Thai Secret Cooking School (CM Day 2)

By Mel
Having decided to teach casually for the first part of the year I was amazed to rediscover this thing called “weekends”. Incredible!
I vaguely remember them from life before teaching but it was a revelation to have both time and brain space left for anything other than lesson planning, student reports, marking, admin, rinse and repeat…
And for the first time in a long time there was time to leisurely research and plan a few trip highlights! For me that was always going to be food related!
I’d found an ex-pat online review for the Thai Secret Cooking School and knew straight away this was the one I wanted us to do! So glad we did…
We got picked up nice and early (but after iced coffee #1 of course) and whisked away via a local “red truck” (covered Ute version of taxi) with our delightful fellow apprentice chefs to a local fresh produce market, where we were introduced to our teacher, May.
May led us through the market, explaining key Thai ingredients (and the things to look for in comparable products back home). Fortified by a second iced coffee we were then taken back to
May’s family home - just outside Chiang Mai -
a beautiful garden oasis surrounded by rice fields.
Kitted out, we hit the veggie patch to pick the herbs, vegetables and flowers needed for our chosen menus - yes, that’s right - we each got to select the 5 dishes we’d like to learn how to prepare and cook over the course of the day!
A day of good food, good fun and no washing up (yah!) saw us - let’s not say master - but at least adequately grasp some Thai cooking basics to produce (and then devour):
Appetiser - papaya salad and deep fried spring rolls.
Stir-fry course: Pad Thai and Ginger Chicken
Soup: Noodle soup with chicken and chicken in coconut milk soup
Curry: Green chicken curry and Penang Chicken curry.
Dessert: Sticky rice with mango and Butterfly pea flower tea.

This sounds pretty easy, right? But no cooking from pre-made curry pastes for us! We ground the curry pastes by hand, “milked” the shredded coconuts and diced and sliced to create some wonderfully aromatic memories!

May, her talented husband and her amazing team made this day an absolute trip highlight - heartily recommend this experience to anyone interested in having fun while learning more about Thai cuisine! https://www.chiang-mai-cooking-school.com/Read more