My Thai cooking class experience in Bangkok

My husband and I visited Bangkok last weekend. One of the highlights of our trip was a Thai food cooking class at Sabieng Thai Cooking School.

The class was in English, so it was catered towards tourists interested in learning more about the basics of Thai cuisine and cooking. Our fellow classmates were from all over; Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea. Our instructor chef was from Thailand but had worked in Australia previously. It was a diverse group!

We met up with our instructor outside of the nearest subway station. Our class started with a brief tour of the vibrant market nearby, where the cooking school gets at least some of its ingredients. We only saw our instructor purchase one ingredient at the market; they had already purchased and prepared the other ingredients earlier in the morning. It was very interesting to walk through the market, though, hearing about the different fruits and vegetables that were for sale there, and which were grown in Thailand (mangoes, pineapples, most of the produce there) and which were imported (apples, grapes, and true oranges (vs tangerines), among others).

After the market tour, we were whisked away to the cooking school via tuk tuk!

From the moment we arrived at the cooking school, everything flowed so smoothly. The class involved preparing four Thai dishes, starting with Pad Thai with shrimp and tofu. I am fairly new to Thai cuisine - I just haven't tried very much of it yet in life! - so it was very cool to see the process of making even the most basic dishes. :) With each dish, the ingredients were prepared for us in our own separate stations, and we followed our instructor's directions to get them ready to go into the kitchen. Below is the progression of my Pad Thai, from ingredients on the table to stir-frying in the wok, to plating on the cute leaf-shaped plate! It was nice that our instructor chef handled all the hard parts (adding the shrimp to the wok; knowing when to turn the heat on and off; when to add the noodles) and we just followed along, but we still each had our own stations at which to cook.

We ate each dish directly after it was finished, so piping hot and delicious. While we ate, the cooking school staff worked behind the scenes to clean our cooking dishes and set up for the next dish that we were going to make. It was an impressive operation and so nice as a vacation activity because we got to do all of the fun stuff and none of the less-fun stuff!

The prep area set up for our first dish.

The second dish that we made was a spicy lemongrass salad with chicken - Yum Ta-Krai Gai Sub. It was a no-cooking dish for us because the chicken had already been cooked and minced and was ready to add to our salad. We prepared the salad dressing, which was largely fish sauce, lime juice, and water with some sugar added. Then we combined all of the fresh ingredients and laid our salad on a bed of lettuce.

Next it was time to prepare the mixture that sticky rice was going to soak in for the mango and sticky rice (classic dessert). We had to make this before our third dish because the rice needed time to absorb the coconut mixture. We combined coconut milk with sugar and simmered it over high heat for a few minutes. Then poured the product over the sticky rice that our chef had already prepared. When I tell you it smelled SO good in that kitchen . . . it's an understatement!

Coconut milk + sugar + pandan simmering.

Our third dish was green curry with chicken over rice - Gang Kiew Whan Gai. This was probably my favorite dish that we prepared (although they all were amazing), but it was also the one that I had the most trouble with. 😂 First, I chopped my basil leaves when I shouldn't have (I wasn't paying attention . . . ) - luckily the chef said it would taste the same, no worries. But then I moved my hand slightly when we were using a mortar and pestle to crush chili peppers, briefly exposing the mashed peppers while I worked to crush them - BAD IDEA! Our chef, to his credit, did warn us about this at the start, and I should have really taken that warning to heart. Instead I found myself tapping out of the grinding early and having my partners pick up the slack while I washed my eyes out. 🙈

Despite the drama, my eyes soon regained vision (jk, no vision was lost; I was just in pain which subsided fairly quickly) and I was able to finish cooking a delicious green curry. Pictures below for proof!

While we were enjoying our curries over rice, the cooking school staff made the final preparations for our mango and sticky rice dish, since we had already prepared the coconut milk mixture earlier in the class. So we got to go straight from curry to dessert! I had honestly never had mango and sticky rice before, so it was quite the awakening. So delicious - I'm a coconut milk lover, so this was like a concentrated coconut milk flavor + delicious Thailand-grown mango, topped with fried mung beans as is customary. Perfect!

All in all, this was a great experience and truly a highlight of our trip. If you find yourself in Bangkok, I highly recommend Sabieng Thai Cooking School's classes!

Thanks for reading! Have questions or comments? Email me here!