I started my day off with a trip to the spa. That foot massage in the airport in Luang Prabang whet my appetite and so today was the day to scratch that itch! Thanks to Linda (front desk reception at our hotel) I was directed to a great little spa not too far around the corner where I enjoyed one of the best foot massages I think it‘ ever ever had! It was a full hour long, included a delicious cup of tea, a foot soak in a wonderfully fragrant bath that had lemon and cinnamon as it’s scent, a coffee and salt scrub, the razor blade treatment that always leaves my feet feeling like they’re brand new, and then a massage that actually put me into a state of almost sleep. It was heaven on earth! Between the medley of wonderful fragrances, the relaxing music, the comfortable chair, the delicious tea, and the best massage ever....yep.....this girl might never come home!
Afterward I literally floated across the street to a restaurant that had full sized chairs (this is an important asset when so many only come up to your ankles!). Here I enjoyed the BEST egg coffee ever! I got the recipe from my server and I will be attempting this once home for sure!
Wahoo....cooking class at ERA today. We’ve been looking forward to this ever since we had lunch there about a week ago. ERA is a brand new (slightly upscale) restaurant and we will be their very first cooking class students. It’s a bit more expensive than we’d planned on spending but....heh....what the heck....the food here is REALLY good.....lets just do it. :-)
Our class began with a 90 minute tour of the markets. We learned about some fruits and vegetables that we’d never seen before and even got to taste a few of them. My favourite section of the markets is the spice section....it smells soooo good when you walk in there. It is a blend of all those wonderful sweet and spicy scents mixed together...super exotic and yummy!
There are other parts of the market that aren’t for everyone though. For example, there is the seafood and the meat sections...neither of those really landed well with Gail. In fact, by the time we got to our cooking class she’d become a vegetarian! LOL. She says it won’t last but for today at least she is off all meats!
One interesting veg they picked up for us in the market was a lotus root. Once we got back to the restaurant they coated and fried it up for us and it was delicious! It is also really attractive. It is sliced into rounds and those rounds each have evenly spaced holes all the way around. It looks like someone spent a lot of time making it look very pretty....kind of like a round snowflake you cut out of paper.
We also made fresh salad rolls with the best dipping sauce ever and I now have the recipe for it so can replicate it at home. :-). There was another type of spring roll that we made out of minced pork mixed with spices that was rolled in a betel leaf and then pan fried. When it was frying the leaf kind of shrunk onto the pork roll inside of it....very cool to see and delicious too! We made shredded banana flower salad and thinly sliced beef in a savoury broth that we dipped fresh herbs and rice noodles into. And then for dessert there was my absolutely favourite.....Jicima Ruby Sweet Coconut Soup. I got the recipe for this one too and am going to give it my best shot when I get home.
Our cooking class was on the third floor (steep stairs!) of the restaurant and after the 90 minute walking market tour we had had enough walking so it was back to the hotel to put our feet up and play a few hands of cards in the dining room.
By the time we were finished with cards Darlene and Gail were done for the night but Lynda and I had just enough energy to walk out the front door, turn right to the corner, turn right again (no need to cross any traffic this way) and walk until we found a place for a nightcap.....which we did....and they were delicious!
Another great day in Hanoi....so till next time,
Darlorlyngai
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