We usually begin with the Lonely Planet recommendations for eating, sleeping and what to do. Then John has been #1 researcher in following up on leads. Somehow, he led us to Miss Van, who owns the Green Bamboo cooking school in Hoi An. We booked it last night and today at 8:00 in the morning, we were walking the local market with Van, who explained everything we wanted to know (and was kind enough to skirt around the ones we didn’t want to know!). Her English is very fine, and she is married to a Swede, so she’s trilingual. Suffice to say, we had a morning/early afternoon that will be a memory of a lifetime! We began through the vegetables (thank goodness!), and got to taste many flavors we know–of course, fresh basil, and fresh mustard greens–as well as many that were new to us. She buys soy sauce with the beans still floating in the sauce, and fresh peanuts, which we roasted once we got to her kitchen. Her peanut oil is fresh off the plant. I mean, it was amazing. We’ll never look at Asian food the same way again!
Here’s a shot he took of us as we started out.
- Ladies at the market
As we wandered through the market, purchasing the ingredients for our lunch, things became a bit dicier. I really wanted to think about not eating meat when I saw the poor birds strapped to each other, saying, ” We’re in this together, Bob. I’m nervous. Will you go first, or me? Maybe we’ll go out together!”
Frannie, I'm sorry I keep waking you up!
Sorry I had to cook you, Bob!
After the shopping trip, we loaded our purchases into the transport and headed on our to Van’s house, near the beach, where we began the fun, and long process of mixing the sauces (Van says she’ll send all the recipes to us soon!) and chopping and cleaning the pork and shrimp, which were the mainstay of our lunch. I’ll post some photos of the start to finish (because, even tonight, I can’t tell you where the peanut sauce came in and the lemon grass got mushed!). I’ll definitely be looking for an Asian grocery store when we get back. Anyone game?!
Into the process
Amazing!
Teresa Van Haalen Ventures 