Siam Rice Thai Cookery School
Obviously, I had to take a Thai cooking class while we were in Thailand. Obviously.
After Bangkok, we visited the much more laid back city of Chiang Mai which is located in the northern part of the country and is the third largest city in Thailand. Based on travelers’ reviews, taking a cooking class was a must-do activity here. Plus, the city itself is much cheaper than Bangkok and the beaches to the south, so where better? Hello, $30 a night boutique hotels.
One on one Thai food lesson aka my dream
There are SO many cooking classes offered in Chiang Mai. Really, just check out TripAdvisor’s top Activities in Chiang Mai. Half of the list is made up of cooking classes! So how could we choose one? Mostly happenstance and luck of the draw I guess, but it worked out perfectly.
Our Thai Airways flight ($80 and super fancy, I’m not kidding) got into the city around 8:00 AM, so that narrowed down a lot of cooking classes that started with a pick-up early early in the morning. Charlie wasn’t too into the idea of a full-day class, some of which last between six and seven hours, and I wasn’t too into the idea of rushing from the airport to make a 9 AM starting time anyway, so we booked a half-day course that started at noon. That gave us just enough time to drop off our backpacks at our sweet and cheap hotel, grab breakfast (and a Chang), and get our first authentic Thai massage (potentially more on that later).
outskirts of Chiang Mai, oasis of Thai food
Originally I wanted to take this course due to its consistently excellent TripAdvisor reviews and the fact that the teacher knows Gordon Ramsey. But the cost was relatively high by Thailand standards, the menu was set (meaning you couldn’t choose the dishes you cooked) and, most importantly, you didn’t get to make your own curry paste from scratch. So instead, we went with the afternoon class at Siam Rice Thai Cookery School. It ended up being one of Charlie’s favorite things we did during the trip, and this is saying something since he originally was pretty ambivalent about the whole thing (slash told me we could definitely trim it from the itinerary).
Charles plays with fire. (Yes, this was intentional).
We went with the half-day afternoon class which lasted about three and a half hours. Unfortunately this did not include a market tour like some of the other classes, but they did pick us up from our hotel room in a songthaew and we got to choose our own dishes – four courses, including a curry paste of our choice!
Curry Ingredients, pretty complex
The way you pound curry paste shows how good a wife you will be. (Seriously, just think about that one.)
Yeah, action shot!
It turned out to be just us and two Spaniards in our class so we got lots of one on one instruction from our teacher, Joe. (At least he says that’s his name.) He looked about nineteen years old, but you never know with Thais, they all appear so youthful! He spoke great English and joked around a lot, but most of all, he knew what he was doing. He had the ingredients of each curry paste memorized backwards and forwards and even quizzed us on them after giving us a quick lesson. Between courses he hung out with his friends and smoked cigarettes while we ate and then he prepared our stations for the next course. I appreciate that in a teacher, not too chatty, not too overbearing, and laid back.
The Set-Up
The Siam Rice Thai Cookery School is located a little ways outside the city in a lush landscape of greenery, fountains, and lots of birds in cages… I’m not sure if we were eating those particular birds or not? We each got our own cooking station which included a wooden block for cutting, a large knife, and a wok with a gas burner. There was no air conditioning in the little area where we ate our finished products, but they provided free water and (instant) coffee and had a cooler of beer for sale (yes!).
There were also chickens in little ground cages
The Classroom – Don’t be fooled by its simplicity. This is all you need.
Charlie, Joe (humoring us with a picture), and Me
I go to the cooler to get (multiple) beers
Joe – “You like Chang? Haha, It’s very strong.”
Me – “Yes! It’s very cheap.”
fresh produce and herbs for our noodle dishes
Joe was also very accommodating. We were supposed to pick one noodle dish, one stir fry, one curry, and one dessert, however, the wayward Spaniards went rogue and insisted that they should get to make spring rolls (appetizers that were not on our designated menu for the half-day course). Joe allowed it and prepared accordingly. So I jumped on board too and left Charlie as the lone student cooking dessert.
Yeah, hat backwards, frat boy serious.
As I do not allow Charlie to order the same thing as me at restaurants (the one exception being Crispy Pork Belly Soup at Bida Manda), why would this cooking class be any different? We had to choose different dishes for each course. This is not out of meanness or some crazy desire to be original, but so that we each get to try the most food possible, of course!
So, for our selections, he went with the Pad Thai (duh) and I went with Drunken Noodles. He did Chicken with Cashews and I did Fried Holy Basil with Chicken. Then, for the moment of truth, Charlie picked green curry paste (his favorite), and me, utterly torn up over having to make this decision, chose the Khao Soi paste (because Chiang Mai is so well-known for its Khao Soi). For the finale, Charlie chose mango sticky rice and I deep fried some spring rolls.
Fried Holy Basil with Chicken
Pad Thai
Drunken Noodles, a very popular Thai dish at home.
I was really happy I learned the right techniques for making a curry and the other Thai dishes we chose. Everything cooked very quickly and simply, using fresh ingredients, herbs, and basic condiments. There’s lots more go-with-the-flow action in Thai food than other types of food. A cooking class taught us this better than a cookbook could. Joe helped avert any disasters by going from wok to wok, adding water or coconut milk when our curry was about to burn. Each station held containers of palm sugar, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and soy sauce which we used liberally when Joe told us to or just to adjust the flavors to our liking.
Khao Soi – Finished my curry!
Charlie’s Green Curry
So beautiful, I can’t even believe I made those
Everything tasted fantastic (really, some of the best Thai food I’ve ever had) and it was more than enough for a meal. If we weren’t such fatties, we could’ve had leftovers. It made me glad we chose the half-day course because four plates of food was a plenty… though we did see some gluttons from the full day class leaving with their to-go bags.
Annnd this is the reason I buy curry paste from the store already made. SO many ingredients.
Love this snapshot of your Thai Cooking Class! Thanks so much for the details, and I’m looking into booking my own.. Nice work on the dishes – they look superb.
Ah thanks, it was one of my favorite things that we did in Thailand! And the food turned out great! I definitely recommend doing one!