Green Bamboo Cooking Class

The last time I was in Hoi An, I did a cooking class with Red Bridge Cooking School. It was my very first time doing a cooking class anywhere in the world besides in my own kitchen with my mum when I first started learning the tricks of the trade.

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from a cooking class but I did not enjoy the the one at Red Bridge. The person who thought us how to cook was kind of rude and he wasn't very helpful either, he got slightly frustrated when we did not do it correctly the first time. Also, I felt like the whole cooking experience was very rushed and at the end of it all, he didn't even give us the recipes!

This time around, I did a bit more research and thought that I would like to try another cooking class but with Ms. Vy :) She's like the backbone of Hoi An's food with so many restaurants to her name like her famous Morning Glory Restaurant, The Market, Cargo Club, Mermaid and many more. Unfortunately, her cooking classes were all booked out when I wanted to do them so onto Plan B. A colleague of mine mentioned to me that she did a cooking class with Van - Green Bamboo Cooking School and it was really good so that was who I went with...definitely no regrets :)

What I loved about this cooking class was that we got to choose what we wanted to cook! There was a group of 9 of us and each of us was in charge of cooking one dish. 9 dishes + a dessert that Van had cooked for us...that's a lot of food for one cooking class! I definitely recommend anyone going to Hoi An to do this cooking class, it's totally worth it! You start the day off at the market with Van buying the ingredients you need to cook your dish and after that, we all head back to Van's place to start our cooking class.

Here are a few photos of what we got up to in her kitchen :)

1. Vietnamese pancake with shrimp and pork (Banh Xeo)  

We all got a turn or two to cook our own banh xeo, I think I had about three turns. I just couldn't get enough of it :)

vietnamese pancake with shrimp and pork - banh xeo

2 and 3. Chicken rissoles with lemongrass, garlic & shallot and Fishcake with lemongrass, shallot and garlic

Yes, I know...they look quite similar.

4.Seafood Soup

I was suppose to choose a beef bbq dish but got the numbers mixed up so I ended up cooking the seafood soup and did a brilliant job at it :)

5. Beef Salad

6. Cao Lau  - only in Hoi An :)

7. Fish in Claypot

8. Vietnamese Mix Salad

I picked this dish and absolutely loved it coz it had green mango, green papaya, purple cabbage, carrot, banana blossom, prawns, roasted peanuts, fried shallots, lemon basil and mint leaves in it...lots of the good stuff! To be honest though, it was a lot of hard work because I had to shred all the vegetables and it was very tiring. A few times, I nearly shred my finger off too but luckily, I didn't.

9. Pho Bo

10. Che  - a vietnamese dessert

Last but not least, she also gave us a shot of some homemade whiskey :)