Cooking in Vietnam: A Tale of Two Kitchens

This was our 6th international trip so far (from Kuala Lumpur).  We purchased our tickets on Air Asia almost a year ago, on a whim.  Air Asia had a sale RM59 (less than USD 20) one way to DaNang, Vietnam about 2 hours and 40 minute journey.  We bit, purchased the tickets and would decide what to do later.  Well, later came after we returned in July from two weeks in Bhutan.  The central coast of Vietnam could be no different.  I doubt we got to an altitude higher than 100 meters.  A far cry from the 4,000 meters in Bhutan.  Let me say, central Vietnam has beautiful beaches.  From DaNang to Hoi An is about 25 km of white sandy beach, and from DaNang to Hue, we viewed km upon km of beautiful beaches from our seats on the train.  But we are not beach people.  So we had to decide what to do.

Quite frankly, Liz has gotten tired of my cooking, and so have I.  Vietnam looked like a great place to learn new recipes, spicing, and some new techniques.

Hoi An

Perusing guidebooks, and the web, we found a plethora of cooking schools in Hoi An.  We had to decide, did we want touristy cooking classes with a short visit to a market, a boat ride to a village, a walk through an herb garden, followed by a demonstration of cooking.  Or did we want a total hands on cooking package.  For Hoi An we chose the middle ground.  Both Liz and I took a class at the Morning Glory cooking school, in the Morning Glory Restaurant.  We made reservations through the web.  Everything was quoted in USD and converting to VND lead to some gulping as the total VND cost came to over 1.2 million (USD 1 = VND20,810).

Liz on Market Tour

We arrived at the restaurant at 9am and quickly were divided into groups for the market tour.  The market was only two blocks away.  We were issued Vietnamese conical hats (to identify us in the market as the only  non-Asians wearing conical hats.  We started by wandering through the meat and poultry market.  All types of meat products were available, but contrary to similar meat markets in nearby countries, the facilities were clean, did not smell, and did not have fluids on the floor.

Meat in the market

 We made no purchases.  We ended up at a vegetable vendor.  Our guide showed us various herbs commonly used in Vietnam.  Vietnamese cuisine uses a wide variety of herbs (cilantro, Chinese cilantro, various varieties of basil (sweet, lemon, and anise (Thai)), a variety of ginger like tubers (old ginger, new ginger, turmeric, and galangal (laos or blue ginger)), and at least three varieties of garlic (large similar to what you find in a western market, a medium size, and a very small size (used for sauces and nuoc mam dips)).

Garlic and Shallots

 Lemon grass is ever present, and the use of lemon/lime leaves is common.

A large peeler was shown, and demonstrated by a vegetable sales person.  Wielded properly, it will shred lemon grass, peel a mango or papaya, create thin slices of vegetables which can then be cut into julienne strips, and even slice shallots into thin slices for deep frying.  And it only cost USD 2.50.  The hawkers would do well in US state fares, or European street markets.  We also saw and purchased a shredding device and a morning glory stem splitter (why I do not know but watch out in your Christmas gifts).  After the previous day when I discovered I knew nothing about local prices, I bargained long and hard to make my purchases.

Vegetables galore

We then crossed the street to the riverbank fish market.  Fresh eels squirmed in buckets, prawns were flipping in buckets, and crabs had rubber bands on their claws or were tied with strips of bamboo.  The fish you purchased had been live within the previous hour.  Needless to say,  no foul smells were present.

Crabs in the fish market

Finally we went to the fruit market to see rambutans, monkey eyes, papaya, mango, avocado, green oranges (great for sweet juice), watermelons, guava, jack fruit, passion fruit, and multiple varieties of bananas and plantains.  Later in the day we feasted on the largest peach I have ever seen (about the size of a softball).

Avocado and mango

After the market tour we retired to the second floor "theatre kitchen".  Enough tables for 24 people were arranged like a classroom in a semi circle.  The focus of attention was the center kitchen table with a huge mirror positioned so we could see the chef at work.

The chef and demo kitchen

 Each of the participants had a small sharp knife, banana leaves (as a cutting board), a small propane cook top, and several bottles of spices, and oils.  The class began with the chef showing us how to prepare a cabbage soup with shrimp mousse.  After watching we prepared our own soup.  The broth was pre-prepared, the shrimp were precooked and pre-smashed.  Our job was to make two shrimp mousse balls, place them on parboiled cabbage leaves, roll them, tie them with scallion leaves, and then cook them in the pre-prepared broth.  We seasoned with fish sauce, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil.  When finished we filled our bowls and devour the soup.

Cabbage soup with prawn mousse rolls

The second item to make was bbq chicken with chili, lemon grass and lemon leaves (which has become a favorite recipe).  Basically we watched the preparation of the marinade, then followed the same steps using the prepared ingredients.  We marinated the chicken and then put the breast pieces on skewers.  The chicken was set aside to marinate before being bbq'ed by the staff behind the scenes. Each skewer was marked by adding a piece of vegetable to the end.  24 different vegetables were available to choose from.  These were used to identify our concoction when they were returned 45 minutes later.

Summer spring roll with prawn

Our final item was making shrimp summer rolls.  Each of us was given two half shrimp, 3 slices of Vietnamese roasted pork (either tourist pork or local pork differentiated by the amount of fat).  You can guess who likes the fatty pork, and it isn't the tourist.  We also received a batch of vegetables, a piece of sliced immature banana, spring onions, corriander and what looke to be hoisin sauce.  We also receive a damp wash cloth, about the size of those provided on international flights.  We used the damp wash cloth to wipe the rice paper being careful not to over moisten  the rice paper.  We painted on the sauce, added the herbs, meat, banana, and finish with the shrimp.  All this is place on the lower 1/3 of the rice paper.  We then carefully began rolling the rice paper taking care to make the roll tight but not too tight, which would break the roll.  About half way through the process we folded in the sides and continued the process.  We sliced the roll on the diagonal, arranged on a plate and served with nuoc mam sauce.

BBQ chicken with lemongrass and cirron, sauted morning glory, and salad

Lunch was served.  We all praised the chef, and were offered the option to purchase a signed copy of the cookbook.  A nice tabletop volume with good recipies.  We  walked out between the filled tables in the restaurant below.

Hue

Hue is a large commercial and government center in Vietnam which has a tourist business with the presence of the Imperial Cidital, and the many royal tombs. The tourist cooking school business in Hue is much less developed. Searching the web we found the The Villa Hue Cooking Class offered by the Hue Tourism College, which is in part sponsored by the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg.  

We went to the college's hotel several days in advance to make our cooking class reservation.  We had a choice of late morning or late afternoon.  We chose the later.  We also had a choice of six menus and chose a vegetarian menu without deep frying.

On our arrival, we were given cooking whites, and a white cap. We were led into a commercial kitchen and met the Chef.  In contrast to the Morning Glory cooking school, there were no chairs, no mirrors but only a selection of vegetables.  The chef spoke no English, the the assistant general manager remained with us as a translator.  The two of us were the only students.

The Chef (on left) and students

Our class began with chopping vegetables.  We learned to properly julienne a cucumber, a carrot, and how to slice eggplant,  The chef demonstrated, and then we duplicated his actions.  Once the cutting was complete it was off to the commercial stove.  We learned to cook with stove chopsticks (longer than eating chopsticks), the order in which to cook the vegetables, and how to season the vegetables.  We seasoned multiple times during the cooking to get the flavour just right.  Always, the pan was hot.  Once one dish was complete it was back to the chopping area to prepare the next dish.

Eggplant with bean sauce

With the noodles (we cooked the noodles in water first to an almost al dente stage).  Next we pan fried the noodles adding the sauces at the last moment before service.  We dressed the noodles with the previously sauteed vegetables.

Noodles with complex vegetables

The final dish was the fresh spring rolls.  We used a special form of rice paper (very thin) where the moisture from the cooked vegetable softened the rice paper.  We just rolled the spring rolls, not tucking the ends, sliced them and placed them on the plate for service with the nuoc mam sauce.

Summer spring rolls

It was a very fast two hours in the kitchen.  We learned a lot.  And finally, we plated our dishes, placed them on the table in the dining room, stripped off our whites, sat down and ate our dinner.

All in all, I think I learned more at the Villa Hue cooking school, but it was not as visually exciting as the Morning Glory School.  Both were good, but they serve different audiences.