Cooking Class at Lanterns Restaurant in Nha Trang, Vietnam

This morning Steve and I took a cooking class with the chef of Lanterns Restaurant. Her parents were also restaurateurs, so she pretty much grew up with a paring knife in her hand. After graduating high school she went to a culinary school in Saigon. We had lunch at Lanterns the day we got here, and although lunch was more "okay" than great (at least in comparison to the food in Hoi An), we thought the cooking class sounded good.

We were both thrilled with it. Our main course of Mackerel was the best fish I have ever had in my life. More generally it was one of the best meals I've ever had. We also made fresh spring rolls as a starter, and made flambe for dessert (Steve did Banana flambe and I did Mango flambe).

First we went to the market in bicycle taxi's, where we bought all the ingredients we needed for lunch. We also got to have some fresh sugar cane juice, which was both refreshing and delicious. We went to the largest local market in Nha Trang, and did not come across another Westerner amongst the hundreds (if not thousands) of people packed into the aisles and stalls of the marketplace. It doesn't get much more authentic than where we were. It was a good thing we were both took it easy the night before, because the fish section of the market had a bit of a stench to it that would not go well with a hangover.

Since Steve and I were the only ones that signed up for the class today, we basically had a private lesson. Oh, and did I mention it was $18 per person, all in? Here are some pictures of the food we prepared/ate.