Beyond Pho

We were fortunate enough to host a lovely cooking class teacher from Hanoi, Diep Le To, recently at In Good Taste. She taught a Vietnamese cooking class entitled "Beyond Pho". Mary Jo, Diep's friend, lives in Portland and it was she who arranged this amazing evening. Amelia Hard and Allison Bader were Diep's local chef buddies, and they organized everything from the shopping to the prep and help with the cooking.

Diep's stories of food and cooking in Vietnam were fascinating. She talked about the Yin and Yang of cooking. The Yin (female) is dark and represents things low down or underneath the water (such as fish). The Yang (male) represents the sun and it is bright. All their cooking, especially in the North of Vietnam, is balanced by the Yin and the Yang. When cooking, not only are the flavors balanced, so are the colours and appearance. As Diep told us: "In Vietnam, we cook with the tongue and the eye".

Diep also said that "Cooking is how you show your family your love". What a wonderful thought. We were totally captivated.

During the class, Diep also taught us about the spices of Vietnam, including the wondrous Saigon cinnamon. We do sell it but only in ground form; Diep brought us the raw bark and it was amazing.

At the end of the class, Diep sang us a song about her country. You can read the words of the song here. She provided us with the Vietnamese words and the English translation.

This was certainly an evening we will cherish for a long time.

-Barbara