Thai Cooking Fun!

After a one month hiatus, I’m back! And finally, the Thai Cooking Class post!
Back in May, we spent a week in sunny southern Thailand and then headed up north for some time in Chiang Mai.

Sunset on Ko Phi Phi

While we were in Chiang Mai, we decided to take a Thai cooking class at Asia Scenic, one of the many cooking schools in the city. We chose the full day course – 6 hours of spicy cooking fun! We started the day off around 8am, when our very excited teacher gave us a tour of the nearby produce market.

Our teacher, Maam

Here, locals and cooking schools alike were shopping and admiring all the fresh foods including vegetables, fruits, spices, noodles, and rice.

Many kinds of rice!

Fresh rice noodles

Vegetables galore

After the colorful tour,we  indulged our senses even more in the school’s garden. Here, our teacher let us sample a variety of ingredients we would use in our cooking. Next, it was time to choose our dishes. We each made (and ate) a 6 course meal, and also made a curry paste by hand! I chose a spicy but refreshing Glass noodle salad, Coconut milk soup, Pad Thai (of course!), Cashew and tofu stir fry, Penang curry, and for dessert, Sticky rice and mango.  Boy made Papaya salad, Pad se lew (my favorite!), Tom sap soup, Spicy basil stir fry, Khao Soi Curry, and a Banana coconut dessert.

I was really surprised at how easy it was to make a curry paste from scratch, as well as the variety of curries that can be made from learning two basics: red curry and green curry.

Khao Soi Curry, a Northern specialty and Tom Sap Soup

Cashew & Tofu stir fry, Penang Curry

Delicious Banana and Coconut dessert

Sticky rice with mango

It was a really fun but tiring day!  I would highly recommend taking a Thai cooking course if you happen to be in Chiang Mai!

Working hard but mostly just having fun!