After an exciting day being measured for new clothes we had little planned for today other than taking it easy. Our first agenda item was a cooking class we had signed up for that didn’t start until 11. Being the lazy folks we are we laid in until around 10 and skipped breakfast, and then got up and walked down to the class. Once there we were met by Barry, Gaynor and Summer who had also signed up for the class. Soon after our tutor arrived, Vina, a tiny Vietnamese lady who told us her nickname was Passionfruit, and that’s what we should call her. She asked us all our names, and informed me that Tom was Vietnamese for shrimp. That was very nearly the last time she called me Tom, opting for Shrimp thereafter.
Our first job was to go to the market so that Vina (it’s shorter to write than passionfruit) could show us how to select vegetables and fish correctly, how to tell if things are still fresh or if they will be sweet or sour etc. Pretty much all of it I didn’t know before so hopefully I’ll be able to call on that next time we’re picking up stuff from tesco. Vina picked up a few items and had Strong Man Shrimp carry her bag for her as we trundled back to the restaurant. I don’t think she used any of the things we bought at the market, so I’m assuming it’s just a method for her to get someone to carry her shopping for her. Her catchprase seemed to be “you geddit?” whenever she explained something to us, to which she later insisted we always reply, “yes Passionfruit!” to indicate our agreement. She was very good fun.
Our lesson had us cooking four courses, all of which we would be eating which sounded like the best part to me. There was sweet and sour chicken soup, fried spring rolls, green papaya salad and fish in banana leaf. We started by creating a marinade for the chicken soup, mixing some stock powder, sugar and sesame oil and coating the chicken, an setting it aside for later. That was the soup dealt with for the time being so we moved onto the fried spring rolls. Our first job was to chop up the veggies, onion, carrot and turnip (actually we grated the turnip and carrot), mash the peas, and then squeeze the juice out if them. This is done by putting the veggies into a cloth and squeezing the heck out of it until no more juice comes out. We then add this mixture to stock powder, pepper and the pork and mix it all up, before dolloping it into some soft rice paper to roll the spring rolls. Again, we set these aside to be fried later.
We finished of the soup so we could get stuck into our first course. This involved cooking the marinaded chicken, piling in the pineapple, onion, lemon juice, fish sauce, chilli paste, pepper and boiling water and bringing the whole lot to the boil, adding tomato and okra later. It was very tasty, and at the table we could add more lemon juice, chilli paste or fish sauce to change to our tastes accordingly.
The only thing left to do with the spring rolls was deep fry them, so they were plunged into medium hot oil and fried for 3 minutes on each side. The secret of a non-oily spring roll – stand on its end to drain, not lie flat.
The green papaya salad was easy enough. Once you’ve stripped your papaya, grated the carrot, mixed them together and squeezed out the juice, it’s just a case of frying them together for 30 seconds with a few other bits and coating with a dressing sauce we’d just made. It was a similar story with the fish in banana leaf, having marinaded the fish in a quick to prepare sauce, it’s simply placed inside a banana leaf (or tin foil if you have to – it’s only for presentation) add the marinade sauce, wrap it up and BBQ it for 5 minutes on each side.
All of us thoroughly enjoyed Passionfruit’s class and had a great time making our 4 course lunch, and learned quite a bit in the process. At the end we could buy some bits and bobs as momentos, so we got some cooking chopsticks, and apron and a couple of the magic cloths for squeezing juice out of stuff. When we get home we’ll no doubt have a crack at recreating our class menu too.
After the class we had to attend fittings for our clothes we were having made, so we headed off to do that. Mrs Tom’s skirt and one of her dresses fitted perfectly, the other dress just needing a slight adjustmet to make it ready. My trousers were fine but the legs were unfinished (and over-length by maybe close to half a metre) and the jacket currently had no sleeves on. Apparently they do it that way because I’m difficult to make for being so tall. Gets in the way of a lot of stuff does my stoopid size. It all seemed to be going well, but I couldn’t really tell as the three people stood around me rattling on at each other were all speaking Vietnamese. After a short while we left and took a bit of a wander around the city.
In contrast to Laos where things ran much more slowly, Vietnam, even in a slower place like Hoi An, just seems to run at a higher pace. The people selling stuff are also quite forward and it’s impossible to walk anywhere without beig offered a motorbike tour, cyclo, bicycle or taxi, or being asked if you want any fruit, drinks, snacks, clothes, jewellery, bags or a million other things. It’s still a nice place though, and now being a world heritage site is at least subject to preservation, so that look should continue unspoiled.
With a bit of time to kill before our afternoon fitting we head back to the hotel for a nap. The fitting also goes well and Mrs Tom’s stuff is all done now, apart from one last slight adjustment to what has turned out to be a great looking dress. My shirts are spot on and my jacket now has sleeves, but I want a few tweaks made. The flap on the ticket pocket is a little bigger than I’d like and the trouser legs are a little long (for the first time ever in my life) so we mark things up and leave them to it.
We had been told that you can take items into the tailor shops and ask them to copy them. I have a pair of linen trousers that have seen better days (though that doesn’t stop me wearing them now) so I took them into Yaly to see how much that would be. After being told $45 I thought better of it, and so decided to try Mr Xe, just down the road, and recommended by our guide book. Mr Xe said he would do them for $17. I was so chuffed I asked for two pairs, and so impressed were we with Mr Xe’s tariff that Mrs Tom got a new top made for the princely sum of $14. Well pleased.
Having eaten substantially at lunch those of us that attended the class had agreed that we wouldn’t want a huge dinner, and Darren and Steven said they would stock up at lunchtime so they could join us in a small tea. We had arranged to meet Summer, Steven and Darren in the wine bar where we would have a few classes and a plate of cheese instead of a proper dinner. What we hadn’t known having been out all day was that Raf had left a note for us in reception at the hotel about meeting for dinner in the wine bar at 7:30, so at 7:30 Barry, Gaynor and Rafa turned up too. Rafa had organised a place for us to eat dinner, but none of us had been initially keen. Secretly I was pleased as the cheese plate was a bit on the meager side, and though I didn’t want a huge meal I would be glad of the opportunity for grub.
The restaurant was small and quiet and had a special menu of street food type dishes, so rather than having anything huge I had some cau lau (a pork, noodles and veggies dish) and some fried won tons, and bloody delicious they were too. Mrs Tom had a white rose (a sort of seafood dumpling affair) and some kind of pancake.
After what was a relatively quick tea we went for after dinner drinks at another of Rafaele’s recommendations, Tam Tam bar. This was a bit more our style as it was not as loud but still played ok music, and we could chill out and chat and even play some pool on the massive pool table (I think at least 8 feet). We met a stereotypically lesbian Australian called Amy who was rather interesting, and managed to get the usually restrained Darren to have a mock wheelchair race from one side of the bar to the other (the chairs rolled forwards slightly making this motion almost natural). The staff were not too happy about that one. I had a few games of pool, losing on my own but winning in a doubles game with Summer. I then played alongside a chap who refuses to play with both hands because it’s not fair on the opponents, so he plays with one hand behind his back. He was called An, and he was genuinely bloody good. I tried to encourage him to use both hands so I could see what all the fuss was about but he didn’t want to.
On the previous night in the Before and After bar we were hassled by some chap trying to get us to go to a beach party a few km away. On consulation with Rafa we had decided it sounded ok (he had been before), so tonight we thought we’d give it a go. After a little bit of arsing about it turned out we’d missed the last bus. Ho hum.
To compensate for the lack of beach partying we decided to use our massive balcony to full effect and have everyone to our room for a drink or two, having aquired some whisky and lau lau for the earlier train journey that we hadn’t finished. I had a good old chat with Rafa and everyone else seemed chatty, but at around 2am we knocked it on the head as folks were beginning to tire.
Another satisfactory day completed.