A taste of Vietnam

The market visit. Via Hanoi cooking school. We left the hotel , by taxi early the next morning. A tremendous world of scooters , like a host of swarming bees , awaited us in the old quarter, many people sitting having coffee or was it noodle soup crouched on small stools on the pavement. 

The first visit was to an open market tucked away in through a small alleyway , even the scooters went in there. Unbelievable a mass of stalls, all manned by women. Vegetables and herbs I had never seen before, rows of different eggs from duck to quails. Living fish splashing around making us wet, carp and crabs undefinable long grey fish, maybe eels etc. On other counters masses oh meat , with the ladies standing ready to use a huge cleaver to cut off portions.Live toads, dead frogs being skinned, geese and ducks,everywhere food . Our guide told us that by lunch time all would be sold and that the women , then went home for lunch. Then new produce would be brought to be sold in the afternoon. The herbs and vegetables come from Central Vietnam. They all looked perfect.after this we sauntered along to a street stall , a hole in the wall, to eat rice pancakes filled with mushrooms +?. Served with fried onions, dipped in sweet rice vinegar dip , our guide then added a drop from a secret bottle he had in his pocket. A real Wow effect. The oil from the head of a beetle !!. Then by taxi to the old quarter, for Bun cau ----- so we sat down , watched a very old woman roasting pork wrapped in leaves between the prongs of a piece of wood over a small fire , with a fan on it. The bowls of , bouillon, vermicelli and fresh herbs with the pieces of meat, where placed before us, chopsticks and spoons from a pot where handed out...  The word Trust came into my head , and I started to eat , delicious .by the next stall with bowls of gooey looking fruit in a sort of tapioca mass , my head said ugh , my mouth too, school diners all over again., our guide ate it with love a sort of baby food.Then n a walk through the streets with our group , team building was the word as we crossed busy dual carriage ways with our arms linked together, to hesitate was to be run over by swarms of scooters. Once on the other side we all cheered

now the beer on a street corner cafe with the locals, beer peanuts and fish cakes. Even the local police where there, then a coffee shop! A dimly lit hole in the wall. Smelling of fresh ground coffee, low ceilings and tiny chairs again, all super fun. Back to the school and a chat Tracey the owner is Australian and helped set up koto a cooking school for underprivileged children a la Jamie, 8 years ago. 

In the afternoon the puppet theatre(see Ellen's blog) for the English , a very old art from the rice farmers in Vietnam 

In the evening a grand cafe, for grilled prawns , peeled at the table by the waitress, delicious grilled octopus and super stir fried cabbage . And that was day 1 

The rest follows 

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