The Jamie Oliver wannabe in Hoi An

What a great day - I like Hoi An! The cooking class doesn't start till 11am, so I go for a stroll through some of the sights. Hoi An was once THE trading capital of Vietnam in the 16th and 17th centuries, and all the old architecture is still standing - fortunately unscathed by the war 40 years ago. Japanese, Dutch, Chinese and Indian traders set up emporiums here, and the Assembly Halls, old houses and Japanese Covered Bridge are definite sights to see on the walking trail around town.


Chinese Assembly Hall. A shame about the bus loads of bloody tourists - wish they'd get of of my photo!




Hoi An straddles the Hoai River, which is still in flood after the recent storms. A lot of the old town close to the riverbank is inaccessible, as you can see here.

I'm picked up at 11am by a moto rider and have yet another wild ride through flooded streets to meet up with the rest of the cooking class - about 13 of us all told. After a refreshing drink (try a mixture of orange, pineapple and lemon juice) we're off to explore the markets and find out just what all those strange foods are on display. The markets start at around 1am when the stall holders purchase their goods from wholesalers. The fish, meat and veges are straight off the boat/butchery/farm at this point. Ice keeps some foods cool (eg fish), but most of the produce survives pretty well through the morning, when the markets are the most active.

We don't buy anything though - all our ingredients are pre-purchased for us. We board a bus and are taken out to a place called Red Bridge a few kms from town. Normally we'd boat to it, but the river is too dangerous in flood. Red Bridge is a nice restaurant, and a little area has been specially set up with individual gas stoves for us. Our chef takes us through the following dishes, and we get to make some of them too:

• Warm squid salad in half a pineapple (demo only)
• Vietnamese eggplant in clay pot (demo and practice)
• Fresh rice paper rolls of shrimp (demo and practice)
• Hoi An pancakes - savoury (demo and practice)
• Food decoration - tomato flower and cucumber hand fan (demo and practice)
• Steamed ocean fish on a bed of mixed vegetables (recipe only)

All are delicious (and of course we get to sample most of what we make). The squid salad is superb, and I'm itching to try it when I get home. The eggplant dish is better than it sounds - the eggplant is boiled in water and lemon grass rather than being fried. Then the water is drained off and tomato puree and pineapple juice added to the now non-bitter eggplant. Brilliant!

The Vietnamese equivalent of spring rolls are made from rice paper rather than being deep-fried, and are all the better for it. Of course I made my own rice paper...


and very tasty my shrimp rolls are too. Jamie Oliver - eat your heart out!

My tomato flower is pretty good, but I don't slice the cucumber thinly enough to get a good fan, so the photo doesn't grace the blog!

After all the snacking we sit down to a slap-up lunch, which includes the steamed ocean fish - perhaps the only dish that doesn't appeal to me.

I don't get to make my favourite chicken, lemon grass, chili and ginger stir fry, but it looks pretty straightforward - I'll do a bit of experimenting when I get home.

All in all an excellent session - the only cautionary note comes from our chef who advises it's best not to say "Yum" when in Vietnamese company with good food. It means "horny". And you can guess what "Yum, yum" means!



The view out over the river from Red Bridge.

After lunch we bus back in to town, and on my way back to the hotel come across a little stall selling chopsticks with stands in a lacquered box with dragons embossed on the top. Now I already have an excellent set of Japanese chopsticks from Nik, but I couldn't resist these ones. Guess I might just need a set of chopsticks from every country I visit where I'm inspired by the food! I also pick up a slicing/chopping tool that makes short work of veges, and is better than a grater.

My walk back to the hotel takes me back through the food markets...


I have a soft spot for chooks, and don't like seeing these guys caged up. But it's the way things work here, so c'est la vie. Just as well they're not pukekos!



And I think I might have mentioned before that anything can be carried by moto.

Noon tomorrow I head back to Da Nang and fly on down to HCM. A few days on the Mekong delta await, but for now it's good bye from central Vietnam.