Cooking, Eating and Relaxing in Romantic Hoi An, Vietnam

Upon arriving in Hoi An, Vietnam after the drive from Hue, we were greeted as friends at our new guesthouse (Blue Clouds Hotel – http://bluecloudshomestay.com/) by the manager Kim. She made us a wonderfully cool and refreshing lemonade while acquainting us with the area and arranging for our cooking class the following day. We walked from our guesthouse to the “ancient city” core – about a 10 minute walk dodging the ever-present motorcycles and scooters on the narrow streets that I’ve come to symbolize as indigenous to Vietnam. This city is charming, romantic and somewhat expensive (because of the charm, but still not overly expensive from a western world perspective).

All photo credits in this post: A.L.Wiltse & M.Charbonneau

As you walk along the canals, the multi-coloured lanterns beckon you back into the winding city streets. And as night falls, the magical wonder of these many lanterns, along with the street life and incredible restaurants can’t fail to charm! If you anything tailored, this is the place to go … basically anything you want can be made to measure in less than a day 🙂 To finish our time in Hoi An, we took a cooking class for the day at Herbs and Spices. This is a definite “must-do” for anyone who loves great food! The class started with a trip to the local market – my favourite part of the course! Below are noodles called Cao Lau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_l%E1%BA%A7u). They are unique to this region, as they are dipped in an ancient well whose water gives a specific flavour to the noodle. Here’s our menu we created with the help of the master chef, and a visual of the final meal we prepared 🙂 Can’t wait to try this again at home! Off to Sa Pa in Northern Vietnam next … a bientôt et namaste!