11-3 Thai Farm Cooking School

Our last day – we’re sad – will be spent all day at the organic Thai Farm learning first hand how to cook authentic Thai meals. The Song-tao (the little red trucks with the seats in the back) picks us up right on time. We’re first, and we see that there are 6 others joining us today. We make the rounds of the guesthouses and end up with a great group: a 20ish couple from New Zealand (she originally from Canada, he from Britain, traveling around until their money runs out, then going back to NZ to work); a 30ish couple from Slovenia; an older lady from Britain who’s son had just gotten married in a Buddhist ceremony at the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok and a young Belgium girl who had recently been in a motor bike accident and had stitches in her chin and a broken jaw (poor baby!).

The Farm cooking school is a Nine recommendation. We actually had another school booked, but Nine convinced us this one was better – and she gave us a good discount so it was cheaper. The promo brochure looks great and you get to pick and choose which items you want to cook. Ed and I decided to choose different dishes so we could try everything!

We get a copy of the brochure/menu in the truck and are told to choose our meals before our first stop at the market. When we arrive, we all give our requests to Sue, our guide/chef, and then follow her around the market, learning about the ingredients that will be used in our cooking, the different types of rice and herbs, as well as to wander around and look at the poultry meat and seafood available. The driver goes off to buy the meats and rice (which are the items they don’t have on the farm, just herbs there) and wealso have the opportunity to buy beer, coffee or soda because none of that is available at the farm. Only water and tea when we get there.

We wander around for a while, just looking at all the different food. They’ve got the fried bugs here too – but we’re not trying them! I guess I’m not as adventurous as I think – I’ll blame it on the fact that it’s the morning and I don’t want to eat anything too early! Yeah, right! Back in the Song-tao, we head off into the countryside for the farm.

The farm is a cute little operation with two “school” buildings, one covered rectangle deck with long tables, a toilet building and not much more. The school buildings are big open air facilities with cooking stations placed in a U shape around the inside and washing sinks on the outside patios. Our building is actually split into two school sections – but we’re the only ones in this building today. Another group is in the first school building. We have long tables on a covered patio wehre we can put our things and where we will eat. We get a tour of the herb garden, smelling all the fabulous fresh herbs and learning about the different Thai varieties and how we will use them in our cooking.

After the tour, we get ready to cook! We all choose a work station and line up facing each other. We each have plates full of herbs and meats according to what we’ve chosen to cook. Sue goes through the preparation with us and we begin. The first thing we do is ground all the herbs for the Curry Pastes, then we start on the soups, then move back to the curry. It’s a really fun way to learn and everyone is having a blast. Next we move onto the Papaya salad and the stir fried Chicken. The Slovenia girl and I are doing the salad, everyone else the chicken, so we have an audience as we mix up our salads with our mortars and pestles. I’ve become quite addicted to papaya salad and will be very sad when we get home since there’s no way we’ll ever find unripe papaya in the states. I asked about substitutions – cucumber, cabbage, and the like – but it still won’t be the same. I’ll try, that’s for sure, but nothing will beat the taste of that fresh salad made right there on the spot with fresh Thai herbs!

Now we get to eat! What a feast – there is way more food than we can even hope to finish! And we’ve still got another two courses to go! Oy! We have an inordinate amount of time for lunch – so we hang out in the shade, talking, getting to know everyone and stuffing our faces for an hour or so. Finally we’re ready for the next course – spring rolls, Pad Thai and for dessert, mango with sticky rice and bananas in coconut milk. It’s all fun and easy – and it is DEFINITELY going home with us! No way can we eat another morsel! But the fun part is, it’s dinner. So nothing wasted and we’ve got a whole day’s worth of meals plus the school. How fun.

The day is over way to fast and we’re back in the Song-Tao heading home. Last drop off and we waddle our way back up to our room with our dinner in the little plastic bags that are the Thai way of take away food! They even take drinks away in these things – and then drink them out of straws they insert into the top of the bags. Funny!!!

So – now we’re back at the Tulip, reorganizing the packing, working on the computer and trying to use up 8 hours until we can check in online for our nasty BA Bangkok to London flight. We wandered out around town to walk off some of the food, walked past the Garden, which was closed (odd!) and got Lemon and Watermelon juice smoothies from a juice place on the corner. Less than $1US each, and fresh juice! We watched them squeeze it right then and there. Oh, e are loving this place!!!

Back at the Tulip, we did more computer work, then after a couple hours we munch on the spring rolls (really good!!! Ed does a mean Spring Roll!) and decide we’re too full for anything else. We also decide to go out to see if we can find some wine for me. We love being at the Tulip – it’s perfect – the only downside is no white wine and we are not close to any of the bars and restaurants. Long story – but our original plans were to stay at another guesthouse that was right down the road. We had walked past it a couple of times and remembered that they have an “Aussie BBQ” so decided – Australian? Gotta have white wine! And they did! We settled ourselves into a comfy couch in their little outdoor garden seating area, and had a couple of beers and wine (accompanied by peanuts – yum!) as we wasted more time until our 12:10am date with BA online!

Finally, it’s time! And lo and behold – the “watch list” doesn’t defeat us! We can check in online and we even got the exact seats we wanted. Success! Now we can go to sleep with no worries for the morning and the long flight to England.