My first teaching Thai cooking class

For the first time I taught a formal Thai cooking class.  This event was at Bradford's On Bishop west midtown Atlanta GA.  This place is a multidimensional facility for culinary education, meetings and banquets.  Chef Richard Bradford the owner gives me an opportunity to teach my Thai cooking here and this is what happened ……

            We started the class at 7.00 pm on May 17^th (for me I need to get there early around 2.45 pm to get everything set up ready to teach.)  The name of this class is modern Thai Food1.  This class is about food that is easy to make for people who are starting to cook Thai food.  I have 13 students in my class and also have my sweetie co-chef Hilary to help me in the class.  The menu of this class was Coconut Chicken soup, Thai Basil stir fried and Thai Tea. This was a very easy menu, but you have to know the techniques and tips to make this dish authentic.  The class started with a cocktail and an appetizer.  It was Thai tea with rum and Thai spicy beef salad.

  Then we discussed tips and techniques to make our first dish “coconut chicken soup” and drink “ Thai tea” then everyone began to make their food.  When the soup was cooking we gathered again to get to know the techniques of the next dish “Thai basil stir fried”, then we went back to work cutting, chopping, stirring, cooking, tasting, sneezing and laughing. 

 When the food was finished the students got back to the dinner table ready to eat.  The chef (I mean me and Hilary) served the food that they cooked. The result was all of the students had fun, full tummy’s and Thai cooking knowledge to go back home with.

            After the class a lot of students asked me about if I could teach Pad Thai, Thai Basil Roll, Fried Rice.  I told them they can check it out in my blog and maybe in the future class(If the owner let me).  After the class finished Chef Richard told me the students liked how I teach.  It was fun and they learned a lot of techniques that they never knew before.  He also told me the good news that I will have more Thai cooking classes on the 3^rd week of every month.  Oh my god!!!  My dream has come true to teach people how to cook Thai food.  So if you want to see me or know any techniques or tips of Thai cooking just leave me a comment and e-mail and I will have a discount for the next class to give to you….

My first trip in Thailand Wad-So-Ton

 




Hloung Por  So ton



            I’m back… after 4 weeks, I have been traveling in Thailand and have a lot of stories to tell you.  Unfortunately my internet in Thailand was not that good, that is the reason I couldn’t post the blog, but don’t worry I wrote and kept a very well diary of my events, so let us start with my first trip in Thailand…  This trip my parents brought me to one of our temples that my family respects.  It is “Wad-So-Ton”.  They have a story about the image of Buddha in this holy temple called “Hloung Por  So ton”.  A long time ago people saw three images of Buddha float against the tide, all of the people tried to take it out from the river, but no one can do it until the image of Buddha stopped and set on shore of three temples 1^st  is Bann Ham in Samutsongkram Province, The 2^nd is Bang PreYai Temple in Samutprakan Province, and the 3^rd in this So-Ton Temple Chachangsol, so the monk in the temple invited people with respect into the temple for worship with offerings until now.

            In the present people, still are respectful in this temple.  They still pray, wish and make a vow promising a thank-offering if one’s request is granted.  You can see all of the people bringing boiled eggs, head of a pig, flowers and hiring people to do a Thai style dance after their request is granted.



Thai style dance



After I finish I pray and make a wish.  I went to a market by the temples that have all of the local foods, snack, drink and dessert for sale by venders everywhere.  I started with “Ka-Nom-Jak” which is a snack/dessert made from black sticky flour, sugar, coconut milk and shredded coconuts put it in a palm leave and grilled to make it firm and taste sweet, coconutty and toasty.  The price is about 50 cents per bunch (about 4 pieces per bunch). 

Grilling Ka-Nom-Jak

Ka-Nom-Jak Vender

Ka-Nom-Jak

Dried seafood

 Next the vender had all of the preserves like seafood Ex. Fermented crab “ Poo dong”, fermented shrimp “Kung Jom”, fermented fish “ Pa Rha”, dried shrimp “Kung Hang” the price is determined by kilogram around 10-15 dollars per kilogram. 

The next vender I found had palm flower juice, it’s called “Num Tan Sod” one of my favorite all time drinks.  It’s very hard to find the real one.  My dad told me how to make Num Tan Sod (it’s not easy).  They have to cut the flower of a palm then use bamboo can and put “Pa-Yom wood chip”(Pa-Yom is one kind of tree) to protect the juice from going bad and collect the drip of the juice from a flower a little bit by taking about 3-5 hours to collect the juice, so the color of the juice will become almost black from wood chips.  Then they will boil about 20-30 minutes to make it more concentrated and stay fresher longer.   The taste of this drink is sweet and has a fragrance of it’s own (sooo good) it is a nutty and sweet smell. If you like coconut juice this drink is 10 times better. The real Num Tan Sod has just 1 day life time, because after 1 day the taste will change, so farmers will use that juice to make palm sugar. (We use that often in Thai cuisine). That’s the reason why they make the fake one to have a longer expiration time.  For the technique to find the real Num Tan Sod beside taste it( But you have to be professional like me ha…ha…) or you can see from the color, it will be dark almost black not clear (in the picture) and taste sweet, but not too sweet and have a nutty smell.  After touring the market we got a lot to eat…Fermented crab that my mom will make spicy crab salad for us the next day,  Ka Nom Jak that I finished in the car that day same as Num Tan Sod my favorite drink……. ammm.. yummy yummy in my tommy!!!!

Palm fruit

Num Tan Sod

Rice Snack





My daughter with Thai mango



Finally I arrived to Thailand after 24 hours of travel.  At first I almost changed my flight because of a Tsunami and an earthquake in Japan making me nervous, but in the last minute I decided to take a chance and it worked.  I’m here!!! Bangkok Thailand.  The first day me and my 18 month old daughter had jetlag, but my parents bought us sticky rice and Thai mango that tasted nothing thing like it.  It was sooooo good even my daughter ate it like crazy.  (Just like I said in Sticky rice and the mango blog that’s how good Thai mango are sweet and have a fragrance of it’s own)



Khaw Mak and Khaw Hram Tad



after the midnight snack we both slept like babies… Next day I woke up and decided to buy a snack from a vender that I haven’t had it for a long long time called Khaw Mak.  It is a fermented rice with yeast and it takes a certain time to make rice become very sweet and have a little bit of liquid that tastes almost like sweet alcohol; (if you let it ferment a longer time it will make it become alcohol).  Usually we eat Khaw Mak as a snack with Khaw Hram Tad.  Khaw Hram Tad is sticky rice cooked with coconut milk cut into a diamond shapealmost like sticky rice that pairs with mango, but it is not sweet.  Thai folk eat them together because Khaw Hram Tad will balance the sweet taste of Khaw Mak (How neat Thai people think about food). 

 After finishing my snack we went to the grocery store and I found one machine that makes an old fashion Thai snack is called Khaw Mao.  Actually Khaw Mao is another snack food that is made from young rice that has not matured yet.  It is still in the ear of the paddy, soft and green.  Then use mortar and pastel to pound it and take the soft grain out and mix it with shredded coconut and sugar.  It will become Thai rice treat that you cannot find it anywhere besides Thailand. Because Thai people grow our own rice we use rice in almost anything as an appetizer, dessert, snack, entrée, or treat.  Today it is just the beginning of an amazing Thai food, so stay tuned.  I will tell you more about Thai food that you have never heard before.

Khaw Mao