Yesterday we had some good pho for lunch along with some crispy [not overly drenched in oil] spring rolls. I knew I had found the place. After finishing up our tasty meal, Matt and I wandered to the back of the restaurant to see if they would do a cooking class. While I don’t think they normally, if ever, do such classes, the staff (a mother and son) agreed. Same time, same place tomorrow.

And so this afternoon I arrived, ready to cook for the first time in almost a year. Only I didn’t actually end up doing any cooking, not even a little chopping. But I was ok with that as my stomach was feeling a little funny from having eaten a kilo of mangosteens just an hour before (I thought I would need something to tide myself over before I was able to eat the food from “class”). It was more like standing in a cooking show. The son translated with stuttering English, which, though basic, was sufficient. Every now and then I would ask a question to clarify the name of an ingredient or how long to do this or that, but mostly I just watched. The woman did the chopping and cooking. On the menu was: pork and shrimp spring rolls, steamed noodles with fish, and pho bo (Matt’s request).

The spring rolls came first; I was horrified when the woman sampled the raw pork spring-roll mixture, and glad that when she held it up to me it was only for me to smell it. After the spring rolls, I don’t think I actually learned too much that a cookbook couldn’t have taught me, but the experience was interesting nonetheless. And I guess I came away with a few new bits of knowledge. One of which is that “seasoning” consists of liberally sprinkled amounts of msg. More unsettling than surprising, as I had my suspicions about the food we’ve been eating, but still, what’s wrong with plain old salt? My favorite part was just watching the mother and son interact as they prepared the food in front of me, the son asking his mom questions as he translated a little bit here and there. Oh, and the eating part wasn’t so bad either–Matt came at the end and we stuffed ourselves on a big feast of all the food.