A Delicious Way of Travel: Cooking Class in Chiang Mai

"It was fantastic - we shopped at a local market, learned to identify local ingredients, and cooked stir-fried cashew chicken, Tom Yum Gung (iconic Thai soup), spring rolls, and curry soup. The best thing is now I get to make these dishes at home and the food keeps my special moments in Chiang Mai on the tip of my tongue…"

- Wanda Tang, Deputy Sales Manager

The world-renowned Thai food is known for its unique sour, spicy, and sweet flavors coming from traditional Thai ingredients like curry, fish sauce, and coconut milk. Each region may have its own cuisine. Central Thailand, abundant with fish and rice, is famous for the iconic Tom Yum Gung (soup) made with fresh seafood; the food is sour, spicy, and sweet. Southern Thailand, home to many Muslims, the cuisine is rich in taste and mainly sour, usually cooked with garlic and yellow ginger. In the mountainous northeast of Thailand, where glutinous sticky rice is the staple food and is usually paired with fresh sweet mango to make dessert, the traditional food is mainly sour and sweet.

As a devoted Thai food lover, one of my favorite activities whilst traveling in Thailand is doing the ever-popular cooking class. A class that stands out for me was the one I did in Chiang Mai. The school is Odynovo's favorite pick, with expert chefs to guide you along the way from shopping for ingredients in the market to displaying food artfully on your plate. Our patient, talented teacher Gayray was great at explaining everything and brought the whole experience to a new level!

The day started at 8:30 a.m. with a pick-up from the hotel and the van took us to the school located in the bustling old city of Chiang Mai. Around 9 a.m., food buffs from all over the world have been ready for a Thai culinary adventure.

At the very beginning, Gayray discussed with all learners in the small group what to cook. In the half-day cooking class, we can cook curry paste, curry, spring rolls, and 2 more dishes from 4 categories that we can discuss with the people in the class: stir-fried dish, salad, soup, and dessert. In the chosen category, everyone can pick his/her favorite dish to cook. 

I was fortunate to choose to learn two dishes: Stir-fried Cashewnut with Chicken and Tom Yum Gung (soup). Meanwhile, since I don't like spicy food very much, I specially selected Panang Curry, the least spicy curry.

Next, the guide took us to an organic kitchen garden and taught us all about local ingredients, such as how to identify various types of spices that are commonly used in Thai cuisine, the differences between ginger, galangal, and turmeric, and the differences between hot basil, Thai sweet basil and lemon basil.

Then it was a 5-minute walk to a bustling local market where we got to see how locals pick up items for their home kitchen and buy produce needed for the upcoming meal.

The market sells all kinds of fresh meat, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. My senses were loaded with the sight of so many food items, the smell of pungent spices, and the soft voices of locals in haggling. I felt as though I blended into the environment and became a local.

After the market tour, we started learning about the first course: a stir-fried dish. After a round of introduction to ingredients needed for the desired dish, condiments, and cooking techniques, Gayray demonstrated how to prepare and cook each dish before it was our turn to give it a go. 

It is simpler than I expected to cook the Stir-fried Cashew Chicken. The key is to put them into sizzling oils, stir-fry, and use three spoons of oyster sauce of one spoon of soybean sauce to add extra flavors. After the dish was finished, it was laid out on the plate with upturned rice and upgraded into a refined Thai specialty. I pigged out and felt like a top-notch Thai chef!

Next was the cooking of Thai-style spring rolls. Different from Vietnamese spring rolls, Thai-style spring rolls use flour paste instead of rice paper as a wrapper. Firstly fry the fillings composed of carrots, bean sprouts, garlic, vermicelli, etc, then put them in the wrapper and roll up, use a little beaten egg to stick the edge of the spring roll and finally fry them in the sizzling oil until golden. Heat control is the key to making crispy spring rolls.

Time for the iconic Thai soup - Tom Yum Gung. The use of many spices and herbs like lemongrass, galangal, Kafr lime leaf, and chilies is the secret to producing complex flavors of the soup. To add to the sourness and spiciness, tomatoes, lemons, and chili sauce are essential. The difference between Tom Yum Gung and other Thai soups is that it is usually made without coconut milk. Thus the flavor is more sour and spicy rather than sweet. 

Then we started to cook curry paste and had the freedom to choose how spicy the dishes were. From the least spicy Panang Curry to the pungent-to-tears Khaw Soi Curry Pates, each paste uses different ingredients and ways of cooking.

After the curry paste was pestled, we started to cook the final course: curry soup. The curry soup is a mixture of spicy curry, sweet coconut milk, and palm sugar, a different version of Indian curry soup. Fish sauce instead of oyster sauce is added to the soup, otherwise, the soup is less tasty and looks black. 

The morning passed by so soon, till noon we had learned a lot about how to cook authentic Thai dishes, it was time for the feast to begin! We indulged in the fruits of our labor while laughing and chit-chatting.

Around 1:30 pm, the wonderful cooking class came to an end; it was time for the guide and driver to transfer our merry band to our respective hotels, and I couldn't wait to make the dishes back home!