I think this is one of the best activities we have done as a family and we have been together almost 3 months.  We took a cooking class in Thailand and we all had the best time!  It was something each of us could do, even if the girls hadn’t ever used a full size butcher knife before.  Should I have been worried? Fortunately they came away with all of their fingers. 🙂

We chose the Siam Rice Thai Cookery based upon reviews we had read, and we were not disappointed.  We chose to do just the afternoon class so that they girls would be able to make it through the entire thing.  It didn’t include the trip to the farmer’s market, but we were okay with that.  We reaped the rewards of those who went and had the freshest ingredients.

We chose our dishes once we arrived.  Each of us got to prepare 3 dishes, one noodle, one chicken and one curry.  We had a combination of the following on our table – Pad Thai, Big Fried Noodles, Fried Holy Basil with Chicken, Fried Ginger with Chicken, Khao Soy Curry and Green Curry.  Because we were not doing the full day class, we weren’t supposed to make dessert, but Dave had to have the chance to learn to make his favorite dessert – Mango Sticky Rice, so we were treated to that as well.

All of the cooking was done at outside work stations.

We chopped and diced each ingredient.  They had plated the ingredients for each of us before hand, so they were all ready for each dish.  Our instructor was great and helped the girls out when they needed it.

Then we took it all to our own individual wok stations.  The girls did a great job stir frying for the first time!  Dave can’t wait until they can cook for him once we get home.

AWESOME LAUREN was the curry master.  She was the first one finished.  She rocked and was very proud!  (By: Lauren)

And pounding the ingredients with a mortar and pestle is no easy feat!

 

Finally, we were able to taste the fruits of our labor and it was delicious!!!!  Grace’s favorite was the ginger chicken.

Lauren liked the basil chicken.  I have never seen her eat so much!

Claire loved the pad thai.

Dave’s favorite was of course the mango sticky rice!  

Unfortunately no picture of me, just my plates, but I loved the Khao Soy Curry.  And don’t they look yummy?!

We all said we couldn’t wait to cook this back at home.  The great thing about it is that with the food allergies the girls have, peanuts and seeds, it was nice to know exactly what went in to each dish and no one was worried.  And the girls ate it all – well as much as they could because there was so much food – happy to eat what their hands had made.

We are looking forward to more cooking classes on this journey – possibly Spain and Italy.  Bon appetit!