Thai Cooking School

I have been living in Bangkok for more than 14 years and I still do not cook Thai food and have not attended any Thai food cooking class. Lots of tourists come to Thailand and other than eating, shopping and relaxing at the spa with facials, massages, manicures and pedicures, they also attend cooking class. So, why not me?

Thanks to my sister and my 10-year-old nephew, I finally attended my first Thai cooking class in December. I must admit, it is kind-of fake but a jolly good way to spend a morning or afternoon in Bangkok. I say this is kind-of fake because we probably did about 50% of the work and the instructor and his assistant did the rest. And this is what made it 'jolly' since I did not have to do all the work. =)

Name of the cooking school on my apron. Love the batik and quilt work on it!

The cooking school is located at the Silom area. We visited a nearby wet market and learnt about the different types of chilli, eggplant, ginger, basil leaves, etc that we have in Asia. Great knowledge for me! We took some ingredients back to the cooking school.

Learning about ingredients at the wet market

First thing that we did when we got back was to use lots of running water to wash the ingredients - carrots, spring onion, lime, shallots, tomatoes, etc. As we were doing that, the assistant helped arrange them beautifully on a round netted flat basket.

The ingredients that we used. A bit of an overkill as we had a lot of leftover ingredients. But it provided a great photo opportunity. =)

Now, please remember that I am an amateur cook, so I still have a lot of learn. I learnt that in Thai cooking, the meat, seafood and vegetables can be changed to your liking. But the seasoning and key ingredients are critical as they add aroma and flavor to the dishes. So, we absolutely cannot leave them out of any Thai dish.

Our cooking instructor. He not only taught us how to cook the dishes and he is the cameraman as well.

We cut and prepared the ingredients in a room, all seated on the floor and in a circle. A tip: please come in pants or bermudas and not a short, tight denim shirt. Th actual cooking / stir frying is done outside, along the corridor. Then there is another room, where there are tables and chairs for us to sit down and enjoy what we have cooked. 

We went on a Sunday and the dishes that we actively made were: chicken in coconut milk (tom kah gai), red curry with chicken (kaeng ped gai) and chicken with cashew nuts (gai pad med mamuang). I say 'actively' because these are the dishes that we actually did the chopping and the stir frying. The other dishes that were demonstrated to us by the instructor and we made limited effort are glass noodle salad (yum woon sen), fish cake (thod mun pla) and banana in coconut milk (kluay buad chee).

Chopping, stir frying and tasty chicken with cashew nuts in just a few minutes. It helps when you have all the ingredients and equipment ready at your arm's length. =)

There are different dishes planned for different days of the week. Maybe next year when my sister and nephew come to Bangkok again, we can go on Monday and learn how to make red rubies (my favorite Thai dessert) and green curry.

Some of the dishes that we 'made'.

Like I said before, this cooking class is a jolly way of spending an afternoon with your loved ones and getting some knowledge and hands-on experience on Thai cooking. And it is Baht 1000 for the experience, food and a recipe book. Try it! =)

Till my next blog post, cook! =)

Standing out at Point of Sale

It has been crazy at work! I am so glad the weekend is here and I can spend some quality time with my family. We went shopping for beer and snacks last night and I saw this at the Tops supermarket.

I have seen this idea being mentioned at numerous ideation sessions but this is the first time that I have seen it in execution. I now know where the premium UHT milk at placed at the store. Not that I take UHT milk .. My family is a fresh milk family. =) 

Can they do this to organic cereal? Sometimes these things get quite lost at the shelf.

Love the 'blue light', makes the UHT milk looks so hi-tech.
Not sure which brand did this .. Dumex? Mead Johnson? 

Till my next blog post, have some milk! =)

MK Restaurants

I am not a steamboat person. I never like my food in soup or eat my food boiling hot. Until I 'met' MK. He is now a 'staple' in my life. =)

MK restaurants is a large, kingdom-wide chain of restaurants in Thailand. Some people say that MK is even popular than McDonalds. I believe them. When you come to Thailand, you must have a meal at MK, it is afterall Thai steamboat at its best. Low-calorie and healthy too! =)

I read from somewhere years ago that the owner of MK restaurants is an engineer by training and the designs used in MK are done with consistency and efficiency in consideration. For example, the serving dishes stack up well, the multi-layer serving rack helps save space and the PDA used to take orders and facilitate payment is very efficient.

There are 2 'classes' of MK Restaurants - the normal ones and the GOLD ones. The GOLD ones are slightly higher-end as they provide nice-smeling hand towels, cloth napkins and better ambience. The food is about the same in both classes.  Other than steamboat / suki / hotpot items, MK also serve cooked food like dim sum, roasted pork, roasted duck and a variety of drinks and desserts.

Uncooked suki items. Instead of lying everything out on the table, they serve the items in this space-saving multi-layer stand.

I always add an egg into the soup base before cooking the rest of the items.

My style of cooking - put the meat in first and then the vegetables next, put on the cover and let it cook away. =)

The 'secret recipe' suki sauce and green noodles are fantastic!

Another one of MK's must-have is the roasted pork (char siew) and roasted duck. I say they taste better than pork and duck served at some Chinese restaurants in Thailand.

Till my next blog post, have some yummy food!

Silom Restaurant

*** Closed permanently Oct 2012 ***


Silom Restaurant on Silom Road, Soi 15, Bangkok.

This is a really, really old and obscure restaurant that my family eat at for old times' sake and familiar food. My husband used to eat at this place when he's a kid and it is one of the first few eating places that he introduced me to during my first year living in Bangkok.

We went there with our son a couple of weeks ago and saw a 'for sale' sign. They are selling the house and the land that it is built on, not the restaurant. I think I am going to be sad when it goes .. it's a gem than not many people know. =(

Simple interior, no AC, old-fashioned chairs ...

Food is also simple but good ...

Beef steak. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I also love the salad vinegar-based dressing!

Yummy pork chop/rib.

Ox tongue .. this is my husband's dish, not mine. 

I don't eat rice at this place. I have the toasted bread with butter. I usually order the curry chicken to eat with this bread. But on this day, they run out of curry chicken.

Till my next blog post, hold on dearly to your memories! =)

Chandrphen Restaurant

Chandrphen Restaurant on Rama 4, Bangkok. This is a Thai-Chinese restaurant that is over 50 years old which they proudly listed in their menu. There are lots of good stuff here and the dishes below are just the few that we should try.

Not to be missed is their grilled chicken. They have 2 types of chicken: the normal type with the meat being softer and more tender and the 'kampong' or free range type with the meat being tougher. It's your call which type you prefer. The 'kampong' chicken is more expensive.

One of the dishes that is not commonly found elsewhere but here is 'Suki-hang' or suki-dry in English. As the name describe , it is dry suki with glass noodles, prawn, squid, pork and vegetables. Served in a hotplate over fire.

'Suki-hang' in detail: prawns, vege and glass noodles.  Comes with their own version of suki sauce.

This deep-fried sweet bun is from the dim-sum menu and I have it as my dessert .. something sweet to end my meal. =)

The only thing that I do not like at the Chandrphen Restaurant is the table cloth that they use. They use some strange 'curtains-like' material with very out-dated designs. It is not exactly pleasing to the eyes, so just enjoy the food. =)

Till my next blog post, eat well!

Fuji Japanese Restaurant

Fuji is a chain of Japanese restaurant in Thailand. It has a branch in almost every major mall in Bangkok and is very popular among Thais for gatherings and family meals. Don't be surprised to see a queue outside its restaurants during lunch and dinner time. I eat at Fuji about once a month. The food is fairly good and at reasonable prices.

Of everything that Fuji has on its menu, my favorite is the Geso Karrage or deep fried squid legs. It is a dish that I would order and share it with my family as appetizer. Sometimes it is not enough to go around and we have to order 2 portions.

Geso Karrage, Baht 75

As for my main dish, if I am very hungry, I would have the Tempura Bento.

Tempura Bento, Baht 280

Or I would have the Tempura Udon if I am not so hungry.

Tempura Udon, Baht 140

My son's usual order is Salmon Teriyaki ...

Salmon Teriyaki Set

Sometimes a simple one-dish katsudon will also do for me.

Katsu Don

It is not gourmet Japanese food but Fuji does its job as a quick, good value-for-money Japanese food with mass appeal.

Till my next blog entry, have some Geso Karrage! =)

Laem Chareon Seafood

I have been with this blog for about 3 months now and in Blogger, they have a 'Stats' tab which tells how many pageviews your blog has and where your 'audience' come from. I have 'audience' from as far as the United States and Russia to nearby neighbors in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

For those visiting my blog and intending to visit Thailand, I am going to introduce to you some food places in Bangkok. When you drop by Bangkok, drop in on these food places. Everyone needs to eat. =)

First, seafood .......

The Thais have their own style of seafood which is very yummy. There are a couple of seafood restaurants chains in Bangkok like Laem Chareon and Je Ngor. I feel Laem Chareon has a slight edge over Je Ngor as the taste of its food, serving size and quality is more consistent.

For tourists, the Laem Chareon has restaurants in 'tourist-accessible' locations like the Central World (3rd floor) and the Siam Paragon (4th floor). Both of these are popular malls for locals and tourists. 

Thais call this 'seafood sauce'. This sauce is very spicy (chilli-hot) so be very careful.

I went to Laem Chareon with my son a couple of weeks ago and we ordered 2 dishes which are enough to fill our tummies for lunch. These 2 dishes are among its most popular dishes. If you walk around the restaurant, almost every table will have an order of each of these.

1) Deep Fried Sea Bass (pla-ga-phong tord nam-pla). I love this crispy fish! The caramelized fish sauce makes it even more delicious!

2) Fried rice with crabmeat. Squeeze the line and sprinkle some of the prik nam-pla (fish sauce with cut chili) onto the rice and it is irresistible.

If you go with more people, you can also try the steamed blue crab (phu-ma). The white meat comes de-shelled (read 'no need to use your hands') and is delicious with the green seafood sauce. =)

Till my next blog entry, eat well!

Mango Madness

When April comes to Bangkok, 2 important events happen.


One is the Songkran festival, also known as the Thai New Year, and this is celebrated between the 13 and 16 of April. During this time, most Thais go to the temple to pray and give food to the monks. Water is gently poured onto Buddha statues and images to cleanse them and / or poured over elders' hands as a sign of respect. For the young at heart and also keeping in mind that April is the hottest month in Bangkok, Songkran has evolved to be the biggest splash party in the city. People are out with their hoses, water guns and buckets to target innocent people on tuk-tuks, motorbikes and buses with opened windows and wet them from head to toe. It is good fun! =)


The other important event for me is the start of the mango season. Mangoes are available all year round. But around April, there is a spike in supply and prices drop. I go all crazy and would have mangoes almost everyday. There are also a few other things that I do.


Like going to Swensen's every April to have one of their mango promotions. It's a ritual for me. =) Their mango concoction typically has some fresh mango, mango ice-cream, coconut flakes, pandan-flavored sticky rice and wafer.

Mango Paradise from Swensen's. My once-a-year mango ritual.

Since mangoes are so easily available and cheap, lots of shops and restaurants are also serving fresh ripe mango with sticky rice. Sticky rice is glutinous rice simmered in coconut milk. I love the combination of fresh mango, sticky rice and corn kernels. Some people would eat this with coconut cream but not me. the sticky rice is sinful enough for me. =)

Fresh mango with sticky rice

And for my very own home-made indulgence, I have my own version of mango-pineapple pudding. =)

Here is my recipe. It is a bit of a cheat but I compensate by putting in lots of mango cubes. =)

Ingredients:

- 1 packet of 90grams jelly crystals in pineapple flavor (This is the cheat. I can't get mango flavor and use pineapple instead for the yellow color. In general, pineapple and mango goes well.)
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 1 can of evaporated milk
- 1 big mango, cut into cubes

Method:

1. Pour boiled water into bowl and stir in jelly crystals. Jelly crystals have to dissolve completely. Set aside to cool.
2. Add in the evaporated milk.
3. Stir in the mango cubes.
4. Mix well.
5. Pour into small cups
6. Chill in fridge.

My version of mango pudding

Till my next blog post, Sawadee pee mai ("Happy New Year" in Thai) and enjoy APRIL! =)

Supreme ambitions ...

Slogan of a tuition center in Bangkok says; "We make your spending for the supreme outcomes". Tell your parents that the tuition fee will make you the head of North Korea .... =)


Till my next blog post, stay ambitious! =)