Chef Leez is very popular and got rave reviews on Trip Advisor. Its group cooking class cost 2200baht and teaches 12-13 items. But I found it too far...
I was going to book a class with the Bangkok Thai Cooking Academy which taught 5 dishes for 1200baht but I chanced upon this Silom Thai Cooking School (STCS) which offered 6 dishes for 1000baht and had good reviews too. It was also located near my hotel, which is the most ideal for my morning cooking class. After I looked at the menu, I decided to book a class with them. I extracted the course menu from their website. It has everything I want to learn!!
Booking was very fuss free as well. I emailed them and received a quick reply and clear directions on how to get there. No deposit was required and payment to be made after class.
So on Friday, I got up (couldn't sleep much actually. Kept waking up every 2 - 3hrs), and set off to the STCS meeting point.
There were quite alot of people gathering at the meeting point and we were divided into smaller groups for the market tour and eventually the class itself. I seem to be the only solo student, and found myself being shuffled from group to group, probably to make up the numbers or for whatever reason. I personally found it irritating after the 2nd time I was shuffled during the local market tour. However I was pleased with the market tour as I might have never entered a wet market in Bangkok on my own.
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| On the way to market |
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| Chicken Education (Sorry Teacher for the bad photo) |
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| Ginger/lime leaf/tumeric etc (teacher from my third shuffle) |
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| Curry pastes |
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| Coconut and palm sugar |
Going up to the classrooms..
We were given aprons and asked to put our belongings in lockers. I was moved around again, and the fourth (fifth?) shuffle found me with a group of Japanese and a couple from US. I was seated beside the couple, which I found a little awkward... Nonetheless I am appreciative of the snippets of interaction we had while eating the food we cooked.
The class was conducted in air-conditioned rooms (thank goodness) while the cooking was done along the corridor:
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| Outdoor frying! |
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| Preparing coconut milk |
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| Start of 1st item - Tom Yum Soup! |
Would you believe how easy it was to cook tom yum soup?!?! Put all the ingredients in... O! except lime, add lime after boiling so it won't be bitter!
and BOILLLLLLLLLL
And TA DAH! Tom Yum Soup!
It tasted like awesomeness!!!
Next up, Pad Thai! Ingredients shown below:
Again, put everything in... Crack the egg in... And..
FRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY...
And TADDAAAA Pad Thai!!! Yayy..
I was seriously impressed by how everything kind of tasted good. I mean... Am i a wicked thai chef or what!!! Har! Har! Har!
Next up, the teacher showed us how to make chicken salad. Though i can't remember how anymore... I still remember the taste :D it's alright.
Moving on!! Greeen currryyyy!! Paste first! I took a pic of all the ingredients to keep a record of them, since I couldn't remember the names of the herbs
Cut cut cut mix mix pound pound pound
Pound longer, paste becomes more fine. Pound shorter, the paste is thicker and there will be more things to chew later. After paste making, of cos it's curry making!!! Put ingredients in...
Frrrryyyyyyyyyyy and add coconut milk!!
Major fry/boil/evaporate the curry until it becomes thick... And tada!!! It was SO GOOOOD.
Lastly, the mango with sticky rice! I just have to say that one batch of sticky rice uses way too much sugar!!!!
But.. It still tastes v. Yummyyy!!! Hahah! After finishing the food, I went on out to make payment and took a picture with one of the ladies in my class. Very cool Japanese lady actually, and she agreed to take a pic with me ha ha ha.
Went off out of the school and walked off tog, was kind of fun chatting with someone LOL. After we parted ways, I went off to buy lemongrass on mummy's request and stopped by this bakery called DK Bakery. There were many people outside buying large amounts of bread. My mind (tummy?) went 'good food alert good food alert!!' LOL. And so I joined the queue. A Thai lady beside me taught me to say 'Aroy!' My response of 'Aroy Mak Mak!' gave her some entertainmemt, and brought a tiny smile to the kind of fierce looking store owner. So.. Feeling proud of myself, i bought 2 small pieces of bread. Ha ha ha.
Decided to try this one on the spot...
It's the green kaya one, and LOOOkKKkkK!!! The kaya 在流口水！Hahaha, the bread was very soft and the filling not too sweet.
It was yummy and I liked it alot. I should have bought more.. Like ALOT MORRRRRRE...
Anyway off I went to relax in the hotel since it was so warm and I was sweating buckets.
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| The market for OLs again |
The next thing I had planned to do was to visit The Taste @ Thonglor to eat ENDO SUSHI!! I planned for this because I ate at Osaka Fish Market's Endo Sushi and it was so GOOOOD. I so wanted to eat it again and again and again!!
Since Endo Sushi opened an outlet located at The Taste at Thong Lo, a distance from Thong Lo BTS. Since I was feeling so full from all the eating earlier, I decided to do a 3 bts station walk. From Sukhumvit/Asoke to Phrom Pong to Thong Lo. According to Google Maps, it is a 3.6km, 44min walk = 1.5hrs walk for me.
Since Endo Sushi opened an outlet located at The Taste at Thong Lo, a distance from Thong Lo BTS. Since I was feeling so full from all the eating earlier, I decided to do a 3 bts station walk. From Sukhumvit/Asoke to Phrom Pong to Thong Lo. According to Google Maps, it is a 3.6km, 44min walk = 1.5hrs walk for me.
So off I went on a mission to burn some calories before I ate sushi!!!
On the way to Silom MRT, I came across Eat Me and had to snap a picture. Delayed research informed me that this is a popular restaurant and it serves fusion food. Ok next time maybe?
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| That's right! |
When I reached Phrom Phong BTS, I had to stop myself from running into Emquartier for the aircon, because I know once I get in... I might not come out again... So... Bye bye Emquartier sob..
On I went.. And came across Rain Hill plaza at about 6pm. I thought it was a beautiful shopping plaza and decided to check it out. It was a Friday evening, and there was almost no one around.
It looked like an Eco-mall, much like Star Vista in Singapore. I was kind of depressed as I was hoping for a respite in an air-conditioned area. Nonetheless, the plaza is beautiful and there were many food options. I also noticed a Karate school or something similar. More details of this plaza is provided at Bangkok.com.
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| Pretty!! |
And on I went towards Thong Lo BTS. At 6.20pm... I finally reached... And there was a market beside the BTS. I had to check it out! It's The Garden of Tfest, as the tentage name says and it's situated at Fragrant Park. It's kind of cool! It has a shopping area and and outdoor chilling/hanging out/eating area with alot of food stalls.
Air conditioned shopping tent! Thank goodness for good strong aircon! I seriously... Just collapsed into the cool air...
Reluctantly exited the air conditioned tent.. Lots of youngsters
Photo booth! Too shy to take a pic there..
And the DJ!!
Food area, didn't check out what food options there were but there were many food stalls around. It's such a good place to hang out!!! Google informed me that this flea market was open from Friday to Sunday, 3pm to 11pm but has since stopped. The last day was 17 Jul 2017! I got the info from the fragrant property website. Haha another delayed research. Hope that it comes back cos I like it. Haha.
After exiting the market, I continued my walk down towards The Taste @ Thonglor to eat ENDO SUSHI!! Actually I was already qte tired, sweating like crazy, aching feet and so on. But I had to move on... Towards.. Foooooooooood.....
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| Another 25min walk........ |
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| This... |
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| This.. |
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| This.. |
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| This.. |
Haha, I also came across this! That poster of a cartoon man holding on to fried skewers! That's a well known and well loved Kushikatsu resturant called Kushikatsu Daruma originating from Osaka! RJ and I visited it when we were in Osaka, it's worth a try!
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| Kushikatsu Daruma's Poster |
Was seated at the counter and given a menu. The place seemed quiet, with counter and non counter seats. Since I was alone, I was given a counter seat. I opted for the various sets at 450baht each. The ones at Osaka Fish Market were priced at 1080yen per set.
Here come the sets I ordered!!!
The first bite of the anago (eel) was like 'yummmyy!!!' but after that things kind of just plateaued.. The uni was borderline creamy and the ika (squid?).. Was so hard!!!! I prob grew an extra muscle chewing it..
I'm not sure if I'm just biased but the toro sushi (though still yummy) didn't taste as good as I'd hoped. Guess.. I just have to go to Osaka again.. Lolols.
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| On e way out! |
It wasn't thaaat late so I thought to drop by the night market at Pratunam to buy some clothes and shoes in order to answer to E's call for clubbing tomorrow night. I was really quite tired and decided to take a cab after like 20 or 30min of walking. The most irritating thing was that the cab went back almost the entire way I had walked. I should have just hailed a cab from the start. Sigh! Anyway the driver wasn't happy with my direction of 'Platinum Mall' or 'Glow Pratunam' and asked for a street name so I had to google for it. And ince we got the address sorted out, i happily stoned in the cab till I got there.
When we reached, there was a sudden huge downpour. I was like wth?!?! It wasn't some slight drizzle loh, it was like someone poured 10 years of washing water down the faraway tree. So I had to stand at the side of some shop and take shelter for a while. But the rain wasn't really getting smaller so I just GOOOoo! Was kind of fun actually. Thank goodness for my cap. People were walking around with plastic bags on their heads. I found it very cute ROFL.
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| View from the overhead bridge at Central world |
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| Central World |
Took these pics outside Central World. I enjoyed myself on this night, walking around in the rain, feeling free, appreciating views that I don't usually see, having fun on my own actually lol!!
Om the way back from Central World, saw the bear exhibit that was around since my last trip in May, so took a pic of them again!
Went back and zz! Wanted to wake up early the next day because I planned to visit Ayutthaya in the morning!
Bangkok Solo Trip 30Jun - 2 Jul 2016 Day 3 - Ayutthaya/Thip Samai/Yaowarat Road Part 1
