We signed up for a Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai. Cooking classes and food tours are popular in Thailand and Chiang Mai offered many opportunities to learn to prepare delicious Thai dishes. We elected a cooking class in an organic farm on the outskirt of the city. Today's program was simple: Buy spices and ingredients from a local market, learn about the main products used in Thai cuisine, cook several Thai dishes, eat, eat and eat even more.
The minivan picked up around 8:30 from the Ibis hotel, located 800 metres from our accommodation. We met our chef and instructor for the day, Ae. She was a lively and funny person. We first rode to a local market. Ae took us through the alleys of vegetables, meat and fished and some weird products we had never seen before. She introduced us to numerous spices, different varieties of rice and main ingredient used in the Thai cuisine: fish sauce, soya sauce, Palm sugar and Curries.
Shopping at the Local Market
A short drive later and we arrived at the cooking school in the countryside. The beautiful little organic farm provided a great facility for learning. Each group had their own instructor and a few helpers with only 10 people per group. Three groups were present that day but they can accommodate 4 or 5 in total.
Each "student" had its own cooking station. We learned by practising. Before we cooked, we got a farmer/chef makeover with red aprons and Thai straw hats. Ae walked us through the farm and showed us the various spices and organic vegetables growing there. We got to taste Kaffir lime leaves, Thai sweet basil, holy basil, Galangal, coriander, Lemongrass and Bird's-eye chilli that Ae called dynamite chilli!
Exploring the Organic Farm
For almost 5 hours we cooked. We cooked 5 dished each based on a selection. Together we picked Tom Yum soup with shrimp and Thai coconut curry with chicken, Thai spring rolls, Thai green and yellow curry paste, Thai cashew nut and vegetable stir-fry and Thai Mango Sticky Rice.