Cooking Class

Breakfast in the hotel, which was pretty good, noodles. Then off to the market to meet our chef, today is cooking class. There early so we had a look around the market, way more touristy than yesterday market, but still interesting. Our chef, Kang, walked us through, buying ingredients for the class and explaining the food, actually very interesting, and a different take in yesterday tour.

The off to Saigon Cooking Class, set in a delightful building in an old square, once an old Optimum refinery …. The menu today, fresh spring rolls, beef and vegetable salad, and a fried squid with deep fried noodles. About 8 other people on the course and 2 assistants, who took great care of the kids, lots of knives involved! The plan being, prepare the course, then move across to the dining table to eat it, repeat.

All up, around 4 hours, and actually really interesting. Leant lots of things, such as the best way to use rice paper (don’t over wet it!) and how fish sauce is made. Salt, fish, salt, fish … leave for 12 months. Resulting sauce is … you guessed it. Yuck! Overall then, a very slick operation, well presented and a great booklet with all the recipes. Around 3.4 million dong … $180ish dollars for us all for 5 hours.

The back to the hotel, a reprieve from the heat and some planning for the next few days. Late afternoon we all headed out, the boys off to electronics stores and a search for a camera bag, the girls back the market.

Electronics on average appear to be around 20% cheaper, except obviously for Apple, and pretty good range. But in the area we’re straying, there is one big store and then literally many “holes in the wall” that are offering similar products, such as cameras. One of the mistakes I have made on the trip so far, aside from bringing too much stuff (!) is not bringing my usual camera case, as I thought it would be too big. So I went out today in search of its little brother, a Lowepro Slingshot 102AW. Found one, around $80 which I thought was worthwhile. The BEST case for traveling with camera equipment in my opinion, and the safest from being stolen.

Back to the hotel for a cold beer and out to dinner at “5 Oysters”. Recommend by the hotel and a short walk, but a little average and westernized sadly, not nearly as good as last night! But it was in a busy street, upstairs, and plenty of buzz. And its part of the experience.