Cooking the Thai... Way

Because it has been ages since my last post, I thought I would update you on what I have been doing for the last... 3 days.  lol.

We arrived back in Bangkok on Sunday night from Hua Hin a little worse for wear in terms of energy but not spirit.  With our [new found] sense of daring, Sam and I set out the next morning, after much putting around and appreciating being 'home' for the bus stop with the following plan: get on a bus and see where it takes us.  We ran into Chris and Steph at the bus so they joined us on our endeavour on the 80.  Here we met a man that barely spoke a word of English and who, while looking at Steph's new bracelet from Hua Hin, ties it on his wrist then proceeds to get off of the bus.  Perhaps this was not such a good idea...



Getting off the bus, we got a little disoriented and went the wrong way to get where we wanted to go.  Unlike the bracelet incident, this mishap worked out quite well because we found ourselves in a park on the river and we were offered a longboat ride.  This was a really neat experience, going through the canals in the center of this huge city.  It was like the Asian version of Venice - for way less and the boat was motorized.

After an hour on the water, it was a little weird at first walking on land again - not swaying and bouncing with the ripples and waves.  From here we went to Khao San Rd - where we meant to go in the first place.  This road is the place for backpackers in Bangkok so there were a lot more foreigners here in comparison to where we are living, far from anything really touristy.  Here there were a lot more markets and tuk tuk drivers waving us down to be driven around.  Little did they know that this was where we wanted to be.

Walking through all the shops was pretty cool but the gem that we found was the tourism agency that we found.  It is through this agency that Sam and I booked our cooking class which turned out to be an amazing experience.  (After Khao San Rd we walked to Little India, followed by Chinatown which was really neat because the market stretched for over a kilometer).

The cooking class experience:

After getting a little nervous that we got taken because at 9am there was no one at the agency where we paid for the class, a woman showed up at just after 9 to take us to the market to buy the ingredients we needed for the four dishes that we were going to prepare.  Our group consisted of 2 women from Japan and a woman from Wales.  The market was a really cool experience because it was unlike any that we had been in so far.  All the markets in our area smell heavily of fish because there is a lot of cooked food being sold.  This market was all fresh ingredients.

We then proceeded to the cooking school where we all had a station for chopping around a table and our own wok to cook in.  The two people who ran the school were fantastic.  They realized that we were all tourists so they stopped at appropriate times to take pictures and offered to take pictures of us, but they did it in such a way that they didn't make us feel like idiots or aliens... or both.  Before getting started, they gave us each a copy of the recipes we would be preparing (in English) - so exciting!

We made the following dishes:

1. Green Curry Paste for Green Curry with Pork

2. Tom Yum Kung (Sweet and Spicy Shrimp Soup)

Tom Yum in the foreground

3. Pad Thai with Chicken

4. Cooked Pumpkin in Sweet Coconut Milk

I know this last one looks kind of gross but it was amazing.  Even though we had already eaten 3 dishes we managed to cram it into our stomachs.  What is more exciting is that instead of pumpkin you can use banana or sweet potato!  I can't wait to make it at home.

Overall this was a really cool experience because we learned so much.  It was amazing how fast everything cooked on the gas stove once you had all the ingredients ready - I want one!  Sam and I have both decided that we need woks and mortars and pestils so that we can do this for ourselves when we get back.  I'm sure the hardest part of it all will be finding all of the ingredients.

For those thinking about going to Bangkok - I highly recommend taking a cooking class:)