Cooking up a storm

We went on a most excellent cooking class this afternoon. It's called the Red Bridge Cooking School, which took place at a resort about 25 minutes by river from Hoi An (downstream!).

We started with a tour of the local food market. We saw all sorts of crazy vegetables and fruits. We bought a couple Vietnamese cooking gadgets. The fish section was crazy, though apparently not as crazy as it is at 2AM when all of the catch comes in.

Side Note: Our friends Katie and Mike took us to an AMAZING restaurant called the Mango Room. It is owned by the Head Chef, Duc. Duc is Vietnamese born, who was adopted by a family in Texas. He later traveled all over Latin America and Europe. Anyway, he told us that the fish market is first-come first-serve. So, they call him (at 2AM i guess) and he has 30 minutes to go down there or else he won't get fresh fish for the day.

So, then we went down to the docks and took a long boat to the cooking school. The class was great fun. We made clay pot eggplant and our own rice paper to rolling fresh spring rolls ... well, at least I made the rice paper, Jill had some issues :) We then learned about some other Vietnamese specialties.

Of course we then went in to the restaurant where they fed us the same meal that we all just prepared. Awesome! And it was all for $15!

[rk]