Hanoi Cooking Class

Given that Vietnam is one of our “home” countries, we, of course, needed to sharpen our culinary skills from this amazingly savory and spicy country.

 

With that in mind, the 3 older kids, Lisa and I got up early one morning in Hanoi to meet Anthony, our animated chef and instructor for the day. Our mission included shopping for ingredients at the street markets, learning about local flavors and traditional bites, and making some amazing regional dishes endemic to Northern Vietnam.

 

While aimlessly meandering the mazes of food markets in Asia or Africa is a life experience anyone should have, it’s a whole different experience when a local chef accompanies you. As our eyes feasted on exotic fruits, bloodied meat, writhing sea life, fresh vegetables, hopping reptiles and salted insects, Anthony introduced us to many flavors and offered invaluable tips for how a truly great Vietnamese dish is born. Before every meal, Vietnamese shop for their food that will be used in that meal at a local street market. There was much to learn. For example, the chunks of meat set out on baskets with absolutely no refrigeration may seem odd and somewhat reckless, but it was killed around 4am, just 3 hours ago. Anthony can tell because he shows us that it is sticky, a sure sign of freshness. Similarly, the noodles used in our leading candidate for Best Vietnamese Dish called Bun Cha, also must be fresh and made just hours before purchasing.

 

A personal favorite, and a way to counterbalance the potpourri of conflicting smells, is shopping for local herbs. Anthony showed us many new herbs and leafy greens while snapping up fresh basil, coriander, cilantro, lemongrass, banana flower, root vegetables and morning glory vines. We also sampled local street fare, eating a surprisingly delightful fried worm cake and some barbequed, caramelized pork.

 

With ingredients purchased, we harkened to the teaching kitchen at Anthony’s restaurant, Orchid, via a colonnade of pedicabs. Upon arrival at a wonderfully roomy kitchen, each of us donned aprons and awaited instruction by our cutting board and cleaver. Our menu included:
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Hanoi Spring Rolls – a fried staple of almost every street food vendor and restaurant in the city;

Bun Cha – a flavorful dish that combines the yin of caramelized pork and noodles with the yang of hot Thai chili peppers and bright, crisp cilantro;

Lemongrass Chicken – a flash-fried dish with a high note of lemongrass, our favorite flavor from South East Asia;

Black Rice Pudding – a sweet, sticky confection topped with fresh yogurt

Vietnamese food is all about layering several ingredients of compatible flavors together to form an ambrosial concoction. The way that happens is through an immense amount of chopping! With a quick lesson in how not to lose your fingers to rather sharp and large cleavers, we set to work on mincing, chopping and slicing all of our spoils from the morning market. We then each tried our hand at creating ground pork. No machines here, slabs of fresh pork shoulder are placed on an enormous, thick block of teakwood, and then chopped by hand with two heavy, ancient-looking cleavers. It’s a lot of work to get it into the form of ground meat… we all tired quickly, but Anthony effortlessly pounded out rhythmic beats as he prepared the meat for making pork patties for Bun Cha.

 

 

We had a blast learning about how our favorite delicacies are made, and with a vibrant Vietnamese community in Seattle, we’re hopeful that we can continue to refine our skills. As with other classes in other countries, the results yielded sapid, scrumptious dishes that rivaled anything we’ve eaten thus far in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the quantities we produced could have fed everyone reading this blog, so we left feeling a bit bloated. Most importantly, we all continue to love learning about food, sharing in the creation a thoughtful meal and playing as a family in the kitchen; all activities we hope will continue long after Project Equator comes to an end.