Thailand FoodTake a Thai Cooking Class !
The service was door to door. All I had to do was wait in the hotel foyer until I was bustled into the van, handed the promised Thailand Food recipe book that came with the course, and sit back in comfort while the driver negotiated the tuk-tuks, moterbikes, cars, and pedestrians that seemed to weave an incomprehensible path along the narrow roads of Chiang Mai. We found my classmates for the day, an American lawyer and his Real Estate house finder friend, with some difficulty in the narrow lanes, and arrived late at the cooking school, where Megan a middle aged English lawyer was waiting, having walked.
Visit the Market, fruit and vegetable carving or making curry paste?The simple but spacious open air kitchen, was well set up with long tables and bench seats, gas woks in a row, and several young girls to help out.I was impressed that the cooking school gave us a choice of options. While the other three went off to the market to learn about Thailand food - the various tropical fruits, vegetables, and spices used in Thai cooking, I was keen to learn fruit and vegetable carving.An art I have always admired when Thailand food is beautifully presented. None of us chose the third option, learning to mix the curry pastes, as the recipe book describes this in detail, and some of us will no doubt take the easy option of buying ready mixed. There is quite an art to Vegetable Carving!I am good with my hands and have done a lot of craft work, but the carving skills definitely required some practice.Armed with a very sharp scalpel like knife, I spent an hour copying my teacher’s every move,
My rather clumsy attempts were much admired when my classmates returned. I was pleased....... they had not detected the difference from the practiced elegant versions my teacher Kale, had skillfully created. My attempt was wobbly, thick lines, of irregular shape and size, rather than the neat exact petals she managed.
Down to the Cooking-6 dishes in all!We were to make 6 different dishes in the one day course - there is a different menu, depending on which day you do the class. I was very happy that most of the recipes for my day were my preferred options.Favourites from the Thailand food I had sampled as we travelled up to Chiang Mai..............
As the school was pleasingly accommodating, I could have asked to do something different and would have had an individual tutor to teach me. Megan being vegetarian, made a totally different selection of dishes with her individual tutor. Thai Cooking TechniquesStarting with a fish dish, we were handed out the correct quantities of
Chopping and slicing, crushing garlic and preparing chillies and prawns, we learned how to slit the prawns down the centre of the back after peeling. That you can use garlic unpeeled, just smashing with the back of a flat knife, and how to skin and crumble a fish that we then bound and cooked into a delicious crispy strip. You Taste and Test until it is How You Like it!
Having prepared everything for cooking at the tables, we all took our raw ingredients to the woks, where we each had our own burner and wok. Carefully following the instructions of our tutor, we browned onions and meat, added spices, cooking until their fragrance filled the air, and our noses, indicating we were ready to pour in the pre-measured quantities of juices -
..........and not too many Chillies!We were taught that Thailand food is about tasting and adding the various ingredients, adjusting all the sweet and sour, hot and spicy flavours to our personal preference.Ben quickly found three chillies made a powerfully hot brew! I thought he must have a mouth lined with asbestos when he insisted three chillies would be perfect. And then came the reward! After each dish was cooked, we proceeded to eat it. After devouring a couple of dishes,it became clear you needed to pace yourself, or you would find you were unable to enjoy any of the next few courses. We all opted to take our fried rice home so not only did you get to have cooking classes and a free recipe book, but all your meals for the day were catered for.
An Experience to be RecommendedIn between cooking we had some interesting conversation while in the background the young girls scurried around collecting up the great piles of dishes we seemed to use and doing all the washing up. What luxury!I came away feeling very relaxed and well fed, having thoroughly enjoyed some stimulating company. I can highly recommend the experience. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to Thailand.
About Thai Cooking Classes in Chiang MaiThere are a number of possible cooking schools in Chiang Mai.My school was the Thai Chocolate Cookery Centre and was booked at the hotel for the very reasonable price of 900 baht for the full day. There are also 3 day courses, for those who really want to learn all they can about Thai cuisine. The price includes transportation to and from the hotel, a free recipe book, tuition, and all ingredients.
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