Mayochup

After a trip to the National Science Museum where it didn't really feature or concentrate on any of the famous scientists (no Newton, Faraday, Bell, Edison, Bohr and only a very very small area dedicated to Einstein) we hopped over to High Street Kensington to go to Balans. An old favourite of mine.

Or so I thought.

You see, Balans has gone through a major re-branding since the last time I visited, and admittedly, it's been a few years. Out went the comfortable sofas, the smart looking interior and in went uncomfortable chairs, smaller tables, and a very random naked tree.





The bill came and it was a little on the pricey side, far too much for what we had but let's chalk that up to experience. All in all, with all the changes to the menu and the refurb, we won't be back. Bring back the old Balans!

We arrived at our hotel very early in the morning and crashed after our long journey. The favourite part is the breakfast and La Siesta Trendy did not disappoint.

A mixture of meats, pastries, eggs, fruit and juices were on offer but the specialty here is the egg coffee. This is amazing. It is coffee with whipped up egg yolk which is sweetened topped off with chocolate sprinkles. It shouldn't sound nice but it is simply fantastic. And this is coming from someone who rarely drinks coffee. 

The morning was spent wandering around the city before we head back to the hotel for our cookery class.

It was just the two of us booked in so we had an exclusive tour of the market from one of the senior chefs where we bought ingredients for what we were about to cook later. The market was huge however, you could barely move as it was busy and the walkways extremely narrow. And motorbikes everywhere. Things are done differently when it comes to selecting fish. At home, we are used to seeing the fish laying on a bed of ice and you ask for what you want over the counter. Over here, the fish are alive in a bowl, picked up and beheaded before our eyes. No nonsense.

Back at the hotel it was cooking time! Our demonstration chef was this tiny lady but she clearly has a passion for her job. We were told she arrives for work at 5am and leaves at 7pm which shows true dedication. We were shown knife skills as ours were severely lacking however, we managed to prepare some truly awesome food as you can see.

After our big meal, we went down to the bar where we had cocktails. Two were free courtesy of the hotel as part of our Honeymoon gift. The Vietnamese, unlike the British, do not seem to care for measures so our cocktails were very very strong!



The next part of our trip is to Halong Bay which will be covered in the next chapter.