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Fishermen launching their boat off the
brilliant white sandy beach |
After breakfast, Frances headed to the beach for a swim at the nearby Cua Dai beach which is accessible by local bus - or taxi if you like.
The sand and water water were beautiful which she really enjoyed now that she was feeling better.
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| The Hoian produce market |
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| The range of fruit |
Meanwhile, Ric had enrolled in a cooking class which involved a tour of the Hoian produce market.
The markets were an eye-opener, not just because of the variety of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs available, but also the apparent lack of hygiene in the meat and fish section.
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| Ducks and ducklings for sale |
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| Various fish |
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| Preparing fish cakes for frying |
One thing that was interesting was that only women were involved in the sales, including the meat and fish. Only women were involved in the slicing and dicing of the produce.
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| Pickled vegetables |
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| Herbs and leafy green vegetables |
There was also of course a range of raw and cooked food available for sale at various stalls within the market, so as you can imagine the aromas were almost overpowering as moving through the market. The chef from the cooking school/restaurant also pointed out and described the functions and uses of the various produce available.
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| Produce market viewed from the river |
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| Heading up-river to the cooking school |
Following the visit to the market was a boat trip along the Hoi An River to the Red Bridge restaurant for the cooking class.
We followed the river for a while, seeing the fishing nets in the river, or suspended above to dry in the sun. and ducks sheltering from the late morning heat. After landing at the restaurant's small wharf, we were shown its herb and vegetable garden tended by staff to supply the restaurant with fresh ingredients.
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| My finished rice-paper rolls |
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Arriving at the Red Bridge restaurant
and cooking school |
Then we were each allocated to a workstation with a gas jet to learn about Vietnamese food preparation by cutting and shaping vegetables for plate decoration - harder than it looks.
Next was making rice paper for the famous Vietnamese rice-paper rolls. This was a very slow and delicate process and I decided that it's far easier to buy the dried rice-paper in the supermarket. The easy part is filling and rolling them which is quite straightforward.
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| My sweet and sour seafood dish! |
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| The chef's sweet and sour seafood dish |
Finally we cooked a spicy sweet and sour seafood dish to be served in a pineapple. This turned out quite well and was very tasty, but a little too sweet for me.
Then can the eating part, and in addition to eating what we'd made, we weer also served some signature dishes bu the restaurant staff. All-in-all a great experience, although we'd all eaten far too much by the end of the 'cooking lession'.
In the afternoon we headed back into the clothing market for negotiation of clothes design, selection, fitting, etc. for some clothes we had decided to have made - dresses for Frances and a coat for Ric. A few hours later we went back for final fitting, and adjustments as we were leaving the next day.
The day was topped off with a nice dinner in the Banana Leaf Café by the river.
