We got up semi-early for our Thuan Tinh Island cooking tour. We got picked up from our hotel and brought to the market in Hoi An where we walked with the chef, tour guide and six other tourists (class sizes were 10 or less) and went through the morning market, picking up ingredients for the dishes that we were going to make later that day. The experience was quite interesting as the market was bustling, the food on display was fresh, the seafood was still alive, and the market was right next to the river. I even found out that turmeric came from a root that looked like ginger!
After the market tour, we got on a boat and had a relaxing cruise up the river to Thuan Tinh island where we found a very well laid out building with three separate open air cooking classrooms. The tables were set up with the required ingredients and cooking equipment and was continuously updated by the various workers on site as the class progressed. There was never a time when anyone was missing anything, and items and food were all prepared ahead of time. The whole experience was well designed and allowed for maximum concentration on learning the dishes themselves as opposed to figuring out which knife to use. In addition, they provided us with the recipes for the dishes that we made as well!
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| Maggie showing off her freshly made spring roll. |
Oh, and on top of that, the dishes we made were delicious! My complements to the chef. Oh wait, that was me!
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| At the tailor shop with the lady who put together my suits. |
Afterward, we headed back to the room to get washed and ready for our fitting. We figured that we should be in as least of a sweaty state as possible before showing up because, you know, putting on clothes while sweaty is not a particularly enjoyable experience.
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| Maggie on the pedestrian bridge overlooking the river that separates the "historic" side from the "on-historic"side. |
After we finished our second fitting, we headed to one of the food courts on the other side of the river to try out some of the cheap eats on the "non-touristy" side (although it was still touristy). We went to Hi and tried out some of the Mi Quang (turmeric noodles which we had just learned about that morning) and some fried fish with rice. Pretty tasty.
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| A view from the "non-historic" side of Hoi An. |
For dessert, we looked for some young rice ice cream which I was looking for after trying it the first time for breakfast on the 14th. We found an ice cream parlor which had the flavor, but it tasted different than Minh Hien and was not as tasty. It was a little disappointing actually.
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| One of the many fields inside the town that was being used to grow crops. |
On the way back to the room, we passed by a Vita store which seemed to sell a lot of milk type products so we went inside, and was greeted by one of the few enclosed buildings that had air conditioning. Whew! We did not find the young rice ice cream, but the employees there definitely had plum jobs considering that everyone else had to swelter in the heat and humidity.
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