Vietnam: Baby Mustard Cooking Class {Hoi An}

Within five minutes of beginning to plan our trip to Vietnam, I knew Hoi An would be someplace I'd love. Within five days of arriving in Vietnam, we'd already had multiple people tell us to go to Hoi An, spend as much time there as we could, and EAT THE FOOD! Turns out, everyone is right! This place is amazing! We've rented a house here for the next month, which I'll speak about more in upcoming posts. Today I want to share the cooking class we took this morning, which was absolutely phenomenal and I cannot recommend it enough!

I've read quite a few reviews of cooking classes in Hoi An {which has killer food in general}, many of which complain that you either don't get to do much of the cooking, the teachers rush through with broken-enough-English that you can't understand, or parts of the cooking are actually done "in secret" so you don't know what's happening. I was not ok with any of that! The reviews for Baby Mustard on Trip Advisor are stellar, and after passing it on one of our evening runs I knew it was the place to go!

Baby Mustard opened almost two years ago after the owner, Nguyet {who is super cute at only 24}, was tired of being a slave to other tourism companies in Hoi An. She wanted to do her own thing — so she did! Her story is really inspiring, and we had a great time talking to her about her education, beliefs, culture, etc. She's getting married at the end of the year, and we were fascinated with the calculations that go into a marriage and wedding here. Not to mention having a baby! She said you can't shower for ONE MONTH after having a baby in Vietnam! I'm not sure that's my cup of tea, but her reasoning was quite interesting anyways!

Nguyet build Baby Mustard out of bamboo, with thatched roofs and open walls, next door to the house she grew up in and lives in with her parents {and grandmother} today. Out back you can see the massive garden shared by the surrounding neighbors. We started our class with a walk around the gardens, cutting lemon basil, thai basil, mint, lettuce, spring onion, etc. for our dishes. We saw a few people out tending the gardens, which seems like quite a lot of work — the watering system is not exactly "modern" and requires a lot of grunt work! I was a huge fan of the organization and straight lines!

After gathering the things we needed for cooking, we got to work! Nguyet had already sent me a list of dishes to choose from, and we picked three that we wanted to cook: Cao Lao (a Hoi An specialty that we eat nearly everyday, which is essentially special noodles with pork and herby greens), Banh Xeo {a crispy "pancake" with shrimp, pork, and herby greens), and Goi Ngu Sac (a salad made of green papaya, green mango, mango blossom, and lotus stem). I was psyched about our choices!

Nguyet was a wonderful teacher. Her English was great, and she let us do literally all of the cooking. She would tell us "one teaspoon garlic, two teaspoons shallot" etc. and we would make the sauces, chop the vegetables, fry the pancakes, sizzle the pork — we were all hands on! Derek, who is actually a pretty darn good cook but doesn't have the opportunity to use his skills much, loved the class! Except for picking the mint off of the stems. He didn't love that!

I have to agree with the reviews on Trip Advisor — this was, despite the fact that we made it, some of the best food we've had in Vietnam. It was AMAZING. Nguyet helped us taste things, told us what to add to perfect it, and helped us create some truly amazing dishes. In addition to running the cooking class, Baby Mustard is also open as a restaurant for lunch and dinner! It's not in the Old Town, so people won't just stumble upon it, but it is absolutely worth the five-minute moto ride out of town. And it's only a few minutes from the beach!

As I mentioned above, talking to Nguyet was a highlight of our cooking class. I'm continually amazed at how open the Vietnamese are to talking about their culture and beliefs. I think in the US we are sometimes more reserved and consider it personal to talk about what we believe, at least with strangers, but I've not encountered that here at all. We've also really enjoyed talking to entrepreneurs, clearly thriving in a capitalistic sense, in a communist country. It's a really interesting dichotomy, and fun to hear about their business plans, struggles, accomplishments, and ideas.

If you are in Hoi An, you MUST take a class from Nguyet! At the very least, you must go eat at her restaurant and chat with her! She is there literally every day {has not had one day off in two years}, and will make every minute worth your time. We loved it, and spent an extra hour after our class sipping passionfruit juice {HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!} and chatting with her. I'm sure we'll go back, at least a few more times, before our time in Hoi An is over.

GET READY for some Vietnamese recipes coming your way soon!! Some ingredients I think might be impossible to find outside of Vietnam — like the noodles for Cao Lau, which are only made by five families here in Hoi An with water from a special well with a secret technique. I KNOW. They're to-die-for though, so I'm hoping there's something similar at home. I WILL FIND IT.