Thai Cooking School

Yesterday, I had an incredible culinary experience. I was picked up promptly at 9:30 by my older teacher, who happens to be an 18 year elementary school veteran, on her motorbike. We blasted through the streets to the food market where she dropped me off with her husband so that she could shop for us as I looked around. Her husband explained all of the different groceries to me- from the gigantic catfish, to the production of coconut milk and from the frog slaughter to the fresh white peppper. One of the more brilliant colored herbs I had never seen before was fresh turmuric but the taste of the fresh white pepper was special.

After perusing the market, he took me back to my teacher who was waiting on her motor bike with a few bags of groceries. We went through the winding streets to her restaurant/home/cooking school. I thought I would be learning with one other person but it was just me and the teacher- which provided a very special experience. First, she guided me through her garden. There were five different kinds of basil which I smelled and tasted, mini green eggplants, kaffir lime and pumpkins among many other things. I could really go on and on.

After seeing the garden we immediately began to cook. I could go into tremendous detail about each dish but instead of that I will list the major dishes and a few key ingredients.
1. Fresh Spring rolls
2. Red Curry Fish in Banana Leaf Bowls (bowls we made!!!)
3. Green Curry with Chicken
4. Papaya Salad
5. Tom Kha (chicken coconut soup)
I'd also like to mention that she taught me how to make the curries using a mortar and pestle!

Thai food seems to be a balance between sour, sweet and salty with a ton of spice. Some main ingredients include...

Chili peppers
Fish Paste
Soy Sauce (light and dark)
Coconut sugar (it's like a paste)
salt
white and black pepper
basil
coconut milk
lemongrass
kaffir lime (rind and leaves)
lemon

Hopefully I'll be able to find most of these ingredients in Chinatown when I get back to keep cooking the recipes I learned.

If you want details on the recipes. Holler