Vietnam - Tourist Food in Hoi An and Cooking School

We enjoyed 4 days in Vietnam away from family when we jetted off to Hoi An. In recent years, Hoi An has become very touristy and popular for its cultural tours. For us, we just wanted to rent bikes and hang out for 4 days relaxing. Here are a few of the highlights from Hoi An.

Tyical morning scene with Vietnamese coffee and beer (spelled bia). The beer was only $0.25 USD!! 

Banana flower salad


Lanterns at the central Hoi An area


They labeled this gelato but it was just ice cream



We spent most of the time biking around to the beach to hang out.


One of the popular Hoi Anese dishes was this chicken rice which is rice cooked in chicken stock with shredded chicken pieces and herbs. This one at the beach was pretty good. It tastes like Hainanese chicken rice.

On one of the days, we took a bicycle tour and cooking class combo. The bike tour lead us through the back roads and rice paddies of Hoi An. We learned how herbs were grown and I had the chance to try old school watering cans.

The tour also took us to a bean sprout farmer's house. He had piles of sand in his backyard used to grow bean sprouts. The nutrients in the sand are only good for one crop then a new pile of sand needs to be shipped in for the next crop. The old sand can be sold to make bricks and for any other purposes. At this point it decreases in value by 1/5 the price the farmer bought it for growing.

Back at the cooking school, everyone who signs up for the class gets an all-you-can eat breakfast buffet with all these Vietnamese goodies like pho, broken rice with pork, mini banh xeo crepes, and bun cha ca (fish cake noodles). The flavors are a bit mellow and generic but most of the food was good for a buffet.

Old school noodle making machine.

I got to try a silk worm larvae for the first time. Tastes rich and creamy and nutritious. It's like eating a minty, oniony salad with creamy tofu pockets that burst in your mouth!

Hoi An is known for the white rose steamed dumpling made from rice flour that's flattened and molded around shrimp and pork paste so it looks like rose petals. Here I am failing at flattening the dough.

Phil Lau eats cao lau noodles.

Yeah, making fresh spring roll wrappers in cooking class. No rips in my wrapper!

Class finished with two scoops of ice cream per person. Phil had Cinnamon and chocolate chip. I had passion fruit and coconut. Satisfied! I highly recommend Morning Glory cooking school if you're in Hoi An. It is very touristy and Westernized but for $43 per person, you get a well planned day. The cooking is not as hands on as I wanted, or as we experienced in Thailand. The bike tour is fun and the experience in general is entertaining.

Bye!