Thai Cooking Class

For whatever reason, taking a Thai cooking class is a very popular activity in Chiang Mai. There are literally dozens of cooking schools, all offering slightly different menus, schedules, etc. So, once again, research was required. I finally decided on Zaab E. Lee Cooking School. Why? Well, mostly because each person in the class was permitted to choose their own menu, which allowed the three of us select 15 dishes that we would learn to cook.

We started with a trip to the market. Our instructor, Aoi, walked us through all of the ingredients that we would be using. So many of them were totally unfamiliar to me. I had no idea that there were two kinds of ginger — regular and Thai. (Maya assured me that we could get both kinds at Berkeley Bowl). She showed us a wide variety of eggplants, including one that was the size of a green grape. I know that we can’t get that at home. Of course, there are many, many different chili peppers, and I learned that the smaller ones are often much hotter than the larger ones. We also saw fresh rice paper noodles, in different widths. There were a few vegetables that we saw — but were not using — for which our instructor did not know the English name. I figure that our chance of finding those items was zero.

After the market we drove to the cooking school, which is located in an outdoor building. The space is huge, and accommodates two groups of ten “chefs,”with room for each chef having a prep area and a burner for cooking. As we made each dish, we were organized into subgroups of 3 or 4 people. The recipes were given to us on a step by step basis, with the explanations clear and exceptionally easy — which makes sense as many people who take these classes have pretty minimal cooking skills. For those of us who have some skills, the class was still super interesting, as the flavors were new, and most of us had never used the ingredients in the ways being taught. And, to enable everyone to take their skills home, they school gave us a fantastic book filled with pictures of the recipes, and step by step instructions. Maya and I agreed that we’d make some of the recipes upon our return. Arie . . . Well, let’s see if we can convince him to put his skills to use upon our return.Read more