In stride with my goal to take a cooking class in every Asian country I visit, I knew I would have to find a cooking class in Bangkok. And after spotting their rave reviews on Trip Advisor as well as an enthusiastic review from a close friend, I settled on Silom Thai Cooking School for my introduction to cooking Thai food.
Wet Market Tour
The morning begun by meeting our adorable instructor, Mai, outside the local wet market. I loved how she took the time to explain the difference between ingredients- by 10 am I had already learned about everything from identifying mushrooms to levels of curry spiciness by color.
Mai showing us finger ginger and the difference between a regular and kaffir lime.
Yellow curry paste, red curry paste, green curry paste. Mai taught us that red is the spiciest but personally green is my favorite!
Learning How to Cook Thai Food
Next we walked to the cooking school which I have to commend for its cute design as well as being clean, well-organized and spacious.
We began the class by washing all of the produce we had just purchased. Among the familiar (tomatoes, plantains, limes) were some new ingredients like yellowgrass and Thai eggplant.
The first lesson of the day was how to make coconut milk which was surprisingly laborious. You take shredded coconut, soak it in water and then squeeze it into a sieve. After you repeat the process a few times you have coconut milk!
Our adorable instructor, Mai.
Making coconut milk from shredded coconut.
I loved having a local teacher because she taught us so many little cultural quirks about Thailand. “We put sugar in everything,” admitted Mai with a smile. Which may explain my slight aversion to Thai food, ahem…
As we squeezed the water out of the shredded coconut, she told us. “Good food take time, no?”
And when asked to explain how Thai people eat such rich food and stay slim, she replied, “Thai people no fat because chili and tamarind paste make you digest quickly.”
Other fun fact of the day- apparently kaffir lime keeps your hair from greying and can be used as a toilet deodorizer. Who knew?
Learning how to grind chili paste which apparently is how you tell if you will be a good wife or not in Thailand!
Something I noticed about Thai food was that the preparation for each dish is long, but the actual cooking time is quite short. Each of the dishes we made was on the flame for no more than one of two minutes. As I learned in Hong Kong, using a wok speeds things up considerably!
Here were the five courses we made.
First course: Chicken in coconut milk (tom kah gai)
Chicken with cashew nut (gai pad med mamuang). Personal thoughts? Meh.
Fried fish cake (thod mun pla) with homemade sweet chili sauce. My favorite dish of the day!
Red curry with chicken (kaeng ped gai). By the time we had this I was so full I could barely touch it!
The dessert. Which I can’t remember the name of but it had banana and was delicious.
Overall I loved Silom. Aside from the wonderful instructor, I loved how the class included so many personal touches like giving us a recipe book at the end of all the recipes we had made. One word of advice- do not eat breakfast the day of the cooking class as you’ll be absolutely stuffed by the end!
Even though I’m far from a Thai food convert, I still enjoyed getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how to make Thai food at home.
Have you ever taken a Thai cooking class?
Many thanks to Silom for the complimentary cooking class. I have truly never had such a warm and helpful instructor so thanks especially to Mai for her patience with us!
. . . . . . . . . . .
If you enjoyed this post please consider sharing it! Also, I’d love to keep you updated on my adventures in Asia and beyond, so feel free to subscribe to Ashley Abroad via RSS or by email in the sidebar.
Enjoyed this post? Subscribe here!
Subscribe here to receive new Ashley Abroad posts straight to your inbox.
I love that you get to go to the wet market first and then do the cooking. This all looks divine by the way!
I loved that we got to see the local market with a guide… it was so informative!
I really like Thai food. Pretty neat they take you from market to plate and the fish cakes would be my fav as well.
and……..I hate to be the one who says it, but did anyone else get the chili paste joke? lol…
Haha I actually didn’t even realize that until now… and yeah, the fish cakes were so good!
I don’t have many regrets in my travels, but one is not taking a cooking class in Thailand. This looks amazing!
It was a really great time! I almost didn’t go that morning because I was exhausted but I’m so glad I got out of bed and made it!
All the food you made looks so delicious! I’m dying to visit Thailand, and I think taking a cooking class is right at the top of my must-do list.
I would highly recommend Silom if you’ll be in Bangkok, they were really great!
Taking a cooking class everywhere you go is a GREAT idea! And all your food looks delish!
Well I’ve been trying to take a cooking class everywhere I go but I actually missed Cambodia… whoops! And yes, it was pretty tasty!
I took a cooking class when I went to Thailand (more years ago than I can even remember…) and remember having a great time picking the ingredients in the market and preparing the food. As you say, preparation is rather long compared to cooking time! I also thought it required attention to detail and a a good sense of how to mix different flavours. I think I’ve gotten better at that with time :-)
That’s so cool that you’ve gotten really good at it! I’d love to keep learning more about Southeast Asian food in general… particularly Vietnamese! :)
This looks like the absolute best way to travel. How do you find these cooking classes?
I usually just check out TripAdvisor for recommendations… it’s a great site for finding activities! :)
Wow! Reading this and looking at all your incredible foodie shots has been a complete and utter tease to my tastebuds! I think your goal to take a cooking class in every Asain country you visit is such a fun and satisfying thing to do – your tummy must be soooo happy with you right now!!
Did I really just spell Asian wrong? Yes, yes, it appears I did. How can an Asian person spell it wrong?? I worry myself.
Haha yes, I’ve enjoyed a lot of really good food thanks to that goal! And I’m next taking a class in Singapore which I’m very excited about :)
I did one in Chiang Mai a few years back and loved it. I am addicted to sticky rice..mmm
Can I ask how come you’re not a convert of Thai Food? I’ve been missing it everyday since being here in South America
Sticky rice with mango is so good! I’d say overall the problem I have with Thai food is that it’s way too sweet and it’s also repetitive… sometimes it feels like the only things to eat are rice, curry and noodles!
Oh, this looks so good, so amazing. I love Thai food and can’t wait to eat it IN Thailand (my sister is living in Bangkok, but haven’t been to visit her yet.)
That’s a great reason to visit! :) And it’s so cheap in Thailand so get excited!