Red Bridge Cooking School in Hoi An

Many, many months ago when I used to work, and when I used to take the tube  everyday. I read the Metro. A free paper that used to keep me occupied during my 15 minute Journey. Most of the time it was pretty mundane stuff, but this one day they had a report on a cooking school in Hoi An, called the Red Bridge. It was quite a good report, and as we had just decided to quit work and goto South East Asia, I kept the article just in case we ended up in Vietnam.

As we have travelled North from Saigon, I have been meeting people who have been to the school. All reports were good. So as we arrived in Hoi An, I decided to do the class. I knew it was nothing to taxing, but just a mornings fun. Amazingly I even managed to persuade Lina to come with me. 

It runs everyday, with from what I can gather with about 18 people everyday. Nice little earner. You are taken around the central market and shown lots of fruit, veg, salads, fish, meat and normal everyday things that are used in a Vietnamese kitchen. All quite informative with lots of jokes from our market guide. It's amazing how much of Vietnamese food has a dual purpose. Like some leaves are good for arthritis, and some good for back pain. Two things I suffer from. Maybe I should move here. 

The market tour ends in a trip to a kitchen appliance stall, where we were shown the instruments to make flowers out of a carrots. Quite a hard sell, but in true Vietnamese fashion its all good fun. Quite a few people brought these implements, Lina included. I can really imagine her making petals from slices of carrot with every dinner we have from now on. Well it beats turning carrots as I was forced to do at Leiths. Failed miserably at that. 

We then had a leisurely 25 minute cruise downstream in their boat to the cooking school, which also turns out to be more of a resort than just a school. There is a restaurant and a swimming pool there, but as it is so far out of town, I can not see too many people making their way out there to dine. 

We were given a quick tour of their small herb garden. Lots of wonderful smells there. It was quite intoxicating. 

The area where we were to have our class was right on the water front. They had already set up the work stations for us, and chairs were lined up for us to watch the demonstrations. We each received a recipe sheet of everything we were going to cook, plus a few extras like dipping sauces etc. 

Our teacher for the class was the chef at the restaurant there. His jokes were well practised, and went very smoothly. He'd obviously been using them for quite a while. Some were funnier than others. 

We were first shown how to make a seafood salad, which was to be served in a cut out pineapple. Unfortunately we did not get to male this, but we did get to eat it afterwards and it was great. 

We made a quick aubergine and tomato sauce simmered in a clay pot. We never got to finish this and I am sure it was thrown away as the one we ate later was quite different.

Next we were shown how to make fresh rice paper. Quite a long process, with soaking the rice over night. Thankfully the rice had been soaked and blended. They are actually quite easy to make, all you need is a large pan 1/2 full of simmering water. A cloth tied tightly over the top and a larger lid. You take a ladle full of the liquid, pour it on the cloth and move it around from the middle to the outside. Pop the lid on, let it steam for one minute. Then prise it off with a thin piece of bamboo. This took me two attempts to get it off as the first one folded in on its self and stuck fast. The second was much better. Everyone made a decent attempt at it and we all got to roll our own salad rolls with an already prepared ingredients. They were delicious. Still not overly keen on the peanut dipping sauce as for me it doesn't taste too peanutty. But the chilli sauce. Delish.

After scoffing our salad rolls we were shown how to make Hoi An pancakes and a bit of fruit decoration. The pancakes were nice but a little bit greasy, as you use quite a lot of oil. But rolled in rice paper they were very good. My attempts of making a fan out of the cucumber and a rose from the tomato were, well not so fruitful. The picture shows how they should of looked. Not going to claim that one. 

Class finished with we sat down in the restaurant to eat all what we cooked. The aubergine in a clay pot was quite different from the one we started to cook earlier. This one had a few more ingredients in like garlic. I wonder what happened to ours. The seafood salad in pineapple was really delicious. We also had a steamed fish in a sweet and sour sauce, which we wrapped with salad in rice paper. Really delicate flavours. All washed down with a glass of Australian Pinot Grigot, it was a fun morning. Everyone had a good time. It was a different way of spending a morning, and nothing to taxing on the cooking front. 

Lina has said she wants to do all the cooking courses with me now. Finally I can get her to cook for me.... 

Next course Hanoi.

www.visithoian.com/redbridge.html

Bad Service or Over Service !!!

When does service become over service and when does that all become bad service. When you visit Aspara in Danang. For some reason al the staff had the longest faces, and were not very happy, either by being there or just in general, we were not sure. From the minute we walked in through the gates, we were getting funny looks off the staff. This I normally take as they either do not like foreigners as we do not speak their language, or we are not dressed to their standards. Tonite however, it must have been the former as we were looking pretty smart. 

I had heard about this place and heard only good reviews about the food, so we wanted to give it a try. It prides itself on it's Champa roots, so all the dishes, mainly seafood, are Champa based. There is even a small Champa Temple in the garden as you walk in. All very atmospheric. 

We were seated and given some menu's and immediately asked what we wanted to drink and order before we had even a chance to open the menu's. I guess they were just keen. The menu is vast, so this took us some time to go through, much to the annoyance of the waiters and waitresses, who kept wanting to take our order. We ordered a couple of drinks, just to keep them happy. We then scanned through the menu again, whilst we waited for our drinks. We decided on some salad rolls and some pork wrapped in shrimp paste and grilled for starters, and a Hot Pot with Fish Tien Sa Style. (Could not find out what Tien Sa was, or is, only that it was not spicy). 

The atmosphere made by the staff was over bearing. Our waitress who had a face like she was chewing a bee, she insisted on making our pork, shrimp rolls for us, we could have done it  ourselves, but hers were better, and I have never seen anyone roll something before with chopstix. Impressive. As we were eating, she would wander over and rearrange our table, just to make everything look perfect. This really got on my nerves, as she put everything just out of range. So I had to move my drink and dipping sauces closer. Grrrrr ...

Then came our hotpot, which she obviously didn't trust us to do it properly ourselves, so she did it for us behind our table. No matter what protests we made, we were ignored. Surprising she didn't eat it for us also. 

I have to say though, the food was really really good, just a shame that the over service was too much and really let the place down. Needless to say we didn't tip anything, which I think they were kinda surprised at, as their faces when they saw this were quite shocked.

A tip for them. Smile.

Saigon, Saigon

I had always had high expectations of Vietnam, especially its food. I suppose this has come about from so many people I know coming here and raving about it so much. 

I have passed through Bangkok so many times over the years, and it is quite baffling that it has taken me so long to come to Vietnam. But as they say, good things come to those who wait. 

We entered Vietnam from Cambodia. So Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City was our first stop. It is a really busy city, lots of life, great vibes. Shame there are 5,000,000 moto's ploughing the roads at high speeds. Makes crossing the road an interesting past time.

After a delayed check in to our hotel, and my first taste of Vietnamese Coffee and several bananas, we ventured onto the streets of Saigon. 

After seeing a lot of places catering for tourists, doing western food we were in need of something filling, but not too heavy. 

We wandered down a small alleyway and came across a small restaurant with an open kitchen on one side of the alley and the tables on the other side. Now if a restaurant is brave enough to let you stand there and watch your food being cooked, then it can't be all bad. 

So we took a table and ordered 2 bottles of Bia Saigon. Much needed refreshment. 

We ordered some fresh Salad Rolls, Lotus Root Salad and Pork with Lemongrass and chilli (which I have eaten now several times and is fast becoming a personal favourite.) 

When we bit into the Salad Rolls, the first thing we tasted were the fresh herbs. This is how I expected them to be, and we were not let down. 

The Lotus Root Salad was similar to Green Papaya Salad, but without the heat. of its Thai cousin. Really really good. 

The Pork and Lemongrass & Chilli, as I said before is fast becoming a favourite of mine. Seem to be having it everywhere. It's the combination of minced lemongrass and chilli that drives my taste buds mad. Simply Delicious. 

Walking around the markets, you can see the amazing fresh produce, this for me is what makes Vietnam such an exciting culinary destination. I for one and going to eat my way through it.

Death By Chilli ....

The question that I have been pondering in the last few days is, can a chilli kill? 

The reason I have been thinking about this is because a chilli, or a slice of chilli nearly killed me. Well almost. 

We were at a popular lunchtime spot called Quan An Ngon, here in Saigon. I was happily eating away at my Green Papaya Salad with Sliced Pigs Ears, and some Salad Rolls with Pork and Shrimp. These were going down very well, when I decided to try some of Lina's Hue Style Pho, which was fantastic. But it needed a bit of heat to match the Salad I was eating, so I reached over with my chpstix and picked up a slice of green chilli, and said to Lina, "I am addicted to chilli, I need the heat", and popped it in my mouth. Within 2 seconds it attached the back of my throat like a firebomb. I have never felt such pain before and so quickly also. Lina said my face went red from the bottom up, and my eyes were watering. I grabbed over and picked up her coconut and  finished off her  juice, then downed a bottle of water I had in my bag. Still the pain was there. Was it ever going to go away. Finally after a few minutes it resided. 

Whilst this was going on, I was trying, and did a good job of keeping the pain in. No screams. Hopefully noone noticed around us that I was in incredible pain.

I always thought I could eat any chilli, as I really am addicted to them. But normally they just burn the front of my mouth, never my throat as this evil monster did. 

The last time I felt real pain was a few years ago in a restaurant in Palenque, Mexico, we were given some nachos and a dark red chilli dip to go with our beers. The chilli's burnt my lips and tongue, but I kept going back for more and more. The pain was intense, it felt as if the front of my mouth was on fire. I was red and sweating, but I still scooped up loads of the dip on my nachos, knowing what it was going to do to me. But I had to keep that feeling going.  Addiction.

After this recent incident, I have been wondering, could a chilli actually kill, and so how many times have these little devils struck. Should they be given a warning. Could you sue a restaurant or shop if you encountered a particularly fiery beast, and they never warned you. But isn't that the fun, every chilli could be that ticking time bomb, waiting to strike when you least expect it. 

I, myself will continue to play Russian Roulette with these little time bombs. I enjoy living life on the edge.