As you know by now, we love food and cooking. We particularly love the flavors of Thai food, so obviously, we had to do a cooking class while in Thailand.
Doing it in Chiang Mai turned out to be a great choice. It was an all day affair and we made six dishes altogether — here is the menu:
Thai Hot And Sour Prawn Soup: Tom Yam Goong Green Curry With Chicken: Gaeng Kheo Wan Gai Thai Style Fish Cakes: Tord Man Plaa Thai Fried Noodles: Phad Thai Spicy Minced Chicken Salad: Larb Gai Water Chestnuts With Sugar Syrup And Coconut Milk: Tab Tim Grob
Before we got into the cooking though we met our instructor at a local market and she showed us the ingredients “in the raw”. We were picked up at our airbnb by one of the little red taxi trucks we had seen scooting around town. We were curious about them so getting to ride in one was part of the adventure.
At the market, Garnet, our instructor showed us the various chili peppers, the Asian eggplants, the herbs, the mushrooms, and other ingredients.
She also showed us where they squeeze fresh coconut milk for you. If you ever wondered about the difference between coconut cream and coconut milk and how to use them, here she explains,
Before loading back into the taxi truck, we had ten minutes to explore other parts of the market, which had a huge range of fresh and cooked food for sale. We were particularly fascinated by the butcher's area, where they were slicing organ meats and had all sorts of body parts for sale.
The kebabs looked delicious.
While we were waiting for the taxi truck, we were standing next to a stand where they were making these little custard tarts. We were there just long enough for me to give in and buy some to try. They were soooo delicious!
We were driven to a residential area with large houses and gardens a little outside of the main city. We walked through an opening in a hedge into a lovely garden where a local chef had set up his own cooking school.
It was beautifully designed, with cooking stations outside under a canopy roof and a demonstration kitchen in an air conditioned room next to it. Garnet would first show us all the steps for cooking each dish and then we would go outside and do our best to replicate it.
Here is David working on a masterpiece.
And here is the masterpiece - our first dish - the Tom Yam Goong.
The secret of Thai cooking is the balancing of the flavors — sweet, tart, savory, and spicy. Also, everything is cooked very quickly. I won’t bore you with the details of how we cooked each dish, but it was all delicious.
In addition to the great food, we really enjoyed the beautiful surroundings, both inside and out.
After a perfectly delightful and delicious day, we returned to our airbnb and went for a swim. The next day was a home industry tour.
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