Saturday HCMC Cooking Class

We took a market tour and cooking class in Ho Chi Minh City on our Saturday off. Such feelings of accomplishment! Starting off at Ben Thanh Market to pick up some ingredients:

All things Dau Fu (tofu)

we think-- baby eggplants

skinning frogs alive-- eeps!

the orange fruit supplies the oil for annatto coloring

tails

brains

intestines and other organs. While I am a vegetarian, I always have a great time gawking at these sights!

ears!

hearts and livers

silkworms to eat

 OK, now on to assembling 3 different courses. Start with traditional southern fresh spring rolls:

ingredients

made the peanut sauce

all ingredients reading for rolling, including lemon mint and basil

Rolled, dipped and eaten with great pleasure! Next up, morning glory greens salad with prawns:

making my chili pepper tiger lily

separating morning glory greens 

and pushing them through this wacky device to make them get stringy-er and curlier! 

a wheel of small blades to tackle the morning glories (rau muong)

my finished product! Fish sauce and kumquat dressing, too.

Last course, shrimp and baby coconut in coconut water, cooked in a clay pot on my own little burner.

prawns and coconut

mixed with chili and annatto

pouring in the coconut water

cover, no peeking

throw some basil on top. WOW

Even better-- I got the recipes and have big hopes of re-creating some of these at home! Next goal is to get a little rest before the hospital party on Saturday night. Photos to come!