Bangkok 08 Mar 17

Today was cookery day! We decided before we came here that we'd like to try a cookery school for a half day. It's a chance to learn how to cook Thai food which we both like. Cookery schools are quite popular in Asian countries.

We got up rather earlier than we had been and ate in the hotel dining room and beat the rush today and got a window seat!

Initially, we were going to catch a taxi to the school, but our meeting point was at a BTS station just down the road from us. As a result, we walked to Susurak station and caught the train to Chong Nonsi where we were met at the station by a member of the school staff wearing a red apron!

After a few minutes, we were bundled into a pick-up truck and driven a couple of hundred metres to Silom Road and then walked down Soi 13 to the Sompong Thai Cooking School. After removing our shoes we were taken inside and offered water or iced-tea.

At 0930, our group of 12 headed off with our chef to the local market just off the Silom Rd. Here, we got a lesson about vegetables used in Thai cooking at a roadside stall before moving into the market hall where we learned how coconut cream and milk is produced. We also got a run down on Thai spices at another stall. After this sensory overload, we were left to wander round the market by ourselves. The market also sells meat, fish and fruit. We chose not buy any chicken feet which are considered a delicacy here.

Our chef had collected a variety of vegetables, spices and oils and we helped carry it back to the cookery school. Our classroom was on the top floor of the building and was equipped with 12 mini gas rings and woks as well as every other cooking utensil we would need.

We first peeled some bananas so they could soak in sugar water for a while before we were given a demonstration of how to make the curry paste for our first dish. There was of of grinding and pounding in a very heavy pestle and mortar. After making the paste, the chef said you could always buy it ready made. Our next job was to prepare everything we needed to cook Panaeng Gai or Penaeng chicken curry. We learned some new techniques for preparing chilli and chopping various other vegetables. Then the chef demonstrated how to cook the fish which really only took 4-5 minutes in a wok. Next it was our turn, we all cooked our own version of the dish. We both thought ours turned out very well!

The next dish we did was Som Tum Thai or Papaya Salad. Before getting into the cooking, we were shown how to make a 'rose' by peeling a tomato! There were varying degrees of success with doing that, but was happy with my effort. Once again there was a fair amount of chopping, grinding and stirring ingredients before we ended up with a rather nice salad to eat with our next dish.

Phad Thai is probably the signature dish of Thailand so it was appropriate that we should learn how to make it today. It's full name is Guam Tiew Phad Thai, or stir fried noodles. We had to try some different techniques for this including cooking the curry paste and adding a couple of uncooked prawns in the wok and with those still in it, make room to break an egg into the wok and cook that, then move it all to one side so we could put noodles and a tiny bit of water into the wok. Quite complicated, but I think we all succeeded pretty well. 

We all sat down to eat dinner then, the salad accompanying the Phad Thai followed by our poached bananas with coconut cream! I have to say that time really flew past and before we knew it, it was 2-o-clock! We both really enjoyed the experience and would thoroughly recommend trying the school.

We decided to walk back to the hotel, so walked down Silom Rd surrounded by cars, taxis, Tuk-Tuks , motor scooters and other odd motorised vehicles that fill the streets. We got briefly diverted by a couple of material shops and a small bar where it seemed it was 'happy hour' so we had a couple beers to cool down.

As it was our last night here in Bangkok, we went upstairs to the bar on the roof next to the pool and had cocktails. Watching the traffic and trains hurtling around below us whilst we sipped our drinks was quite relaxing. We then headed out of the hotel and onto the neighbouring street and found a tiny curbside place for a few  nibbles for dinner. Here, we watched people packing up their businesses at the end of the day.