A couple of years ago, my wife and I went on honeymoon to Thailand. We both love to cook, particularly Thai food. I had always wanted to go to a Thai cookery school, so I did lots of research before our holiday, to get an idea on which ones were the best. Unfortunately, we only had time to try out one, but here is information on what I found out about three of them.
Chiang Mai, the second city of Thailand, in the North, is famous for it's cooking schools. Many of them cater for tourists who just want to spend a day or two to learn about cooking Thai food.
Through a mixture of research, hearing good reports from fellow travellers and just pure luck, we ended up going to the "Thai Farm" cookery school in Chiang Mai. What I mean by 
convenience and luck is that the guest house we happened to be staying at had a rep that was promoting this cookery school. If you are staying at a different guest house, they may just as likely be promoting a different one. In any case, I didn't mind as I had read lots about the "Thai Farm cooking school" and also met a girl the day before who had just come back from a day cooking there.
The lady in the picture ran the cookery course. The Thai cookery farm has it's own large garden where many of the fresh ingredients that you will cook with are picked, fresh from the garden.
What set's this cookery school apart from the many others in Chiang Mai and Thailand is that it is several miles outside of the bustling city in the country side, so it's a really nice day trip from Chiang Mai. As they grow many of their own vegetables, we spent some time in the garden, picking our own ingredients before cooking them. It doesn't come much fresher than that!
After that, she took us to a local Thai food market to choose some more ingredients. After that, we returned to Thai Farm and started cooking!
You will find that many cookery courses include a trip to the market in the morning and then returning to cook the ingredients. The Thai Farm Cookery school had the extra element of seeing the ingredients growing right there in the field!
Another good cookery school is "The Chiang Mai Cookery School" - which was the original cookery school set up in Chiang Mai for tourists. This is run by Sompon and Elizabeth Nabnian. Although I did not go to this school, I read many good things about it. Also, they have a small retail outlet where I bought their own recipe cookbook and also an apron. The cook book is very authentic and I use it quite often. It is called "A passion for THAI cooking". Also it's recipe for Thai Green curry using pea egg plants (aubergine) and apple egg plants is the closest thing to what I remember of the green curries I ate in Thailand. Sompon and Elizabeth also run a restaurant in Chiang Mai called "The Wok". We went there one evening and the menu is the same as what is in the book and what was served looked just like the photos in the book. I had the Chiang Mai noodle curry with chicken which was delicious. I think it's a great idea to have a cookery school, merchandise outlet, and a restaurant all under the same brand. That's synergy!
Finally, the third cookery school I read a lot about was the Baan Thai cookery school. This is also highly recommended, from what I've read on the web. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to try it out, but their posters were highly visible throughout parts of the town, and if I ever go back I intend to enroll for a one day course.
There are loads of cookery schools in Chiang Mai, (it's one of the things the town specialises in), so really you will not have any problems finding them. The trick I guess, is finding a good one, as many have jumped onto the bandwagon. The three I have mentioned above, appear to me to be the best, from a mix of my own experience and research! Happy Cooking!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Chiang Mai Cookery Schools
Friday, August 11, 2006
Thai Green Curry
When I was in Thailand I cooked and ate many different types of curry. My favourite was the Thai Green Curry!
What I loved about the Green Curries in Thailand was the authentic ingredients that you rarely find in a Green Curry cooked in Ireland. These included pea aubergines, apple aubergines and green peppers corns.
As the name suggests, pea aubergines look similar to regular green peas, but they are more crunchy. Apple aubergines are about the size of a golf ball. They are usually quartered when added to the curry. Finally, the green pepper corns are just like regular black pepper corns except they are younger, and they are usually added to the curry as a bunch, on a little branch, if you know what I mean.
When I go to a Thai restaurant for the first time in the west, I always order a Green Curry first. This way I can judge how good a restaurant is, by how well they prepare this famous and favourite dish. I have yet to find a restaurant in Ireland that uses these exotic ingredients in their Thai green curry. Maybe they are just too expensive for the restaurants. I have found these ingredients myself in Asian supermarkets in Dublin. So I've managed to cook a real authentic Thai green curry, just as I remember it from Thailand. I used The Cookery book from the Chiang Mai Cooking school which listed all those ingredients!