cooking school Nguyet takes me on a tour of the gardens on her vegetable collective. They are perfectly maintained, the neatest gardens you ever will see. We walk through smelling fresh herbs and she explains all her crops and what they are used for. We see the lake out the front where they harvest seafood to fertilise the vegetables. All self sufficient. Her family lives here and she tells me that her grandma gets up at 4am every morning to take herbs to the market. They also have a restaurant here as well as the cooking school. We chat, we talk. Always about family. Everyone is always impressed with three boys.... I am legend... I always knew somewhere in the universe this would be truly appreciated! Turns out my little cook is having a baby! She is 23 and excited to be expecting her first child. She tells me about all the complicated rules about having a baby in vietnam. Apparently after she has the baby she will have to move back with her parents for three months. She will not be allowed to see her husband for all of this time, although her parents can bring the baby out to see him. She will have to be kept warm, on a special bed with coals under it to heat her body. She will only be able to eat special foods that will warm her body to aid her recovery. She tells me of she goes back to normal too quickly the she will have a hunched back she is older and several other Malays that I cannot recall. There are many rules which she needs to follow. She wants to know hold old I am.... Everyone asks me this in Vietnam! I think they just like an excuse to flatter you "onhh you look soooo young" .... I am wise to their flattery .... I know they just want my money lol!! She tells me that I am very lucky.... BECAUSE.... Get this.... I HAVe TWO CHINS !!!!!!!!! WTF ????? (I am sure I DO NOT have two bloody chins) Do I??? Apparently ( said in sarcastic voice) if you are over 40 years old it's very lucky to have two chins. I smile and laugh politely. Because I am nice. We get on with the cooking. She offers me a warm passion fruit drink and a cute chefs apron and hat and we make a start. I have chosen dishes that I am likely to replicate at home. A prawn soup, a chicken rice noodle dish (gf for Pauley) and a chargrilled pork dish. The cooking is fun. I won't bore you with the details but I am surprised by the use of black pepper in all the dishes. Each dish has the magic ingredients of three pinches of black pepper, three of salt and three of sugar, plus extras of garlic, spring opinions, fish sauce, sesame seed oil. I love cooking with Nguyet. I crap on to her and she nods, smiles and tells me stuff too. Nice. My favourite part is when she brings out a little burner full of hot coals. Our marinated pork is put on banana leaves and we cook it over the coals until it's yummy. It tastes divine. I cannot eat all that I have cooked so we pack up,the pork to take back to Paul and the kids. Some European ladies come past on the bike and call out hellllooooo. They like that the get an English reply and so park and come in to investigate. I do a very good sales job on them for the cooking school ( as you would expect) it's a small gift I can give to Nguyet And we get a booking from them.... (Always feels good to get a sale).... I pay her fee and then double it again for the babeeeeee. Alex or Alana for their English names. I love Nguyet, she is gorgeous and I hope she is successful with her little cooking school. She has terrific TripAdvisor reviews and that means a lot around here so I think she will do well. I would recommend this experience whole heartedly. Spend your money here, you will not be disappointed. Her family is lovely, her food is to die for and it is a genuine experience to cook with her. She epitomises, to me, what it is to cook food together. To share, to talk, to swap ideas, and to enjoy each other's company. We really just needed wine xx

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Photos

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Bags of chilli sauce

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Double bagged in rain ponchos and ready to go

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Gorgeous duckies not for eat .... Just yet ...

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Bitter melon

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Froggies

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My pork dish cooking in banana leaf on the coals

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Coals ready for our pork

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Prawn soup dish

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Chicken noodle dish

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Chef and her apprentice