Day 8 - Vietnam Discovery from Hanoi to the Meekong Delta - 'Inside Vietnam' adventure with EXPLORE

Day 8 - Cooking up a Storm in Hoi An

We had a free day today here in Hoi An to do as we pleased.  The gloomy weather this morning rolled in, as usual, and the heavy downpours cancelled the planned cycling trip to the countryside for some.  We're here in Hoi An until Day 10, when we'll head south by plane to Ho Chi Minh.  Joseph tells us that Vietnamese generally prefer to call it Saigon.  It was as humid a day today as it had been all the journey.

It's become very clear to all of us that Vietnam at this time of year means two or three showers and two or three changes of clothes every day.  The best tip I can give with this new knowledge is pack half a dozen of the essential clothing items and just get them washed frequently along the way.   Launderettes and hotel laundry services are cheap and very common, laundry services outside hotels are crazy cheap and although hotels are three to four times the price, they're still very affordable.

I'd written my diary/blog for yesterday so once laptop was closed, I messaged Nick as agreed earlier this morning and met him by the main bridge between our little island to the mainland.

We went to a little café, buildings here are frequently narrow and narrow staircases up to each floor.  He'd been to this café yesterday so recommended sitting out on the roof terrace.  So we got some drinks and food ordered and made our way to the terrace.  Or perhaps today it was better described as ‘Influencers terrace’.

The small outdoor area today is full of people jostling for position with their selfie sticks and tripods, moody pouting and peace signs to camera, likely dreaming of their first million followers.  We leave them to do their path to fame projects and wedge ourselves onto some stools near the stairs.

Later in the afternoon those of us who had signed up for culinary school, Sarah, Nick, Steve, Morag, Graham and I met in the reception and eagerly discussed how we think our highly anticipated cooking class will go.  Our cooking teacher arrived with our electric golf cart transport ready for us to board.  We briefly visited a local market street and are shown a whole bunch of different fruits and veg, a bit of a guessing game for sure and got to taste some food we had no idea what they were.

We hopped off our electric buggy and walked the short distance through the narrow streets, dodging puddles and scooters, to our venue for this evening, 'The Green Mango' restaurant.  We had a drink at the bar first, the bar was a dimly lit affair with electric blue lighting.   So, sharp knives, boiling oil and alcohol, what could possibly go wrong this evening.   We were led through the curtains at the back of the restaurant to our group cooking bench.  Chefs’ hats and aprons issued, spoons in pocket, hand towels tucked over the belts, we were fully adorned with all the chef gear and no chef-ing idea.

It's quite a varied and flavoursome menu we were tasked with concocting, Spring Rolls, Banana leaf wrapped Red Snapper and Mango Rice to name a few.  It was a really wonderful experience this evening, a true highlight of the adventure, immersing ourselves in Vietnamese cooking culture.  We’ve decided to take on our chef personas for our soon to be found culinary fame, we shall be known as Chef Veggie (Sarah), Chef Biggy (Steve), Chef Smalls (Graham), Chef Le'Vel Spoon (Me), Chef Malibu (Nick) and Chef Boss (Morag).

We were each handed different parts of the processes to do, so we're all participating in the creations we shall dine on later.  The Spring Rolls are created by each of us, an eclectic mix of varied shapes and sizes, a variety of shapes and sizes you'll never see anywhere else.  "How's this slicing Chef?”, “I think I put in too much Malibu Chef?", "More, more, with the spicy fish sauce Chef!".  We had prepped many of the dishes, folded, cut, wrapped and flattened until there was nothing left.

The stoves were lit and we were let loose to deep fry and boil our creations, our teacher casting careful eye on the proceedings.  My expert turning of the Spring Rolls only received mild acknowledgement while Chef Smalls rice stirring is marked as 9.9 by most of the judges, along with little claps of praise.  Chef Veggie had her own carefully created menu, Chef Malibu had fully immersed himself in his character role and looked ready to be an extra in a James Bond movie.  Chef Biggie chopped and sliced his way towards his first Michelin Star and Chef Boss  kept Chef Smalls in check (they are married to be fair!)

Our banana leaf wrapped Red Snapper dish was taken to the main kitchen to be cooked by those that really know what they are doing.  We hoped that our creations hot not been replaced with 'here's some we prepared earlier’.  We got another drink as we are released from our culinary duties to sit in the main restaurant to eagerly await our culinary creations.  For certain we couldn’t complain tonight about the food that arrived!  Finished with our hearty meals and we all agreed, not too bad for beginners!

It was actually quite impressive at how much we had cooked as it filled all the available space on our table, amazing fragrant smells from the spring rolls wafted in the air.  The Mango rice was really tasty, and the fish parcels were hot, hot, hot!  It was a thoroughly amazing and memorable three hours of cooking and eating with our merry band of Michelin starred trainees.  A lot of fun, good laughs with great company and some new cooking skills acquired.

As we departed we'd had a whip round for a 'tip' to give to our great cooking teacher.  She'd taught us well, had a great sense of humour and made the evening thoroughly enjoyable.  We made sure she got tip directly so hopefully all straight into her pocket.

Later on some of the group met up at the Irish Bar on the main strip.  There was a house band playing, drinks were in and we heard the absolute murder of 'Zombie' by The Cranberries.  The 'vocalist' screamed with such a tone that Death Metal Thrash bands would have been envious of his guttural growling skills or lack thereof.  The tonal brutality didn't stop there as 'Careless Whisper' was performed in a manner that would make you stop believing in Christmas, not to mention that it seeming evacuated the cities cat and rat populations and anything else with ears.

The Committee of five beer tasters decided to save their remaining hearing and escaped over the main bridge out of the audible range of the musical(?) murders taking place and convened the evenings meeting at a quiet bar, well away from the Ibiza beach front and the increasingly persistent hawkers of Hoi An.  We customarily solved half the world’s ills over a few drinks and countless soon to be forgotten jokes to conclude the day’s exciting, intriguing and sometimes beguiling events.