Bangkok: Cook for A Day

I love Thai food. So when I saw that attending a half-day cooking class as one of the recommended activities to do in Bangkok, I did not hesitate to sign up and dragged my friends along on our recent trip to Thailand.

Sompong Thai Cooking School is located in a quiet neighborhood just near Bangkok's business district. The owner, Ms. Nancy, used to own a restaurant but then decided to open a cooking school at her home. Reservation is made through their website and you can check the dishes that would be taught depending on the day you choose. Normally, you get to prepare, cook and eat 4-5 dishes for 1000 Baht/per person. 

:D

We had no problem going to the place because their representative met us at the exit of BTS Chong Nonsi station wearing a red apron with the logo of the cooking school. We took a short ride to the venue which was actually an apartment with a covered garage.

Cooking area which was very clean and organized. No aircon
but plenty of electric fan to cool us off. 

It is a small cooking school which can accommodate up to 12 people. At that time, there were 12 of us but mostly Asians (Filipino, Chinese) and 1 German guy.

Each person has a cooking station

Inside the house is an air conditioned area where
we will eat our "masterpieces"

While waiting for the other students, you are free to
munch on some cookies or biscuits and drink some Thai tea

clean utensils and apron while chopping board is covered 

They offer morning and afternoon classes. We opted for the morning class which is 9am-1pm  and includes a market tour. 

ready friends?

ready to buy curries

Teacher Ann showing us the different vegetables

almost ready!

Back at the school, we were taught the basic spices and ingredients of Thai cooking. Although they gave us each a folder with print outs of the recipes, I will strongly advise you to jot down notes. Most of the advice of the instructor is not shown on the print out and your notes will prove helpful later on.

spices, spices, spices

Some of the ingredients are prepared beforehand but we did the prep work of the vegetables ourselves. 

First, the instructor will demonstrate how each dish will be cooked. 

After each demonstration, it will be our turn to prep and cook the dish. The instructor made it looks so easy but once she says, "Okay, your turn!", my mind immediately goes blank - lol. Good thing that while we're cooking the dishes, the instructor would give out the step by step instruction :)

Here is what we prepared:

Kao Phat Kai (Chicken Fried Rice)

Tom Yum Kung  (Spicy Prawn Soup)

Kang Mussaman (Chicken Mussaman Curry with horse radish)
- we prepared the curry from scratch (!)

We made the dessert (golden pumpkin in coconut milk) 

while the Mango was free

After cooking everything, our dishes are brought into the dining room so we can enjoy them. I don't know if its because I'm a genius at cooking (hehe) or because the dishes was still hot when we ate it or the recipes have been tried and tested but ..... everything tasted really really good!

Since Pad Thai was not included in the course for that day and we really wanted to know how this is done, we paid an extra Baht 300/per peson to prepare this. No regrets - this was really good as well. I tried to recreate this when I went home. For the complete recipe, go here.

Bottled water, Ice, Coke and Thai tea is served. 

If you cannot eat all of the food you prepared, the school offers to pack them in individual containers. Of course, glutton that we are, the only left over we had was the Pad Thai. This we took back to the B&B which became our snack in the afternoon :D 

Final Verdict 

The teacher gave very simple instructions that were easy to follow. The cooking and eating area were very clean. No flies even if it was an open space. The helpers would immediately clean up while you were cooking and prepare the next ingredients. However, the instruction on the recipe print outs could use a bit of a tweaking since some of the instructions printed were not that clearly written. 

All in all, one of the best experiences we had in Bangkok. Highly recommended even if you're not going to prepare the dishes again. Going to the local market, seeing how our favorite Thai food are being prepared, having a sense of accomplishment in preparing the dishes AND eating such delicious food at such an affordable price is well worth it!

Note: Wear light clothing, don't eat a heavy breakfast, be prepared to remove your shoes inside the school. No credit card so prepare to pay in cash after the class.

happy cooking!

Sompong Original Thai Cooking School 

31/11 Silom Soi 13 , Silom Road,

Bangrak Bangkok 10500  

Tel 662-233-2128

www.SompongThaiCookingSchool.com