One of the things you can do when you're in Chiang Mai is to learn Thai cooking. As a huge fan of their cuisine, I didn't miss the chance of enrolling for a short course.
Our guesthouse booked me a Half-Day Evening Course at Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School. This course costs 800 Baht (Php 1088) per person. My friend didn't want to cook so he was charged 200 Baht (Php 272) as visitor.
We were picked up from our guesthouse at around 4:30PM by Asia Scenic.
We were first given an orientation of the herbs traditionally used for Thai cooking.
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| market tour |
Our group then walked a few blocks to the nearest market to get ourselves familiar with the ingredients that we will be using for the cooking lesson.
When we returned to the school, we were served this traditional snack called Mieng Kham.
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| Mieng Kham |
Miang Kham consists of roasted peanuts, shallots, chili, ginger, lime and palm sugar syrup. You have to wrap all the ingredients inside a betel leaf, put the palm sugar syrup and eat it in one bite. Each ingredient represents a basic taste: sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, spiciness, sourness. This snack also represents the different tastes Thai cuisine has to offer.
The Thai dishes that we can learn how to cook is divided into 6 categories, but since our time is limited, the whole group has to agree with the two other categories we want to cook, the third and fourth category is always curry. ;)
1. Salad
- Spring Roll
- Papaya Salad
- Glass Noodle Salad
2. Stir-Fried
- Pad Thai
- Pad See Uw
- Hot Basil Stir-Fried
- Cashew Nut with Chicken
3. Soup
- Coconut Milk Soup
- Tom Yum
- Tom Sab
4. Curry Paste
- Red
- Green
- Massaman
- Panang
- Khaw Soi
5. Curry
- Red Curry
- Green Curry
- Massaman Curry
- Panang Curry
- Khaw Soi
6. Dessert
- Deep-Fried Banana
- Banana in Coconut Milk
- Sticky Rice with Mango
Our group chose Stir-Fried and Soup. For stir-fried, I got Pad Thai (of course) and for soup, Coconut Milk Soup. For curry, I chose Khao Soi.
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| with Marc and Stef :) |
Cooking Pad Thai and Coconut Milk Soup
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| Pad Thai |
Our teacher told us that Pad Thai is a bit tricky to cook, but I found it quite easy (yabang. haha). After we finished cooking, we were given time to eat the dishes that we cooked. Well, my Pad Thai was delicious!
Cooking Coconut Milk Soup was much easier compared to Pad Thai.
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| Coconut Milk Soup |
The most challenging part of the lesson was making our own curry paste.
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| pounding curry paste |
We took turns in pounding the curry paste. Nice workout, I tell you. :P
I chose to cook Khao Soi Noodle, a Chiang Mai mainly made of egg noodles, chicken and Khao Soi curry paste.
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| cooking Khao Soi Noodle |
I was supposed to garnish it but I preferred it basic.
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| Khao Soi Noodle |
After our cooking lesson, we were given chance to taste the dishes that we cooked.
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| with my classmates and our teacher |
We were also given a cookbook so we can cook the dishes again when we get home. It was an awesome experience to be able to understand Thai cuisine on another angle: by cooking it.
Taking cooking lessons has made me respect Thai cuisine more. Now I can cook myself a Thai meal should I crave for it at home. :)
Note: 1 Baht = Php 1.36
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Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School
31 Rachadumneon Soi 5,
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
What a great idea for an activity when visiting Thailand! For what you experienced I'd say the fee is really really cheap! Super great value for money! :D
ReplyDeleteYes, very affordable for something I could do forever! :)
DeleteThis is so cool! Will definitely keep this in mind when I plan for a trip to Thailand. :) Been loving Thai food, so cooking it at home will definitely be more fulfilling plus more economical than always eating out when the craving strikes. Haha! Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience, Michy! ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sumi! Included in the lecture are alternative ingredients if Thai ingredients are not available. Hope you'll try this when you visit Thailand. :)
Delete