Mastering the Art of Thai Cooking

First off I would like to say that I am not a chef at all, I can cook pancakes, mac & cheese, and quesadillas.  If I try to cook much more, it usually ends poorly with something burnt, either the food or me.  This is even after 2 cooking classes in high school.  So, when I heard that we were going to be taking cooking classes here in Chiang Mai, I got a little nervous.  Yet, something changed after 2 Thai cooking classes; I feel confident that I can cook something, and it turns out good.

Thai cooking seems very complicated while watching the chef work the wok so quickly.  But, once you get behind the stove and a hold of the wok it seems so easy.  Everything gets thrown in at once basically, some fish sauce is added, along with a few peppers ( more if it’s a Thai challenge), and you just stir and flip and hold on.

Within minutes the dish is done cooking, and I mean within minutes, I think the longest we stayed cooking at our stations was 20 minutes.  But it’s is crazy during those 20 minutes, food is flying, people are are running around, other people next to you have some how lit the oil in the wok on fire and all the staff are throwing water on it to put it out.  It is very intense for that amount of time, yet when you are done you have make this odd smelling, very colorful, and very spicy dish that you are a little skeptical in eating.  Yet, when you take a bite out of it, you discover it is one of the best dishes that you have had, and you cooked it yourself (with maybe a little help from the chefs).

After learning to cook a total of 12 dishes I have learned a few things.  One is that curry dishes are really really hard to cook because you can easily burn the curry and two, the smell is very overwhelming and makes you gag a lot.  Another learned thing is that no matter where you stand you are probably going to get burned by something.  A final learned thing is that, you can have too much curry in a dish, no matter what someone says there can be too much curry.

 

– Danny