When I found out I was going to Thailand, one of the first things I thought about was taking a cooking class. I didn’t have a lot of time to figure out which was the best one and analyze the ratings vs. cost ratio – I just had pick one that would let me sign-up on short notice. It worked out pretty well.
The website for Chef Leez Thai Cooking School said they had vegan options available. Well… if you are a strict vegan, this is not the place for you. They should really say “vegan” options available. There’s fish sauce or shrimp sauce in almost everything – I think that is pretty standard. I’m willing to be flexible, from time to time, and figured if I was going to consume some fish sauce, this was the place to do it.
Maybe the best part was having Chef Leez take our class of 12 or so to a tiny hidden market about 5 minutes away. We walked away from the busy street, under an awning and down a dark alley, which opened to a big room filled with food vendors.
We bought all the ingredients for the class and filled plastic baskets with veggies, bags of wet rice noodles, wet tamarind bars, scallops, chicken, and shrimps in more sizes than I even knew existed – from the size of ants up to super jumbo.
Did you know shrimp paste is made out of the brain and entrails of the big shrimp? Neither did I until she showed us how to make our own. I don’t think that will be in my regular repertoire.
I thought the class was supposed to be a 2-hour event but ended up being 5 hours of cooking and eating. There were some amazing dishes, lots of ingredients I’d never heard of – yard long beans, galangal, kaffir lemon leaves, Thai eggplant. After eating something like seven dishes, I thought I’d had my fill of Thai food. Until she started prepping the Mango Sticky Rice. I’m not sure why I’d never had it before, but the entire five hours in a hot classroom was worth learning how to make this. Pretty much my new favorite thing.
Chef Leez was very funny and entertaining and provided lots of inside tips about Thai life and cooking. If you have a free afternoon in Bangkok, this would a great way to fill it. It’s only a short walk from the river taxi.
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