After breakfast we left the hotel around 0820. I wasn’t too sure about this mornings tour as it was a cookery class!!
As we left breakfast, the pool area was empty, as you can see there are no German tourists staying here (ask if you don’t understand).
We met our guide and walked into town where we went to one of the larger restaurants. The lady who owns this restaurant has done a really good job, not only with the restaurant and food, she also prepares food for other restaurants as well as some of the street vendors. She now has 10 restaurants of her own!
We met our chef / guide for the day, Gerri. She started at the restaurant 14 years ago, cleaning tables. She taught herself English by talking to the customers and slowly worked her way up the ranks to where she is today.
We first headed out to the morning market where Gerri explained all the different meats, vegetable, fish and spices that were available. There were hundreds!!
We walked back to the restaurant, and were given a tour of some of the cooking stations, then it was time to put our culinary skills to the test. Our first task… Wontons. The filling was already prepared, ALL we had to do was place the filling in the won ton and seal it! The casing was a rice bases, very thin dough. We were shown how to make two different shaped ones, I never could follow instructions and failed miserably. They still tasted good though!
Next up was a spring roll, again we were lucky all the filling was prepared, again ALL we had to do was wrap it! The wrapping was an exceedingly thin piece of rice paper, the filling was pork slices, shrimp, green salad, yam, a small crunchy spring roll and a slice of 5 star fruit. This time the wrapping was a little easier, and again the taste was great.
Next it was time to prepare a marinade for the chicken. We chopped up turmeric, garlic, and shallot and then pounded it all together using a pestle and mortar. The chicken had also been coated with some other ingredients, but I can’t remember them all. Our concoction was then spread onto the chicken and it was left to sit.
After the chicken had been prepared we prepared a mango salad to go with it. We started off peeling the mango and then cutting it into thin slices, we added some herbs and greens and then prepared a (not too) spicy dressing. By the time all that had been done, the chicken miraculously re-appeared cooked! We sat down to eat another tasty creation.
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Although the write up makes it sound quick, we spent about four hours there altogether. It turned out to be a very interesting and informative experience.
We walked back to the hotel and cooled down for a bit in the room. We also had to fill out an eArrival form for Cambodia which required all known information about us plus a photo to be uploaded to the government site. This wouldn’t have been so bad had the government not changed the rules 2 days before we left requiring us to obtain an eVisa by uploading all known information about us plus a photo to be uploaded to the government site, and charging us $36(US) each for doing so!!
Once that was done and we had our magic QR code, we decided to go and hire a cyclo (well that’s what it sounded like). It was a bike, with the front converted to seat a person, and the driver did all the hard work from the saddle.
We’ve just got back from another night walk around the city in search of dessert, we didn’t need dinner after our cookery class. The town comes alive at night with lanterns, both on land and on the water
Tomorrow we head back to Da Nang by car, then fly to Siem Reap in Cambodia for a few days.