If you’ve visited Bangkok many times now, you’ll eventually run out of things to visit the first time. I mean, food is probably one of the reasons you’ll visit Bangkok countless times but if you’re into new stuff and exploring new places most of the time, then the third vacation in Bangkok would probably bore you already. I’m not saying I got bored during our vacation in Bangkok because I totally did enjoy but of course, I am one of those people who wants to experience something new whenever they go on vacations.
Luckily for me, my mother loves food as much as I do. So scrolling through Klook looking new stuff we could do, I stumbled across a Thai cooking lesson which apparently looks fun because it promises the participants to learn how to cook Thai food even though they don’t have any basic or advanced cooking experience yet. Heck, you can even join this class without any cooking experience at all! And that’s me! Mock me or say anything you want but I don’t know how to cook complicated stuff.
I can cook the normal stuff like anything fried but nothing out of the ordinary. During my high school and college days, my father also occasionally taught me how to cook Adobo and other Filipino food though I haven’t had the chance to cook for anyone yet aside from my boyfriend to whom I cooked Sinigang na Bangus* with some research and my mother’s guidance. LOL. I can also cook rice if that’s some sort of cooking too. =))
So to my boyfriend, don’t be scared, I’ll learn how to cook yummy stuff eventually. Haha! The internet’s there for me. :D
So, what I just wanted to say is that for anyone who loves Thai food, especially for people who loves spicy food, you should definitely try this Thai cooking class!!! I was expecting the basic Thai food pad thai but boy we’re in for a treat with this one. And I must say, I really enjoyed this class as this is my first cooking class ever.
We did this on our last day in Bangkok so we could still do stuff in the afternoon, it’s like a free day but we dedicated our morning to food. LOL. The best part is what we cook will also be our lunch so we have no choice but to do this well so we can eat delicious Thai food for lunch. Woke up early in the morning as the morning schedule includes a trip to the nearby public market.
The first impression is that it is just a normal building but upon going in, it seems that on every floor, there’s a different cooking class going on. How naïve of me to think that they only cater 10 people at one class, little did I know that there’s concurrent morning class going on. You wouldn’t have to think of anything or prepare anything because everything is prepared for you. There’s a separate cooking area for each student, their own aprons as if we’re Michelin chefs doing our work. Lol. We look professional. Haha!
And the best part? They also provide a cookbook which you can bring with you as a souvenir. There are various recipes you can try and not just the popular ones. You can even make your own sticky mango rice!!! Which by the way is not easy because we also did this during the cooking class and it is very meticulous to make. The amount of sugar used is overwhelming, no wonder it is just so good - just don’t eat it every day.
Anyways, after everyone is present in the class, our instructor for the day, which by the way is nice and funny, directed us to the public market. So in a sense, everything that we will use for this cooking class is freshly sourced from the public market. We each have our own cute little basket where we put the ingredients for our class. We did not only go through the market but our instructor also explained the most common ingredient Thais used for their food. And Thais being into spicy food, it is no brainer that they use a lot of spices. Cilantro and basil are also common so for those who hate the smell of those, how can you?
Thais are also into different variants of curry, name it, they have. Green curry? Check! Red curry? Check? Yellow curry? Double check! This implies of course that they use coconut milk so much. So yeah. Again, this happened over a year ago so I cannot remember the tiny details like which ingredients are the most used but yeah, you get the point. After the tour inside the market, the instructor also gave us some free time to roam around by ourselves and see if we have something we want to bring back with us in our country.
Once we are back the building, this is where the fun starts. We are asked to remove our shoes, like most Asians. Hehe. Then as what I’ve mentioned, they provide aprons, cooking, and kitchenware. Since this is our lunch as well and we are the ones cooking, we can control the spiciness of the food we are cooking. Also, did I mention that there’s free overflowing pandan and ginger tea?
We are taught how the right cut is, how to prepare the ingredient, even how to stir, and the plating! We are taught how to make a rose shape garnish using a tomato. Lol.
The process is our instructor will first show us how to cook the food then we’ll follow suit. She’ll guide each one of us and answer our questions if we have any. Here are some of our photos. :)
Once everything is cooked accordingly, everyone eats at the same time. This is where you will judge your own cooking. Lol. But no worries coz it will most likely taste good as it was supervised by a real Thai cook. ;)
And yep, that’s it. This is perfect for people who want to learn how to cook Thai food or just you know, have something new to try with your friends or family. A different approach to learning the culture you’re in. By the way, there are a lot of cooking classes available in Bangkok and I haven’t tried the other cooking school but if you want to try this activity out, I suggest you go to this same cooking class as the instructors are friendly and will really help you and make sure to give you tips and how to improvise in case some ingredients are not available in your country.
Anyway, this concludes our Siem Reap - Bangkok trip! And finally, I finished blogging this trip. Haha! I started blogging our Myanmar trip so if you wanna check that one out, click this link.
Else, if you wanna check out our other adventures in this trip, then click the links below.
SIEM REAP: REAL LIFE TEMPLE RUN
SIEM REAP: FACE TO FACE WITH ANGKOR WAT
CAMBODIA-THAILAND BORDER CROSSING AND AIRBNB-AGODA MISADVENTURES
DAMNOEN SADUAK FLOATING MARKET AND SIAM NIRAMIT
THE GRAND PALACE AND CHAO PHRAYA DINNER CRUISE
Safe travels! xx
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