Phuket, Thailand - Part 2

Phuket, Thailand
Thai Cooking School
April 11, 2018

Phuket Thai cooking school

When the guy who did the cooking class picked us up there were some people from Belgium already in the car. We drove to the market where we met King and Kristina (our tour guides of the market and cooking instructors) and we walked around the market.




When we first started walking throughout the market I got sprayed by a water gun from one of the guys at the market stalls. Apparently there was a water festival the next day in Phuket where everybody sprays everybody with water guns. King said that he was trying to get in some practice before tomorrow.


Anyway, we continued walking through the market and looking at all the different fruits, foods and preserves. We stopped by one of the stalls and she told us about sweet chili sauce and how much they used it in their cooking (We wound up buying some). Then she continued to tell us about the different sauces like oyster sauce, fish sauce and sweet chili sauce. After we learned about just some of the sauces  and then we learned about all the different types of ginger like lady finger ginger. We also saw some lady finger bananas.

Then we headed over to places that had ready-to-eat food. We had this coconut thingie BBQed inside tapioca leaves, it was so good (we had some on our first visit to Phuket and we were interested in trying it again). Then we had some banana and black pepper in a tapioca leaf (I liked the coconut one better).


Then we got 10 minutes to walk around the market and get fruits, veggies, etc. After we went looking around we got back into the van and drove to the cooking class. When we arrived we wrote our name on a tag and they translated it into Thai.

This is the first time that I have done a cooking class without any help from my parents. I cooked Mango Sticky rice first (my favorite dessert of all time) and then I let the Mango Sticky rice sit and "marinate" in the coconut cream and milk. Then we did the mise en place for all of the dishes and made all the sauces for the dishes.



I made 5 dishes: Yellow Curry, Pad Thai, Som Tam, Chiken with Cashews and Mango and Sticky Rice. My Mom made: Khao Soy, Spring rolls, Tom Yum Goong, Sweet and Sour Chicken and Bananas in Coconut Milk. My dad made: Penang Curry, Pad See Eu, Tom Kha Gai, Minced Chicken with Basil and Deep Fried Bananas.

Everything was super organized. Everybody had their own station with a wok. I loved cooking with a wok. I learned how to lock my wok (putting the spatula leaning north on the wok) and turning the burner on to the right setting for what I was making.

I loved this cooking class I especially liked doing it by myself and I hope to do many more...