Friday, October 9, 2009

Gỏi Gà 4

Title: Gỏi Gà (Group 4)


Location: Thầy Minh's house


Date: 3rd October 2009


Cast: Annaling, Daniel, Karen, Chao Qun






Us with Cô Bích and Cô Lê.

The four of us had reached way ahead of our allocated time, so we had to do other things to keep ourselves entertained.






Play with toys.






Shred chicken for phở gà (by order of Cô Bích).






Our preparation process:














Future nội trợ hard at work.






Remember to squeeze the water out of the carrots! Else the salad would be soggy. *ew*













End of preparation process. Time for decorations!






But first! We had to try out how our dish tasted like. And we invited Cô Bích to try our dish 3 times! She felt it was too sour AND too spicy. So spicy that she couldn't taste other groups' dishes. Opps!





After that, we got Thầy Minh to try out our dish and he thought it was alright. But Cô Lê still felt that the sauce was too sour. Hmm...






Here we've the process of making another dish. It's called Leftovers. Don't waste food!





Dump everything into a mixing bowl and serve.





End product. Vietnamese 'Rojak'.






Tasting time! The 'rojak' tasted pretty good!





Thầy Minh's wife came along to join in the fun! :D





Group 4 with our "decoration" and dish. Guess who/what is the decoration.






Our final Gỏi Gà!











Before the judging begins, the girls decided to reward themselves with a drink!






Can you spot Group 4's Gỏi Gà in this photo? :D






Judging time: Hmm.. I wonder what Cô Bích just tasted.





Woah, check out our teachers' expressions!






Cô Bích was anticipating what Cô Lê's expression would be. I believe they were tasting (not fully cooked) beef stew.






A Kodak Moment.






Cô Lê going for some other dish.






After all the students and teachers "attacked" the table of food. Check out how empty our plate became! *proud moment*






Group 4 with Cô Bích, our teacher for TA1 class and our mentor for the cooking project!






A final shot.


Sinh viên tiếng Việt - Students of Vietnamese Language


Tips from Cô Bích:



-        
The teachers like sweet stuff (not sour or
spicy, unlike Singaporeans or Thais)


-        
Do not mix sauce and vegetables too early as the
vegetables will turn soggy


-        
Mint leaves must be torn into small pieces to
bring out their flavours


-        
All vegetables must be shredded/chopped thinly

-        
Must squeeze water out of carrot

-        
Must prepare lots of sauce

-        
Always prepare more than required (in case
something goes wrong)


-        
Go early to get cooking tips from Cô Bích

-        
Get the right kind of mint leaves (if in doubt,
ask)


-        
Don’t waste food (pass the remainders to Cô Bích to make the dish called ‘Leftovers’)

-        
Peanut should only be added right before serving
to preserve its crunchiness


























Individual Afterthoughts:



Annaling:





Through
this cooking project, I got to know my classmates better. The atmosphere of the
cooking project was a lot more relaxed than normal classroom lessons, which is
why most of us were more natural and bonded better.



It was evident during the tasting of the various dishes how different
Singaporeans’ and Vietnamese’s taste buds were. Our teachers evidently favoured
sweet stuff, while Singaporeans could handle spicy and sour food better.



Our
Vietnamese teachers proved to be indeed a fun company as they mingled and
gamely tasted our food many times to give us their opinions. I would love to
partake in more of such activities!







Daniel:





In
class, we can learn to speak the Vietnamese language, but this cooking project
allowed us to learn about the Vietnamese culture. From this project, we can see
how different taste buds of the Vietnamese people (as compared to the Singaporeans).



What
made the whole project interesting was the bonding between our classmates and
teachers and the opportunity to cook dishes that were unfamiliar to us. While
some of us saw the cooking project as a challenge, because they had never
handled a knife their whole lives, others took it as an opportunity to put
their culinary skills to good use.







Karen:






The
cooking session was a very enjoyable session. It provided good bonding time
with my Vietnamese language classmates and teachers. I found out that we each
had very different preferences with regards to food taste. When some of us
found the sauce okay, some found it too spicy or sour. I guess when we cook, we
have to be mindful of the person who will be eating the dish. In this case, as
we knew the teachers were the judges, we got the teachers to try the sauce, and
realized the teachers’ preference was rather different from ours.. I also
realized that there were a lot of cooking tips that we could not find online,
which could only be taught by the people who had experience with the dishes,
such as co Bich. Overall, it was a memorable experience and I definitely will
try making some of the dishes at home too!





Chao Qun:






That was
the most interesting group project that I ever have in my life of studying.
Apart from learning to cook Vietnamese dish, it gave us a good interaction time
to know our coursemates and tutors well. Although I didn’t help much in the
cooking section, I’ve tried my best to finish the food as much as possible
(Oppssssss…). And, I just realized that I never step into kitchen to help my
mother to cook a single dish before. So that is why my cooking skill is poor.
Should have prepared this Vietnamese chicken salad for her next time if she
dares to try it…Haha

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