Tamarind Laos Cooking Class - Market Tour

This post goes back a ways. More than a year, in fact. Vietnam's National Day is September 2nd, which is the day in 1945 when the Japanese surrendered after occupying the country during the Second World War. The previous French occupiers were still around but while they weren't looking, here in Hanoi "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh gave a speech in Ba Dinh Square declaring Vietnam an independent state. (The French fought this quite intensely for another 9 years before finally being defeated.)

What it means now is that on and around that day every house is flying a Vietnamese flag, it's a day off work and there are probably communist concerts on street corners around the city. I'm actually not sure because when I get a long weekend I tend to go away!

On this weekend in 2012 I went to Luang Prabang, Laos. If you haven't been, it's a smallish town on a peninsula in a big river bend, and is full of wats and monks and tourist shops and a night market on the main street every evening. Yes, it's touristy, but it has somehow managed to retain its lovely charm and become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's a great place to wander, rent a bike and ride around, chat with the monks, and just relax in Laos' completely chilled out atmosphere.

View of the Eastern side of Luang Prabang.

On Phou Si hill.

Of course, being me, I couldn't leave it at that and I had to do a cooking class! The one at Tamarind came highly recommended online, so I gave it a go.

As with most cooking classes in Asia, it started with a market tour, outside of the touristy area.

Various herbs, one of the definitive ingredients in Lao cooking.

A large pile of banana flowers.

Various sizes of baskets for sticky rice.

I think it's dried fish.

Look at all the starfruit!

Inside the market building: fish sauce, chili powder, garlic and shallots.

In the meat section. I think it's congealed blood. Not sure what animal.

Pig trotters anyone?

TONS of dried chilies.

Wat (temple) necessities: candles, incense, and statues.

Visit the drink stand for a refreshing coconut.

Nap time for the market ladies.

 

Eels.

We used these ceramic/metal contraptions as barbecues to cook our food. I want one!

A variety of ceramic cooking pots and accessories.

 

Shops across the street from the market.

They use these to transport entire meals for monks I think.

Inside a shop.

There you have it! Soon I'll show you the rest: the actual cooking class itself!

Green Bamboo Cooking School - Hoi An

You may remember waaaaaaay back just after Christmas I went to Hoi An for a little holiday and while I was there I did the Taste of Hoi An street food tour. At the end of Part 2 I hinted at a cooking course, and now you finally get to hear about it!

The "Teacher" on the street food tour, Neville, recommended Green Bamboo Cooking School, and it had been recommended by other friends, so that was the obvious choice. I was just lucky enough to get the last spot on the day I went!

As with most cooking classes, it started with a market tour and then moved on to the kitchen, and rather than tell you I'm going to make this more of a photo essay and just show you!

All kinds of delicious dishes on offer inside the market.

Spices and sticky rice cakes.

It's a lot of work to shred coconut!

More spices and other goodies.

Pre-herbed fish. Ready to cook!

The fish market is always busy!

We then went to our kitchen, which just happened to be right in our instructor's beautiful house!

We got to choose our dishes from a fairly extensive list, and someone had already chosen my favourite Bánh xèo , so I picked the stuffed squid in tomato sauce.

I got to do everything from scratch, including cleaning out these huge squid, which was a new one for me!

We spent ages chopping, dicing, slicing and grating, and then when everything was ready we made each dish one by one, snacking on the first couple while we made the rest.

Wrapping spring rolls.

Making bánh xèo.

Yum! So crispy!

The squid was stuffed with a mixture of pork, onion, carrot, woodear mushroom, and various other spices and condiments.

Banana flower salad with beef and prawns. Another one of my favourites!

Fish in a clay pot. Delicious.

Van making a huge pot of broth for our phở.

Mmmm phở bò (beef noodle soup).

My finished squid. Yum!

That's it! We finished off the day of cooking with a huge feast of all the things we made, and Van gave each of us a pair of cooking chopsticks (extra long ones) and a recipe book so I can make any of these any time! Yum!