Students and teachers of Evening Class deepened friendship through cooking and eating Vietnamese food together.　　 (No. 17-10)

Date and Time: Friday, July 28, 2017   6 p.m. ~ 9 p.m.
Venue: Cooking Room, Abiko Kita Kinrin Center (Namiki)
Instructor: Ms. Le Thanh Huyen
Participants: Seven students, seven volunteer teachers and one other person : Fifteen people in total

Ms. Huyen, today’s instructor, is from Hanoi, Vietnam, and studies Japanese in AIRA Evening Class.  She is also a teacher of Vietnamese cooking.  
On this day they cooked and ate Pho Ga (rice noodles in chicken soup) and Che Hoa Cau (sweet mung bean paste).

The recipe of Pho Ga isn’t so complicated but there seem to be three tips in cooking this exotic food.  
One:  When you make chicken soup, rinse the chicken bones well in water after boiling and put them back in the cooking pot to cook again.
Two:  Put a “flavor bag” (green onion, cinnamon, ginger, coriander roots) in the pot when you start to cook.  
By following these procedures, you can make the noodles not too greasy but mild and good flavored.
Three:  When you eat Pho Ga, dip the chicken meat in the sauce made of nam pla, lemon juice and salt.  You’ll be impressed how delicious the meat can be thanks to this spicy and refreshing sauce.  

Che Hoa Cau, mung bean paste, is eaten warmed in winter.  It’s summer now, so it was served chilled with ice in the class.  They enjoyed the taste of coconut milk and the thick texture of this dessert.  You should try Chilled Che Hoa Cau in hot summer. It’s so nice!
The participants introduced themselves to each other and talked about many topics while cooking and eating in a friendly atmosphere.

Ingredients:
Pho Ga (chicken bones, chicken legs, onion, ginger, salt, rice noodles)
Che Hoa Cau (peeled mung beans, sugar, coconut milk, kuzu-ko or powdered arrowroot, ice)

(Translated by Chizu Yamaguchi)