{"id":1494,"date":"2012-04-16T16:44:01","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T08:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.com\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2012-04-20T11:24:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T03:24:45","slug":"hanoi-cooking-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/?p=1494","title":{"rendered":"Hanoi Cooking Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend, N, and I didn’t have much of an agenda for Hanoi. We only knew that we were going to have meals in Bobby Chinn (wasn’t impressed by the way) and La Badiane and that we were going to walk around the Old Quarter on one of the days we were going to spend in Hanoi. The first hotel we stayed in was near the West Lake area and we spent our first day walking around the area and observing the everyday lives of the locals. We were just wandering around and walking to nowhere in particular when we stumbled upon the Hanoi Cooking Centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"IMGP4447\"<\/dt>\n
The entrance of the Hanoi Cooking Centre<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

We went in to have a look and realised it was a cooking school cum cafe. We had nothing on our agenda the next day so we decided to sign up for a cooking class (USD 55) that would last for about four to five hours. It helps that N and I are both foodies and were keen on learning how to cook!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n
\"IMGP4511\"

Local produce on sale in Chau Long Market<\/p><\/div>\n

We took the afternoon class and were told to turn up at 2pm where we first taken to\u00a0Chau Long Market just round the corner by one of the staff. He gave us an introduction to the local produce and it was also at that market that I saw roasted dog for the first time. We were told that dog meat is the most expensive compared to chicken, beef\u00a0and pork. The market had quietened down by the time we went there, as most of the action takes place in the morning. So those who want to catch a glimpse of the bustling market, you’d do better to sign up for the morning class.<\/p>\n

\"IMGP4528\"

Recipes of the dishes you cook are given to you<\/p><\/div>\n

If you are the first ones\u00a0signed up for that particular \u00a0session, you get to decide what the class makes. There are five different menus to choose from, each comprising four or five types of dishes. A vegetarian menu is included as one of the five. We opted for the menu “Recipes from Ha Noi & the North”.<\/p>\n

\"IMGP4544\"

Ingredients for the banana flower salad<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0The ingredients for all the dishes are all prepared for you in advance to save time. Classes are conducted in English, and our instructor,\u00a0Hung, a native Hanoian,\u00a0demonstrated to us how to prepare the dishes before we dived in and got our hands dirty.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1424\"

There's me cooking - the apron is for you to keep after the class. A nice souvenir to have!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"IMG_1253\"<\/dt>\n
The appetiser and main dishes we prepared.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Clockwise from top left:\u00a0Bean sprouts, pineapple and cucumber\u00a0tossed in vinegar dressing; caramalised pork stew; deep fried seafood spring rolls; banana flower salad with bean sprouts, pork strips and peanuts. Both salads were great as starters to whet the appetite, while the deep fried seafood spring rolls were nice and crunchy to the bite. The caramalised pork stew, after having been placed in the oven to bake for 45 min, was a delight to eat with rice with its melding of caramalised sugar, fish sauce, and garlic.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1261\"

Dessert<\/p><\/div>\n

Our dessert was made from crushed black sesame seeds and peanuts cooked in coconut cream and sugar. I’m not a huge fan of coconut milk so I didn’t really like the dessert.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1417\"

Sitting down to enjoy the food of our labour<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0After all the hard work – OK, it wasn’t really THAT hard –\u00a0we adjourned to the dining area to enjoy the meal\u00a0we had prepared. The table was already set nicely for us and the staff brought our food up. The meal also comes with a glass of wine each but N and I chose not to have any and chose to go with lime (which locals\u00a0call lemon) juice instead. I have to say that the food we prepared was delicious and the dishes were easy enough to prepare by yourself at home. Unfortunately I had lost my recipes when my bag got slit by pickpockets later that night! I’ll have to get N to scan me her copy. I enjoyed the experience at Hanoi Cooking Centre as it was very professionally run and the food and service were good.<\/p>\n

44 Chau Long Street
\nBa Dinh District, Ha Noi
\nTel: +84 4 3715 0088
\nhanoicookingcentre.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend, N, and I didn’t have much of an agenda for Hanoi. We only knew that we were going to have meals in Bobby Chinn (wasn’t impressed by the way) and La Badiane and that we were going to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[18,17,16],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-travel","tag-cooking","tag-hanoi","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1494"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1521,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions\/1521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}