I Heart Ms. Vy

Cooking skills just do not seem to run in my gene pool.  Ask my siblings, they'll tell you it is the truth.

But - that doesn't mean I cannot change (double negative there, I know).

I feel like MJ's "Man in the Mirror" should be cued here...."I'm starting with the man in the mirror... I'm asking him to chaaaaaange his waaays.... If you wanna make the world a better place - take a look at yourself - and then make a chaaange."

Actually, that song may not be applicable here.  Changing my ways from hating to cook to actually enjoying it and knowing how to cook well may not really make the world a better place.  But, those song-writers have to be onto something.

For someone who does not cook well, cooking classes seemed like a great place to start.  We took a Thai class in Chiang Mai.  AMAZING.  Learned how to make curry paste and pad see ew (one of my favorite noodle dishes - basic, but great).

In Hoi An, Vietnam, Marsh and I decided to take yet another cooking class.  There's this woman named Ms. Vy.  I am now obsessed with her.  So obsessed in fact, that we ate 75% of our meals in Hoi An at one of her restaurants (she started 5 in the little town).  Guess we could have branched out... but when you find something that works for ya....

During the class, I learned a lot:

• I heart Vietnamese food.  Don't ask me whether I like Vietnamese food or Thai food better.  I could never make a choice.  They are both so great - and yet vastly different for being two countries located relatively close to each other
• According to Ms. Vy, cooking really only requires 3 things: (1) Fresh ingredients (2) Heat (3) Love.  I'll be the first to say that the last one (love) is pretty cheesy.  But hey - if it works for Ms. Vy....
• Vietnamese cooking incorporates "yin" and "yang."  Most of their dishes are not spicy, but you will find a very interesting combination of flavors.  One thing (such as a sauce or herb) may not taste good on its own - but when incorporated as part of the yin or yang of a dish - it completes it!
• Hoi An did not have electricity until 1980 (or at least the part of town that she lived in).  Her father tried to open a restaurant and it failed.  On his second attempt, he told his daughter (now Ms. Vy), that they needed to differentiate themselves - do something the neighbors would be willing to pay for, even though the neighborhood was poor... that's MBA 101 right there.... (Ms. Vy's father was successful in the second attempt - a banh xeo restaurant)
• Speaking of banh xeo - I learned that it is my favorite Vietnamese dish!  A "pancake" (more like an omlette, I think) made of coconut milk, fine rice flour, and tumeric.  Shrimp and pork are cooked right into the pancake.  It is then folded over with bean sprouts in the middle (thus the omlette type appearance).  You wrap this up in rice paper along with butter lettuce, basil, thin slices of green banana, some starfruit if you have it.... 
• Dairy was not introduced into the Hoi An area until 2003!
• Rationing existed in central Vietnam until the 1990s.  This is when MSG became so popular.  It is cheap and flavorful.  Hence how it has crept into some Asian cooking.... Ms. Vy warns against it, though!
• I am a sucker for buying things.  My mother gets in my head sometimes.... I thought it may be my only chance to buy Ms. Vy's cookbook! (I had checked Amazon the day before the class - it wasn't there...).  Now I have to promise myself that I will make some of the recipes