Learning to Cook Thai

Yesterday we did a really great activity in Chiang Mai.  We took a cooking class to learn how to cook all our favorite Thai food that we have been enjoying here.  We chose the Zabb-E-Lee Thai Cooking School after reading about it and a personal recommendation (Thank you Erica!).  It was an awesome experience.  

They took us to Somphet Market on the East side of the Old Town of Chiang Mai and shopped for our local ingredients and told us about all the different vegetables and spices they use here.  We learned about Thai Ginger and Thai Eggplant which are little green round ones.  Also Thai Finger Root which is part of your curry paste.  Learned exactly what a Kefir Lime and Lime Leaves look like.

Then we headed back to the school to cook some food!  Suzanne and I both got to pick 4 different dishes to prepare.  So in total we learned 8 new Thai dishes.  I chose Pad Thai, Hot and Spicy Shrimp Soup, Papaya Salad and Green Curry with Chicken (My favorite Thai Dish).  Suzanne learned Cashew Nut Chicken (Her favorite dish), Chicken Coconut Soup (Tom Kah Gai), Spring Rolls and Khoa Soi (a Noodle Curry dish that is a Northern Thai dish common in Chiang Mai).

The class was so well done.  There were 8 people in the class and we all had our own stations to prepare our food and cook in our own woks.  Then we got to eat all our food.  I must say we both did excellent work.  All our dishes were fantastic.  I am so glad we did it and got a better understanding on how to cook some of these dishes and which ones Luke can eat.  We learned that traditional Pad Thai doesn’t have peanuts.  New info for us!

Here are the final creations we made.

One of the best parts was Luke getting involved in the cooking and that he ate our finished products.  Now he seems to have more interest in the Thai food.  I think we are going to have to do a cooking class the first day we arrive in every country now so that Luke will eat their food!