Even though everyone always tells you to approach any situation without having expectations, well, we all know that’s hard to do. So, let’s just say we were expecting the chance to do lots of great Vietnamese cooking at the Red Bridge Cooking School, seeing as we got countless recommendations that this was the place to go (friends, hotel, wikitravel all talked highly of it).

First off, we were informed we’d be picked up at 8 am and taken to the meeting point, even though we had argued we could easily take ourselves there on our own. So we’re waiting and waiting and no-one comes. The hotel had to call to remind them to get us– two frantic girls arrived and we jumped on the back of their scooters and pedaled real fast to the Cafe. Jason and I sauntered into the Café with all 20 other people in the class there waiting. Oops! (Guess we were “those people” in the group today)

We’ve come to learn that many times a cooking class begins with a trip through the local market to peruse the local goods and maybe even try a thing or two (in this case we got to try mangosteen, which are quite a delicacy of a soft, white fleshy fruit). Even with splitting into two groups of ten, trying to maneuver through the busy marketplaces in a group that size is just a nightmare. We struggled to keep up with our guide -- at one point Jason got stuck behind a wheelbarrow full of dirt which put us way behind, but we managed to catch up.

Nothing too special about this market– you’re run of the mill fair of ladies squatting close by their goods, their bare feet precariously close to touching their delicacies, lots of fresh seafood and fresh vegetables and fruits all over, and of course many smells I’d rather not recount. This place was very tame compared to our experience in a Chinese market, thank goodness for that.

Next thing we know we’re boarding a boat to cruise down the river to where the school is located. A beautiful 30 minute ride and we were there. The cooking facilities were gorgeous, located right along the bank s of the Hoi An river with an open air eating area and kitchen. A fresh herb garden covered most of the 2 acre property in the back, and it was just a perfect place to relax and cook.

Our excitement had mounted at this point and we were ready to jump in the kitchen and begin cooking. Unfortunately, this was really set up more as a school classroom, where we sat in seats, watched as the head chef who was freakin hilarious prepared dishes, while we mainly just observed. We got our chance to “cook” a couple things like chop an eggplant and put it in boiling water, and ladle some pre-made rice mixture to make a fresh rice paper. All and all, there wasn’t a lot of cooking we did ourselves – mainly we just pushed around prearranged and pre-chopped ingredients into the appropriate places, which wasn’t that exciting. BUT, we did learn some great cooking advice from our chef like “no cook with MSG, or you die!”

None of that really mattered since we know that the true enjoyment of the day came from me and Jason competing to see whose dishes came out better. I’ll just put it out there and say Jason should certainly not quit his day job. You can check out the cut throat competition and be the judge of who the real “Top Chef” was!

Our favorite part of the day ended eating our delicious concoctions (of course we weren’t really sure whose food we actually got once we sat down) with the wonderful company of Damon and Marie, a couple we sat with. Jason and I both agreed that had we not had such a great hands-on experience at Cloud 9 cooking school in China, we probably would have thought this was top notch – but, we just didn’t get down and dirty like we would have liked to in this cooking class. Still, it was an enjoyable day that most importantly ended with good food and good company.