Saturday, December 16, 2006

A Morning with Madame Ha

We're sitting the the lobby of the Saigon Morin sipping coffee, watching the drizzle and listening to Celine Dion singing O Holy Night and crucifying our Lord well before Easter (that woman has a great deal to answer for!) The entire hotel is aglow with Christmas lights and decorations - O Holy Night indeed!

We've just returned from a delightful morning at Tinh Gia Vien attending a cooking class with one of Vietnam's national treasures - the delightful Madame Ha. Perhaps her style of cooking is a trifle elaborate for the home cook but the ornate presentations were a layered omelet becomes a Phoenix, spring rolls provide the body of a peacock and sculptured carrots are the scales of coleslaw dragons are fit for a Hue Emperor.

We were the only two in the class and we laughed at our mistakes, basked in compliments on our omelet technique and helped created some memorable dishes. Our Dance of the Phoenix was served to a table of ex-pat Vietnamese who were visiting from Venice Beach. One of the most memorable mornings we have spent in a long time.

I finally was able to upload some of the Halong Bay photos (just click to view.) The connections here are not the best and I have not been able to access my blog to see how it looks. Hope everything looks okay.

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