Thai Cookery School

November 2

On the second day of Loy Krathong, we went to school. Cooking school. Siam Rice Thai Cookery School. It turned out to be eating school for our stomachs, too, especially since we didn't want to insult the chefs.

The way it went is like this: At the beginning of the day, a driver (the instructor's husband Pot) came around to pick us up at our hotel. Soon enough we were joined by 7 other people and we all went to the market. Pot took us around and showed us various essential Thai ingredients, like ginger and galangal, lemongrass, three varieties of basil (regular, Thai and holy – although I've seen some people draw a distinction between holy basil, which is hairy, and something else called hairy basil, which is also hairy), scallions, shallots, Thai garlic (so small you don't bother to shuck the skins), Thai chilies (also very small, and either red or green), shrimp paste, coconut cream vs. coconut milk (the second is made by adding water to the first), and two kinds of mushrooms (oyster and jelly).

After the introduction of the ingredients, we had a couple minutes to grab some breakfast or snack from the market. We'd been advised not to eat breakfast, since we'll be preparing and eating six dishes through the day, but Ryan couldn't resist some fresh fried pork rinds (a euphemistic name) and I was intrigued by some candied egg yolks (egg yolk candy turns out to be very popular in Thailand, and we'll be encountering it everywhere we go after this, in both whole yolk form and in a shredded form used as a topping for other desserts). In full confession mode, I'd also been unable to resist running up to the hotel's breakfast buffet that morning and getting, in addition to a cup of coffee, some fruit (papaya and pineapple, maybe a slice of watermelon, too), and then even a small muffin.

For the basic full-day class there were three menus from which to choose dishes. While they were presented as complete menus, trading same-slot dishes between menus was allowed, and after several minutes of deliberation, Nancy, the cooking instructor, had us present our personalized menus. We were assigned aprons which served to group us according to the first dish, and then we went straightaway to the prep area.


Thai cooking class

Each person had a chopping block and a big knife, a small cutting board, and a stone mortar and pestle. Ryan and I had conspired to select separate dishes for each course, so between the two of us we would be making - and eating - 12 dishes! Other people in the class had selected spring rolls as their first dish, so we all participated in making those, but then let the people who had chosen that dish finish them up (and eat them - although there were so many spring rolls they shared them around anyway).

There was an option for a half day in which the curry is skipped because there isn't enough time to make it - I'm glad we did the full day class, even if we did have to eat like beasts.

Dishes we prepared:
Danny
1. Fried noodles Thai style (Pad Thai)
2. Chicken in hot and sour soup (Tom Yum Gai)
3. Papaya salad
4. Fried cashew nuts with chicken
5. Red curry paste & red curry with chicken
6. Sweet sticky rice with mango

Ryan
1. Fried big noodles with sweet soy sauce (Pad See Ew)
2. Chicken in coconut milk soup (Tom Kha Gai)
3. Spicy glass noodles salad
4. Fried holy basil with chicken
5. Green curry paste & green curry with chicken
6. Pumpkin in coconut milk

We stopped to eat after every several dishes, while Nancy and her assistant Oht cleaned up the prep area and got things ready for the next batch of dishes. When we got to the chili pastes, we were grouped according to curry color (green vs red, yellow, and panang). The reason for this division has to do with how yellow curry and panang curry are made. To get yellow, you mix the red curry paste with twice as much yellow curry powder, or to get panang curry, you mix the red with an equal part of yellow curry powder and another part of ground peanuts. (Panang curry is supposedly a southern Thai style of curry, but oddly anything we've found listed as panang curry in the south has been just a red curry with extra coconut milk, if even that. I wonder if this is because we're in touristy areas in the south, which pretty much seems to ruin all the Thai food.) For the difference between green curry and red curry, it's in the color of the chilies used, and the addition of basil leaves to the green curry.

Everything was very tasty, and afterwards Nancy emailed us the cook book with all the recipes in it, even the ones we didn't make. Actually, to say everything was tasty is an understatement, as it was pretty much the best Thai food we'd had yet, and for some dishes probably the best this whole trip (and I write this with only two weeks left to go).

Also fun was that after lunch we took a break to make our loy krathongs for Loy Krathong. These are the little boats made from leaves and flowers to be floated in the river as part of the festival. Making our own would relieve us from having to buy boats from a street vendor, even if ours didn't look quite as nice.


Our finished krathongs

Last night, in the very brief amount of time we had during dinner, before meeting people for the mass sky lantern launch, Ryan and I shopped frantically for cheap shirts that we could wear while cooking. I had fearful visions of splattering chili oil all over our nice clothes, so we considered it a top priority. Despite this, I had rejected every shirt over 100฿ that we found. (The first shirt I liked cost 250฿! No way for a shirt that I expect to get dirty and get thrown out!) At what seemed like the last minute, we happened upon a used clothing vendor at the Sunday market and picked up two cheap shirts for 50฿ apiece. Of course, the aprons managed to keep us clean, and now we're stuck with these shirts until we can find some way of ruining them, like we planned... I guess we'll have to wear them to the elephant farm in a couple days.

Just because I like to keep track of the fun people we met on our trip, here are our classmates from the day:

• Lucy & Louise – Tax and finance accountants from the U.K. on the first long holiday from work they’ve taken in a while. They arrived serendipitously for the festival, but hadn't known about it before getting to Chiang Mai.
  
• Elin & Nora – Two international business students (from Sweden and Germany) doing a 6-month exchange program in Bangkok.
  
• A trio of girls from Washington State and Oregon. They did the half-day class and I never caught their names.
  
• Ron – An oil rigger from Louisiana, on break for two weeks, travelling through Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
  
• Arriving for the second half of the class, but joining us rather than working on their own (like the trio of American girls) were Vlad and his wife Anda from Australia. They're originally from Romania, I think, but now he works as a plastic surgeon in Sydney.