There are many on offer but we went for the Basil Thai Cookery Course mainly because the school was situated near our hotel. They arrived on time at the hotel lobby to pick us up. I was tagging along to get some pics and to see for myself what happens.
We were driven through the city to pick up two other students, Mark from Ireland and his American girlfriend Morgan. Greg would join later, he was on a three day course.
Our mini bus, driven by a young girl with interesting tattoos on her arms, weaved its way through parts of town I'm sure I'll never see again and we eventually ended up in the back of a local market. Time for the course to begin.
The driver, it turned out was Apple and she was the instructor. She was so knowledgeable about all the produce and in my humble opinion, as a former training instructor, excellent at her job. The market phase finished it was off to the school to start cooking.
All the students had to pick seven meals to cook in the bus from a list given to them. Back at the training kitchen their work stations were all prepared and ready for them. Apples assistant had done all that for her.
The first meals were talked through by Apple and everyone got down to chopping and mixing and stir frying; the smells coming out of the place were amazing. Having taken what I'd thought enough photos I went to leave but Apple was having none of it. "Stay to sample the first meal," she offered. I looked across at Lynn who half heartedly gave her blessing.
Apple's eyes were everywhere, no student was left out, "Stir faster," she'd shout, "more oil," she instructed. In minutes they all had a plate of food turned out from the wok to the plate and we retired to the dining table to try them out.
Lynn had chosen the countries staple, Pad Thai. It was delicious and my first introduction to tofu of all things, I knew Lynn would enjoy the rest of the day and I made my excuses and left. Seeing as she was armed with a meat cleaver. ( "Go write your blog." Were the words ringing in my ears)
She returned back to the hotel several hours later eager to fill me in with the details of all the food she'd cooked. To add to the Pad Thai she prepared and cooked hot and sour chicken soup, Thai red prawn curry, stir fried prawns in tamarind sauce, papaya salad, fried rice noodles with soy sauce and black sticky rice pudding with coconut milk. Those coming to visit us in Spain will be served a few of these dishes up, I'm sure.
One of the processes she enjoyed was preparing and making her own red curry paste using thirteen ingredients; then having to spend a good fifteen minutes pummelling them to death with a pestle and mortar. The end result though was worth it. She also enjoyed sharing her classmates food and working as a team with them all to achieve their end results. Her comments about her instructor and the team at Basil were very complementary - a very professional team.
Cost of all this frenzied but enjoyable day - a mere £20! Now that's what I call great value. If you are ever here and want to learn to cook Thai - sign up for this course.
www.basilcookery.com
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