We spent one morning in Hoi An at a cookery class which was run by the charity Streets International. They now have schools in Hoi An and also Saigon.
The cookery class trains under privileged children and orphans to cook and also teaches them hospitality and English skills too.We were lucky enough to be trained by the lovely trainees in the class called Oodles of Noodles!
We first learnt about the school that had been set up and watched a video narrated by the couple who set up the school. The school is amazing the the students all go on to work in amazing restaurants and have careers that they otherwise never would’ve had.
We started with a lesson on the different types of noodles, I took a picture to remember what the different types are. They are all made using rice flour.
We then made a banh u’ot each on top of a water bath stove. You take the rice flour liquid and pour it on top of a cloth which has boiling water underneath it and spread it out to make a circle shape. You then put a lid on for 5 seconds to steam it (we learnt how to count to 5 in Vietnamese but I’ve forgotten already!).
We were then given a rice cracker that had been prepared earlier and you put the banh u’ot on top of the banh trang nuong and hey presto you have a banh dap, also known as smash as you have to smash them together to make them stick! We dipped the banh dap into a selection of dips but it’s traditionally eaten with anchovy dip!
We were then told how you make mi quang, which is a traditional noodle dish with shrimp, prawns and quail egg. We then all enjoyed this dish cooked by the trainees – it tasted divine.
After the lesson was over I bought the cookery book so I can create these dishes at home. I’m sure you will see some of these dishes featuring on our Instagram account and blog in the future!
