Do you like Thai food? We love it. So when our host in Chiang Mai said she taught cooking classes from her home, we signed ourselves up! We scheduled to take the class the day after Lop Buri– the day we met Chris and Krystal. We invited them to join us and we were stoked when they made it! In addition to Chris, Krystal, and ourselves, Pei Si and Si Si (the Chinese girls staying at the teak house with us) completed the group.
On the menu was: coconut milk soup, chicken satay with peanut sauce, fried spring rolls, and a cucumber salad. To begin the evening, our host, Jim, drove us to the local market to pick out our ingredients. After buying our ingredients, Krystal, Si Si, Pei Si, and I found a bakery (lucky us) and bought two surprise cakes for David’s birthday! Meanwhile David and Chris bought fireworks.
The cooking class was really fun. Jim, our host, played music while we drank beer and prepared the ingredients. She divided us into three teams: David and I, Chris and Krystal, and Pei Si and Si Si. Part of the cooking involved grinding spices in a mortar for the coconut soup, simmering ingredients in a sauce pan to make the peanut sauce, slicing and skewering raw chicken to be grilled, frying the spring rolls in oil, and cutting up a bunch of fresh ingredients for the cucumber salad.
The whole experience was really fun. Pei Si and Si Si were definitely the more advanced cooks of the bunch; they did everything in half the time it took David and I to prepare things. The spring rolls were the most difficult to make due to the wrapping part of it- some were small, some were busting out of their roll!
Jim said there isn’t a Thai birthday song so they sing the same “Happy Birthday” song too.
Once it was all finished, the seven of us sat down for an authentic Thai dinner prepared by ourselves. It was delicious! I’ve tried all of these dishes in the states and was hoping they would be just as good in Thailand, I wasn’t disappointed! The dishes were fresh and delicious. Though they were all very good, the coconut milk soup was my favorite! For dessert we had birthday cake! We sang David happy birthday. Jim said there isn’t a Thai birthday song so they sing the same “Happy Birthday” song too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!
Afterwards we went in the street and lit off some commercial fireworks to celebrate David’s birthday! Oh my gosh, those fireworks were so much bigger than we expected! Maybe we’ll post a clip later of the firework shenanigans.
If you have the opportunity to take a cooking class in Thailand, we recommend you try it, it’s so much fun! ♦
