As I’ve mentioned, one of the greatest things about Thailand is the food. We had feasts at practically every meal – and everywhere we went, the vegetarian food options were abundant. Such a rare pleasure in Asia! If you haven’t eaten much Thai food, you really are missing out on some fabulous flavors. Cooking schools are listed as some of the most highly rated tourist activities, so one day Dave and Lydia did an activity together, while I went to the Siam Rice Thai Cookery School.
The school offered transportation service. I was picked up bright and early by a man driving a small Toyota pickup truck with two wooden benches along the sides of the bed of the truck. It was the first time Dave and I have gone separate ways on an overseas trip...and I was beginning to wonder if I'd made a big mistake!! Fortunately, there were a couple of other women from our hotel going to the same place, so I wasn’t alone!
We drove to various hotels and picked up other students. Eventually, 12 of us were packed in on the benches- which weren’t secured very tightly to the side, making for an interesting ride. The group included people from around the world – Singapore, Britain, Korea, Canada, etc. One woman had been traveling around the world alone for three months – with no itinerary!
Our driver turned out to also be our cooking instructor. His name was Pot. Really, I don’t make up these things! Our first stop was a traditional Thai market. It looked like a ramshackle hut from the outside:
But, on the inside, it was filled with colorful and fresh produce. 
Here we learned things like how to tell the difference between ginger and Thai galangal…and that shrimp paste (known as “Thai chocolate”) smells really, really bad. Then, we made our way out of the city to our “school.” The class was held outdoors. It had a large prep area:
and the cooking area was in a covered area that looked like a carport:
We each picked out six dishes that we wanted to learn to make. My choices were: hot and spicy soup with sweet basil, sweet and sour vegetables, green curry, pad thai, papaya salad, and a coconut sticky rice dessert.
The raw ingredients for each dish were provided to us. We didn't have to do any of the cleaning or chopping, which made cooking a lot more fun. It all looked really pretty, too:
I also learned how to make authentic green curry paste. It was a lot of work, smashing whole peppers and other ingredients with a mortar and pestle. Pot turned his nose up at the suggestion of using a food processor instead of the "old fashioned way."
The results were super spicy...and we used the "mild" recipe...with something like 20 chilies in it.
The class would have been great for pyromaniacs. Pot (and his wife, another instructor) practically insisted that students slosh around the oil in woks so much that it would get on the burner. I’m happy that I didn’t singe my hair or lose my eyebrows!
I didn’t realize that I’d actually be making a meal size portion for each item I’d selected. After two dishes I was stuffed – but we kept on going (and eating) for a total of six hours! Here's my handiwork:
Hot and sour soup:
Sweet and sour vegetables:
Green curry in the making (everything was made in the wok):
Pad Thai:
Papaya salad (in a traditional Thai meal, the salad is served right before dessert):
Creamy coconut sticky rice:
Pot also tried to teach us how to carve carrots into beautiful decorations. I'm clearly not a vegetable artist - it took me about 20 minutes to get to this:
And it took Pot less than 5 minutes to get to this:
At the end, I was presented with this:
Here I am - the newly qualified Thai chef!
Next up, Dave and Lydia’s special day.
I think we found a new activity for when you visit this summer - you can teach me! : ) (No huge flames, though...)
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