Blue Butterfly Cooking School

We both slept much better and Nancy was feeling in shape to go to our prebooked 9am cooking class 'Hanoi Street Food" four item menu at the Blue Butterfly Cooking School held at a resturant by the same name. We met chef Hung who goes by Pickle as he sweats alot in the heat of the restaurant. He is 35, has been a chef for 14 years after attending 4 years of chef training on top of working with his chef mother as a child. He is from the country with hopes of opening his own restaurant one day. For now he does one or two cooking classes a day ($50 USD/person), supervises the kitchen and has a 3rd job 2100-0200 hrs. He sleeps 0200-0700 hrs. He had already been to the market he took us to and bought supplies for the restaurant. He sent us by cyclo (rickshaw) and met us there. Again, so many sensory inputs - the beep beep honk honk and ever present threat of motorcycles, the smells and stall after stall of fresh meat, fish and produce; some of it alive. In a climate like Vietnam where electricity is expensive and there are open air markets, it obviously makes sense that protein stays "on the hoof" as long as possible. Then back to the restaurant to learn how to make Pho (24 hr broth simmer time with flavour ingredients including a dried seaworm only found in Halong Bay (6 million Vietnamese dong for 1 kgm), Bun Cha (grilled pork balls with fish sauce served with rice noodles and greens), Deep Fried Spring Rolls and Banana Flower Salad. We managed to do our market visit and watch/take part in the cooking as well as enjoying our meal in the four hour time span. After lunch, we walked to the Vietnamese Women's Museum. It had become much hotter.Read more