Terrific, terrific day today as I joined the Saigon Cooking Class by Hoa Tuc bright and early!  The half-day gourmet tour included the visit to the Ben Thanh Market and the actual class at Hoa Tuc’s second floor.

We were met by Chef Phuong at the Cua Tay entrance of the Ben Thanh Market.  Actually, it was just me and another student, a Kiwi retiree named Janet.  But classes can be as big as 14 students at a time.  Boy, am I glad it was just Janet and I because I was able to ask Chef Phuong a lot of questions.  We got really acquainted with the market and it was a fruitful morning tour.  Living in Saigon for 2 years already, it was only today that I really got around to “see” the wet section of the Ben Thanh Market.

Wonderful, fresh produce at the market and interestingly there were no flies around.

We spotted a blue lipped (and teeth) fish and a catfish that didn’t want to get sold.  We actually saw a lady cutting the feet of frogs and peeling off their skin — but let’s not post that shall we?

I actually learned that kumquat means calamansi!  So sorry I really didn’t know that.

Aside from giving us a tour of the market, Chef Phuong bought ingredients for the 3 dishes we were going to cook that morning.

More on the tour and the class on my next post!