Letters From Annie (Douglass) Lima: Myanmar/Vietnam Vacation: Bagan Cooking Class

Floyd and I enjoyed a wonderful vacation in Myanmar and Vietnam over Christmas break! Scroll to the bottom for links to blog posts about other parts of the trip.

Here are some of our memories from the cooking lesson we signed up for, where we learned to make traditional Burmese food on Christmas Day! (Find out more about it on Trip Advisor here.)

This lady, May, was our host. The lesson was held at her house, mostly on her back porch and in her yard. She had a wonderful little garden where we picked fresh herbs and vegetables to add to the food!

She set out a few basic ingredients and supplies, and we started by peeling and chopping what she told us to.

At one point I got to crush raw garlic and ginger in a mortar with a pestle. Later, I crushed peanuts in the same mortar (it didn't get washed out in between). The result was quite a zesty-flavored peanut paste! We used it (along with the garlic/ginger mixture) in a number of different dishes.

She had a row of charcoal burners set out on her porch. At her instruction, Floyd and I and one other student cooked a number of separate dishes in them. The main courses included prawns, chicken curry, fish cakes, and pork, but there were quite a few cold salads (none involving lettuce) as well.

We put a giant green eggplant in the coals to cook.

Here's what it looked like after a while.

The finished version. The inside was all gooey and ready to be scooped out to be added to a salad.

Stirring the chicken curry. Most of the broth disappeared as it simmered.

This is May with the library she started in her garage, available for kids and adults in the neighborhood to use 24/7. 20% of the proceeds from her cooking classes go toward the library.