Recently I went to cookery school in Vietnam.  This wasn’t just about how to preparenew dishes – though there was lots of that- it also included having to “pass”many “name the fruit” quizzes. This seemed to be a popular pastime amongstguides, partly because Vietnam has an astonishingly large variety of fruits andpartly because, I suspect, tourists are as hopeless at remembering names andindeed tastes. Well now I know what the outside of a dragonfruit looks like (Ieven saw one growing) and I have learned what colour the inside a of ajackfruit is – and how nice it tastes. Our first school chef was “from theNorth” and rather scary although she did manage to keep her temper when one ofthe other 2 class members mixed her marinade and dipping sauces all in onebowl. Our recipes included: Lotus stem salad, sour fish soup, caramel fish andsteamed rice and (for dessert) sweet green bean soup which tasted rather likesemolina

I had a full day trip to the Mekong Delta. During this, wetook two different boats on a very silty river, enjoyed our fir

s

t freshly andhand-made spring rolls but refused to sample both snake and scorpion wine. Thisis the Vietnamese versio

n of saki, or rice wine, into which is immersed a wholesnake – honestly! – or a rather frighteningly large number of scorpions. Theguide assured us all it was “very good for men” but – just sometimes- I amasexual so I still refused. At one stop we walked around a coconut candy“factory” – all in the open air. At another, we were guided around an orchardfarm (more fruit naming) and then enjoyed the fruits of their labours enlivenedby a musical entertainment

In Hoi An, I visited a local market and enjoyed the secondand most entertaining cookery class in an up-river restaurant facility owned byan Ozzie and where the hosting chef had excellent English skills. He was ableto joke and deliver fast one-liners as well as getting up close and cuddly withme during the demo. We learnt to create seafood salad in half pineapple,Vietnamese eggplant, fresh rice paper rolls, Hoi An pancakes, steamed fish onfresh vegetables and, this was best, how to decorate food! On the trip to thiscooking class, which was again by river, we saw very many of the open fish netstypical of this region. The clever characteristic of these is that just beforethey are lowered into the water a light is lit above them and in their centre.This used to be tallow or oil but is of course now electrical. The clevernessof the design comes as insects are attracted to the light that is lit at night.Many of these bugs blunder into the water surface thereby supplying free baitto the fishermen who simply have to come along the next morning and gently lifttheir net on its four sticks a little above the water surface so that they can“catch” their fish.

 Best for entertainment value was the scarifying cyclo tripthat everyone had to take from market to cooking class in Hanoi! This time thefood market despite being very fresh raised a few ughs for the seaweed jelly(which I foolishly sampled) to our last cooking class. This was boiling hot andtherefore an occasion on which I would have preferred not to have had to wearchef’s hats they gave us but it was too complicated to resist. The guide tothis school (Anh pronounced ‘Ann’) taught us a great Vietnamese-ism – “toenjoy”. After each dish was created (recipes were Imperial spring rolls,shrimps sautéed with cashew nuts, sour fish broth) she asked very firmly “doyou want to enjoy them now or enjoy them later?