KEY POINTS:
Bless Han, she had a real beginner on her hands.
I had signed up for a cooking class in Hoi An and warned my fellow students I wasn't much chop in the kitchen.
I love food - and even more when it's of the Asian variety - but
it usually comes over the counter at the local food hall.
To make a dish from scratch was, in my mind, prolonging the eating bit. But I was in Vietnam and it seemed like the perfect time to try my hand at this cooking business.
Our cooking teacher Han, a youthful looking 20, said she would work for a year solid and then get time off. She would sleep in the restaurant where our class was conducted and send money home to her family. Despite her gruelling work life she ran her class with charm and enthusiasm, treating us like we were the first group of her life.
I took meticulous notes during class, taking down Han's every instruction as we started with spring rolls, moved on to papaya salad and finished with fish wrapped in banana leaf.
Our group of four were given chopping, grating, wrapping and frying tasks and I must say my spring roll folding and grating of papaya was rather exceptional.
Fellow student Tony elicited some giggles from Han when his spring roll turned out slightly longer than the average, but all four of us had a brilliant time making and then eating the fruits of our labour.
Unfortunately, I have no idea where I stashed those notes among my belongings and could not find them on my return home.
Friends and family will forever be deprived of my Vietnamese cooking skills _ but can rest assured I remember how to cut an onion without crying and recall how to test the oil temperature with my chopsticks.
High on my list of things to do in Vietnam was eat. Especially fresh spring rolls, the mouth-watering morsels of pork, shrimp, lettuce and mint rolled in rice paper and served with a dipping sauce. No deep frying. Healthy and delicious.
Our Intrepid guide advised me to wait until Hoi An, where the fresh spring rolls were the best in the country. It was a whole four days into our journey - the torture! - but it was sound advice.
We arrived in town in time for lunch and headed for the Banana Leaf cafe, where my yearning was satisfied. And again the next day, when I made the 20 minute trek back to the Banana Leaf from the hotel in 30-degree heat.
Our tour was as much about food as it was visiting temples, museums and other sight-seeing activities. We lunched on divine tofu dishes at a nunnery in Hue, dined at the rooftop restaurant of the Rex Hotel in Saigon, and experienced the unique Cyclo Restaurant in Hanoi.
One of the more interesting food experiences came about in Hue, where some of our tour group opted for dinner at the royal restaurant An Dinh Vien, where guests dress in traditional robes and are led along a lantern-lit pathway to a private room. Our king and queen were selected in the dressing room and Don and Colleen took to the roles, and elaborate robes, as though born to it.
Musicians performed traditional music as waiters delivered dishes that were so beautifully presented we would all whip out the camera for a photo before devouring the culinary artworks.
Another highlight was breakfast at Koto restaurant in Hanoi. Supported by the Intrepid Foundation, the restaurant runs an intern programme for street kids and other disadvantaged youth who want to learn the hospitality trade. Seventy trainees at a time attend an 18-month programme studying food and beverage or commercial cookery. The training is complemented by English language classes. The restaurant has a European slant and the staff were some of the friendliest we came across.
Koto is a thriving programme and after many years of support, the Intrepid Foundation is switching patronage to a new venture in Hanoi, a soup kitchen which is also based on teaching street kids skills in the food industry.
