A Vietnamese Cookery Course

After eating copious amounts of Vietnamese grub we decided to get a Nam Hai cookery lesson so we could cause a serious wow in the kitchen when back in not-so-sunny England. Wanless,the consumer, stroke victim standish, myself and Millsy donned our aprons and hit the hotel's kitchens to whip up Goi Cuon Tom (prawn spring rolls) My Quang (fresh yellow rice noodles with prawn and chicken) and Banana blossom with roasted BBQ Pork, Apologies for the amount of photos in this post however a professional photographer was hired for the job so please make an exception. photos: Mike Mills Make-up: jose bass using SPF 30 Stylist: Jill Wanless Chef: Vinh. First we hit the local Vietnamese Market to pick up our ingredients

We Then went to the hotel's local herb garden .... i mean OBVS what hotel doesn't have its own herb garden??!

Next up was kitchen time where we began preparing our 5* lunch with head chef Vinh. Boil the Prawns, take the rice paper and damp with warm water. soak some dried vermicelli noodles for 10 - 15 minutes until softened. put lettuce, julienne carrot, cucumber and mint coriander and basil onto the rice paper, add the vermicelli noodles and prawns. sprinkle in sesame seeds ( or if your mike get confused add peanuts) and roll in a way i imagine one, if inclined, may roll a joint ( again mum not me)

N`ext up the banana blossom salad, mix together thinly sliced onion, carrot and banana flower, add basil,mint and coriander. add the roast pork and dress with sweet and sour fish sauce. and sprinkle with peanuts and fried shallots.

Finally we made our fresh yellow noodles with prawn and chicken. In a hot wok fri the garlic shallots, onions, quail eggs, prawns and chickens for 2 minutes, add chilli, pineapple and chopped tomato. add chicken broth, peanut butter sugar. bring to the boil and add fish sauce. then stir in one whole egg to thicken. blanch the noodles and strain. Add the shredded banana flower, lettuce, herbs to a bowl, then add the noodles and poor over the boiling sauce. garnish with lime wedges, chilli, chopped spring onion and rice crackers.

and as Ramsey would day, DONE. it was beyond delish and I'm already planning when to recreate.