Friday, 7/30
COOKING CLASS
http://www.alotofthai.com
After searching for cooking classes on the internet and looking at the
different classes offered in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui, I decided to use
A Lot of Thai in Chiang Mai for our cooking class. The class schedule and dishes
taught were the best (with a little adjustment) for our traveling schedule and
Amy's diet restrictions (no pork, no beef) plus I liked the informal and
personal feel of the class. The short course offered was listed from 4-7:30p,
but I didn't know exactly what time we would be arriving at our hotel. I emailed
Yui and told her about my predicament and she was very accommodating. I told her
that we would be at the hotel by 5:00 pm whether the group had already arrived
at the hotel by then or whether we would leave the group and take a taxi to the hotel
ourselves. Yui offers a discount on the price of the class when a reservation is
made in advance, however, I had asked her if we could also learn how to make
curry from scratch. She said that she could offer that in lieu of the market
visit, but since I wanted to do both, I agreed to pay the full price for the
class. Even at full price, it was a deal!!
Wat said that it would only take 10 minutes to get to the hotel from the Home Arts Center, but instead it took 30 minutes, so we were late. We looked around for Yui, but we didn't know what she looked like. I went to the front desk and tried to explain the situation and asked if anyone had been to the desk looking for me. They said no and asked if I would like to check in. I explained, again, that the guide would be coming to check in for our group. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't call Yui because her information was in my suitcase on the bus. I couldn't look her up in the phone book because I didn't know her last name and the book was in Thai anyway. I thought of trying to call Vorachak and ask him to find out Yui's phone number, but the pay phone in the lobby only took phone cards. I asked at the front desk where the nearest coin pay phone was and they said I could call from my room (the room I'm not checked into yet!!!). I left Amy in the lobby and started to walk to the street looking for a coin pay phone. As I was walking down the street, our tour bus drove by with everyone waving to me from the bus. I wish I had gotten a picture because that was such a funny sight to see! I went back to the hotel and got Yui's phone number from my suitcase. Wat let me call her from his cell phone and I was able to get a hold of her. She said that she would pick us up in 10-15 minutes.
While we were waiting, we got our room assignment and key. We also got a letter that was left for us. . . from Yui!!! She had been at the hotel earlier and left a letter for us to call her when we arrived. Gee, funny how the front desk said that NOTHING had been left. Oh well...
Yui and her husband picked us up in a van with sofas in the back. And, of course, as soon as I saw Yui, I recognized her from her website. We visited the market near her home, although Yui said that we would probably need to hurry as the market would be closing soon. She pointed out different vegetables -- probably one of the more interesting was the loofah vegetable. She also showed us the different types of rice and explained that when cooking rice, new rice uses less water and is softer. After walking through the market and making a few purchases, we went back to Yui's home where she conducts the cooking class. As we entered the driveway gate to her home, the instruction and cooking area were straight ahead and the eating area was to the left. Although she can accommodate up to 8 people in a class, we were the only 2 for the short course that evening. It really worked to our benefit since we required so much flexibility with the schedule and it was nice to have the personal attention.
We first watched Yui make pad thai, then we went to our own cooking station to make our own. It was actually pretty easy.
Amy cooking
Me cooking
Pad Thai
After we cooked, we went out to the eating area and ate our creations while Yui prepared the instruction and cooking area for our next dish. Amy liked the pad thai a lot since she was able to adjust it to her tastes (eliminating a lot of the vegetables). She said it was the best meal she'd had up to that point in our trip.
Interesting note: A tamarind cutting board is best for cutting on because the food picks up a hint of the tamarind flavor.
Next, we followed the same procedure for hot and sour prawn
soup (Tom Yum Goong). . .
. . . and again, Amy really liked the soup because she was able to tailor it to
suit her taste.
Tom Yum Goong
The next thing we did was to learn how to make green curry paste from scratch. It wasn't that hard and Amy seemed to do a better job at getting the right measurement of ingredients than me which, I admit, kinda surprised me.
We used our curry paste to make green curry with chicken and eggplant. Amy didn't really like the dish when she took a taste of Yui's because she didn't care for the texture, but she ended up liking her own dish that she cooked. We ate the curry with brown rice and Amy especially liked the brown rice which she'd never had before.
Gaeng Keow Wan Gai
After we finished eating, we sat in the patio and talked with Yui for awhile.
She gave us a little lesson in Thai and told us about her mother who she says is
an excellent cook. Her mother cooks for a Chinese businessman and travels all
over the world with him. She told us about her son, about learning to speak
English, about her love of ice cream and about her business. It really was very
enjoyable and Yui was great.
Yui gave us each a cookbook which is included in the class price.
They also had some t-shirts and aprons for sale. The atmosphere is so relaxed that Yui never even mentioned the items for sale -- we asked! Amy and I both really liked the t-shirts and would have each bought one, but they didn't have a large enough size for me. I was REALLY disappointed. :-( Yui said that they had tried the t-shirts, but didn't reorder more when sizes sold out since they didn't seem to be very popular. I don't understand why they wouldn't be, but maybe it was partly because they didn't promote it at all and partly because they had intended the t-shirts to be simply for promotion. I think if they would have brought more attention to them, people would have been interested in getting one as a souvenir. But, maybe that's just me. At any rate, Amy bought one and held it up in front of herself for the picture.
I took some extra brochures to give to a couple people in our group who were interested and to also bring home to give to Craig. All the graphic work on the brochure, business card, cookbook, aprons, etc. as well as the website was done by Yui's husband. Yui and her husband drove us back and dropped us off at one end of the night market since we had said that we were going to shop after the class. They told us how to walk back to our hotel and left.
The class was definitely a lot of fun and one of the highlights of our trip. Although her classes aren't as well known as some of the hotel and restaurant cooking classes, I'd recommend Yui's class to anyone and everyone.
