enjoy, we did! eat, we did!
After looking up a ton of places on TripAdvisor, Facebook and just general google searches, I found a pretty swell lookin’ cooking school called Basil Cookery School that not only had a ton of great reviews, but had 7 courses that were part of the cooking menu. We would each also have our own wok/cooking spaces.
mangosteens galore! one of the only fruits i can eat (:
Sammy picked us all up from our hostel at promptly 3:45pm and then we were on our way to the market to learn more about Thai ingredients, their uses, and to just pick up some ingredients on the way to the school. We also got to try a ton of cool fruits like mangosteens, rambutans, and fresh coconut! (I only tried the mangosteens though, as I’m allergic to everything else.)
Sammy and the tom yum herb bundle!
What I found really cool was how you could buy bundles of herbs/vegetables to make certain soups. Tom Yum Goong (hot and sour soup) uses a certain set of herbs to attain its distinct taste, so the vendors would pre pack those ingredients together so you can just pick up a bundle instead of having to scour for your own.
After the market, we headed to the cooking school, where we were greeted by Tom, our main instructor. They had already set up our first dish’s ingredients for us. We were all given the opportunity to choose our own plates, so I chose…
1) Pad Thai (duh!)
my pad thai! it tastes better than it looks — i wish they gave me more to make!
2) Tom Yum Goong Soup
tom yum soup — very mildly spiced (:
3) Fried Spring Rolls
veggie fried spring rolls – very similar to vietnamese ones!
4) Green Curry Paste for the..
5) Green Curry Soup!
mine ended up being way too thick, but otherwise, it was so good!
6) Fried Prawns in Tamarind Sauce
i expected something different, but i think this was my second favorite. this with some white rice? yum!
7) Fried Bananas
new favorite dessert. hands down.
The classes last from around 4:30pm- 8:30pm, and we didn’t realize we were going to get so full! Everything was delicious, but by the time we got to the prawns and curry, we didn’t even want to learn how to make the curry and fried prawns not to mention eat them.
Tom, our instructor, constantly played country Thai music in the background while we sweat our butts off in the scorching kitchen. At the end of the meal, we all received recipe books! which I can put up if requested.
Overall, it was an absolute grand time and I really can’t wait to get back to the States to a kitchen to try my hand at all my new-learned foods!
the outdoor market where we got our fresh ingredients.
everything was set up for us!
Until next time!
<3,
kv.
