Asia 2016 Mega Tour - Cooking Thai

Today Wife and I took a cooking class that lasted most of the day. If you are ever in Chiang Mai, Thailand and you have a desire to learn how to cook Thai food, I strongly recommend you consider the Thai Orchid Cookery School. There are scads of highly rated cooking classes in Chiang Mai. When researching them, I was attracted to Thai Orchid because:

1. They allowed you to choose from up to three dishes in each of the five categories being made. This meant that Wife and I could learn 10 dishes altogether
2. The methodology had you watch the instructor first and then go cook the dish. This meant we wouldn't be on our feet for an extended period as it appeared in other classes
3. There was a break between the 2nd and the 3rd dish to go to the market. Most others went to the market first. Comments on other schools said that they felt it was hard to eat all the food. The breaks provided by this schedule meant the food would be spread out.

This was without doubt one of the best cooking instructions I have ever had.

Let's move on to the cooking school experience.

Our instructor and owner along with his  Wife

The demonstration area featured an angled mirror so you could see exactly what he was doing

We had one other couple with us, a young couple from Germany.

Checking out the frying of spring rolls.

 Wife at the frying station

Presenting your Iron Chefs!

No, I mean Presenting your Elder Chefs!

With fried and fresh spring rolls

(Taking reservations now)

On to the making of soup!

Wife's Chicken Coconut Soup

My Tom Yum Kung

The cheater pack for making Thai curry paste at the market

(We don't cheat like that. We buy prepared curry paste from our Asian market)

One thing both Wife and I were amazed at was how quickly one could make all these dishes. I can see one thing I've been doing wrong with my Asian cooking is cooking things too long.

Some of the ingredients for my Penang Curry with Pork and Pad Thai

Learning the art of plate decoration

The Teacher

Wife the Student

My Penang Curry with Pork

Wife's Green Curry with Chicken

 Don't forget to make your reservation now for Elder Chef Asian Dinner!

Lunch is served

Chicken Stir Fried with Cashews plus Green Curry with Chicken

Penang Curry with Pork and Pad Thai

Let's get on to some real action

The making of Dessert!

Here's how we mix up and set up our Banana Rice Cake

And into the steamer

And now on to Sticky Rice with Mango

 Finished Sticky Rice with Mango

Dessert is served