Ingredients:

Marinade:  Garlic, shallots, turmeric, lemongrass, five spice, honey, soy sauce.

Meat: Loin of Pork.

Noodles: Special Cau Lao noodles.

Dressing: Vietnamese mint, bean sprouts, Thai basil, rice crackers, spring onions, chili.

Create a ‘paste’ from the dry ingredients in a pestle and mortar. Make sure the woody parts of the lemongrass are removed and it is very finely chopped. Place into a bowl and add honey and soy sauce. Rub all over the meat and leave for at least 30 minutes.

Brown the fleshy part of the meat but leave the skin uncooked. Combine the remains of the marinade with the cooked meat and add water to make a stock. Bring to the boil and cook for 45 minutes. The sauce will reduce and the flavours intensify.

When ready to serve, slice the pork very finely against the grain of the meat. Lay onto the quickly cooked noodles and bean sprouts. Add stock and then dress with mint, basil, spring onions, chilli and rice crackers.

Cau Lao is the signature dish of Hoi-An. What sets it apart are its thick brown ropey rice noodles. Only one family makes these noodles for Hoi-An and the surrounding region and the recipe is a closely guarded secret. Rumour has it that the water they are cooked in comes from a secret well and that ash is added to the ingredients to give the noodles their distinctive smokey appearance and taste.

Cau Lao was also my dish of choice at the Bamboo Cuisine Cookery School, one of many that are run in and around Hoi-An.

Van, our gracious host and teacher took us first to the river side market to buy our raw ingredients. No double packed, vacuum sealed boxes here, no chiller section for the meat and vegetables certainly did not come  wrapped in plastic as they can do in the UK.  All the fresh produce is brought in and shopped for daily, sometimes twice daily. Many Vietnamese still do not own fridges and many perishable products have to be bought and consumed soon after purchase.

Meat is killed in the very early hours of the morning and brought straight to the market to be  butchered. It is ready for sale by 4 am and the big hotels in particular will send drivers to pick up their needs for the day. By 8am it has all been sold. There was no doubt that we were going to eat the freshest meat available.

Baskets were soon filled with everything we needed. Coconut water and coconut shavings to make coconut milk from scratch. Rice noodles, lemongrass (lots of lemongrass), rice, papaya, mango, shallots, garlic, fresh herbs and spices – lots of the most aromatic spices. And couple of chili peppers. The Vietnamese consider the best food to taste fresh and aromatic. Heat in the form of chili  is often added individually according to taste.

Van runs her cookery school from the home she has lived in since birth. Every class member cooks a dish of their choice from a list of over 45 recipes. Imagine how long it took for the men of the group to make a decision.

11 cooks, 11 dishes all carefully choreographed by Van. We all prepared our dishes together, peeled prawns, created pastes and marinades before taking it in turns to cook before our peers. As one person put it – it is a lot more intimidating this side of the bench!

Two hours later we had produced and tasted, a staggering array of fresh, delicious food and of course all of us vowed to use our newly acquired skills and complimentary cookbook to amaze our friends.

Now where am I going to get Vietnamese mint, Thai basil and smoked Hoi-An noodles in East Dulwich?