Vietnam the third: day 15, Hoi An

As our last full day in Vietnam draws to a close, I’m sipping freshly squeezed sugarcane juice, nibbling on a banana pancake, and throwing words at the screen in a bid to entertain my reader.

Our day kicked off with a cooking class at Goian Homestay/Restaurant/Cooking School/Evil Villain Lair for all I know, with the incredibly friendly Vinh. She dragged us around the local market, pointing out all manner of fruit and herbs, we were familiar with many, but there were some that we hadn’t encountered before, including one that tasted quite fishy (I’ve got a feeling I had some of this with some banh xeo earlier in the week, as I did notice a bit of a fishy flavour). Vinh happily pointed out their various properties according to Vietnamese medicine, some for high blood pressure, some for low blood pressure, some were hot, others cooling (fortunately she didn’t point out any that would make me “strong”). We got tips for selecting the best mangosteen (not too soft, a bit of stalk protruding) and bean shoots (there should be plenty of root still attached).

Goian offer a choice of either a couple of set combinations, or pick 4 from a list of about 30: we picked banana flower salad, banh xeo, clay pot aubergine, and banana pancake (unfortunately I didn’t check out if the pancake was gluten free, and sadly and unusually it wasn’t). The banana flower salad involved a lot of very thinly slicing the banana flower, while marinating prawns and pork in fish sauce, chilli sauce, garlic and other ingredients. Then cook and combine and eat, banana flower has a wonderful texture and flavour, it’s unfortunate that it’s so hard to get in Australia. Banh Xeo aren’t hard to make, and I can see them becoming a fairly regular item on the home menu: the batter is simply rice flour, turmeric and water; start with mostly cooking the shrimp and pork, pour in batter, let cook until crunchy. Slide into some moistened rice paper, ad greens, bean shoots, roll and slice. Dip in nuoc cham (sugar, lime, chilli, garlic, fish sauce to your personal preference) and eat.

Claypot aubergine was also very delicious, and that’s coming from someone who likes eggplant, but doesn’t necessarily love it (L loooooves it). Peel, slice and deep fry the eggplant until golden brown, remove and dunk with boiling water (reserve the oil for using with the other dishes). Then put the eggplant into the claypot, gently fold in the rest of the ingredients, and heat gently until it is a pot of soft caramelised eggplant. For the banana pancake, whip up a batter of egg, condensed milk, and other things (the recipe sheets are on the other side of the room and I can’t be arsed getting up), drop in chunks of firm banana, and cook gently in quite a bit of oil. Then eat.

During all of this Vinh had a great time showing us the various techniques, singing chunks of songs with L, and being a great teacher and host. Definitely a recommended experience.

Suffice to say that with this as lunch, we didn’t eat much for dinner, just finishing off leftovers.

The afternoon’s activities consisted of getting last minute souvenirs and all the haggling that comes with that: we know we got a good price at one shop, as the seller was a little reluctant to go to the price we asked, but other stalls we left the sellers extremely happy, almost always a sign that we have paid way over what they would have agreed to. Our last clothes delivery also arrived, we have bought many many things.

Then there was time for a quick dip in the hotel pool, something we’ve been promising to do all stay as it looked stunning, and was pretty good, if a little warm like everything around here.

Tomorrow is check out, possibly an early morning trip down the road to check out a black sesame pudding (the recipe has been made by the same family for over 100 years), before a massage and then flying out of Da Nang. This time tomorrow we’ll be in Singapore.

Vietnam is an awesome country, and hopefully this trip isn’t the last time we get to come here. We’ve tried to come here every couple of years, but life has turned that into every 4 years, and in these 8 years there have been some changes, though much has stayed the same. in 2018 things were definitely busier, and attitudes to foreign tourists seemed a little more transactional, while this time around I get the impression that shopkeepers were a little more grateful that foreign tourists has started coming back post-Covid and spending (obviously they’d like us to be spending more and at all the shops) and so for the most part seemed a little less pushy and more willing to provide the best service and experience. (As we’ve been told from numerous places, while at the moment there are lots of Vietnamese internal tourists, they son’t tend to spend money shopping for clothes etc in the cities they travel to.)

So please, come to Vietnam, spend money, experience the amazing food and culture and all that these lovely people can give. Eat, drink, shop, feel, sweat, respect, just don’t take these people for granted and stuff it up for the rest of us that want to keep coming back.