Cooking is an important part of Thai culture, and also a big part of our own personal life. Since we arrived in Thailand we have been looking forward to taking a cooking class and it is here in Bangkok we finally get to achieve it. The Massamun Cooking School is rated the number one activity in Bangkok according to Trip Advisor, and we have already had the pleasure of meeting the witty and industrious Chef Lee.
We learn to cook something like eight dishes, from papaya salad to green curry and panang curry to mango and sticky rice for dessert. This includes a lesson in making homemade curry paste and a strange brew of shrimp brains and fish sauce that is what gives Pad Thai it's color.
First stop: the market. Armed with a big empty bamboo basket, we walk as a group two blocks to the market, which I would never have noticed on our own, and haven't found in the countless times we've walked by in four days. There is a yellow sign with red Thai lettering and a long dark alley that stinks of fish - who would wander back here?
We are in good hands with Chef Lee who points out the produce we need and bus it for us, filling up each of our baskets in turn. The market has a thousand interesting sights, from sleepy kittens curled atop a pile of sweet basil to a small Thai grandmother pounding a rack of ribs with a meat cleaver on a round wooden cutting board - watch out, that meat sprays! In my basket I have basil, pea eggplant, khalanga root, kaffir lime leaves and prawns.
We cook in two turns, watching our partner cook as we eat. Chef Lee provides traditional background on the dishes as well as practical uses for the individual ingredients while she walks around adjusting our heat and telling us when to add the next ingredient. It's extremely hands-on, we get to do all our own prep work: chopping khalanga root, grinding coriander seeds and peppercorns with a mortar and pestle, and of course cooking the dishes themselves. My personal favorite is the coconut sticky rice with sweet mango, no surprise there. Chris and I both lived the papaya salad, which is not a sweet fruit salad as you might think, but a vinegary slaw almost. The green papaya is grated like a cucumber and served with sliced green beans, tomato, and roasted peanuts with a tangy dressing. Overall this is one of the best experiences we've had simply because we can take it home with us and experience it again whenever we feel like cooking. Can't wait to share our cooking with you all!
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