The great thing about food is that you never stop learning about it. Most of the time, you learn sort of accidentally-on-purpose via books and blogs and talking to people. But now and again you go after the next fix in foodiness and decide to take a lesson in something completely new.
A couple of months ago, I heard a rumour on the foodie-vine about a cookery school opening in Amsterdam’s Chinatown. It turned out to be a series of Asian cuisine workshops at Dun Yong, one of the larger and better stocked Asian supermarkets in town. I signed up for a Vietnamese workshop with another friend who’s a keen cook, and spent four blissful hours chopping, stirring, munching and generally causing chaos in the kitchen-cum-classroom.
Vietnamese spring rolls - recreated in the office a few weeks later...
Our teacher, FongYee Wong, whose Twitter name is notjustasian, was terrifying and patient in equal measure. Originally from Singapore and trained at some of Amsterdam’s top European restaurants, she looked sternly over my shoulder as I did a pathetic job of mincing my dried shrimp, before bursting out laughing at some quip my partner in crime made about stuffing in more pork.
We had so much fun with the eight others in our group that we decided (having not yet finished eating our first meal together) to book another workshop in June: this time on Singaporean and Malaysian cuisine. Not being modest types, we also christened ourselves ‘the cooking dream team’ and swore our allegiance to learn about all things Asian together from then on.
The cooking dream team in action
So it was with great excitement, then, that I arrived at Dun Yong last Saturday, ready to learn about Laksa, Ngoh Hiang and Satay. Dita (my original foodie friend) and I stoically upheld our reputation for being disruptive and, as a result, took longer than anyone else to finish our laksa paste. Luckily, some of our more studious co-chefs had everything ground, simmered and served by the point at which lunchtime rolled around.
Laksa, Ngoh Hiang and Satay
While a meal out is always a treat, there’s immense satisfaction in having personally created something totally beyond your usual repertoire. And what more productive, inspiring way to spend four hours of your weekend? In October, the dream team meets again – this time for dim sum…
