It turns out that the manager of the hotel that we have been staying at here in Dalat is a chef!! Managing the hotel is her second endeavor that she recently took on only three months ago. Her day job, so to speak, is a cooking instructor at the College of Tourism. For being quite young, Phoung’s plate is very full…a wife, a mother to a six year old ball of energy, a teacher and a hotel manager!!
We have been in her hotel for about 10 days now, and considering we are basically living here (we wash our clothes in the shower and hang them on our balcony to dry),we have become quite close to the staff. Although Phoung is really the only one who speaks english well enough to have a conversation with, we have made some great connections with the younger girls who clean and the young guy who works in the cafe. Early on, Benny, Steph and I were playing Rummy in the cafe and Phoung sat down with us to learn. She ended up winning the first two hands!! Needless to say, she was thrilled and we were so happy to make that connection with her. After we were through playing she took us three out to have a Vietnam treat…hot soy milk and pastries!
Yesterday afternoon Dave and I were again in the cafe playing cards. This time with the very specific intention of asking the staff to join us in order to build upon the relationships that had grown over the past week. I was so happy that Phoung was around and of course she was delighted to pulll up a chair. This time she taught us a card game. It is a very common game played here and once Dave and I caught onto to the many rules and the style of throwing your cards in to a very untidy pile in the middle, we found that we really enjoyed that game. It was during a round that Phoung suddenly suggested that she would invite us to have home-made spring rolls with her the next morning. Another local treat!! We agreed that our whole group would love that and the date was set…and the bonus was that if i wanted to come in early, i could help make them!
And this is what i did…by 9 am, we were all in the kitchen of the hotel, feeling like we were at home 🙂 We made traditional Vietnamese spring rolls, filled with pork, mushrooms, some kind of root veg, seasoning and noodles- deep fried as if we were in the South. Served with cold noodles, a home made chili sauce, and lettuce. It was quite the feast!!
It has been great to have built these relationships here with the staff of the Black and White Hotel (i dont think that is the actual name, but we can never remember, nor pronounce the right one). This was certainly an experience i will take from Vietnam and cherish for years to come…who knows, maybe i’ll have a spring roll party for friends when i get home! 🙂
This is me and Phoung frying the spring rolls. She is a very petit woman, but don’t underestimate her energy and intelligence!! She is smart as a whip 🙂
While cooking with her, i found out that she too is the oldest of 3 kids, with a sister and a brother the exact same ages as mine!!
Also while cooking, her son kept asking questions about me…it was apparently quite confusing and entertaining at the same time to have a westerner in the kitchen. He asked things like, “why does she have blond hair?” and “What is the difference between a human from Vietnam and a human from America?”
Here is our lunch spread!! Everyone has their own small bowl and you take items like family style.
I am still trying to master chopsticks…it definitly doesn’t come naturally, but it is very fun to try
Similar to how Hispanics make tamales during Christmas time with the whole family, Vietnamese also make spring rolls mostly during the major holiday time. The family has time to devote to all of the labor it takes to roll hundreds of spring rolls!
Here we are on the patio before we devour our lunch!! It was a wonderful Sunday morning! Once we finished brunch, we moved inside and played a few rounds of our new favorite Vietnamese card game.
