Cooking with Noi

The View from what will be the New Apple's Guesthouse Location
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I had taken a Thai cooking course the last time I was in Thailand, 6 years ago, but figured it couldn't hurt to brush up on the skills that I had lost. Plus, I heard that the cooking course I wanted to take was supposed to be pretty good.

Meeting up at 10am at Apple's Guesthouse, there ended up being seven of us in total, 2 Dutch guys, a brother and sister from the U.S, a father and daughter from England and myself. We started off by heading to the market with Noi, our teacher and owner of the guesthouse, along with Apple, her sister. The trip to the market wasn't to pick up groceries, but as an informative session for us. Noi took us into the old market (the newer one being by the bus station) which had quite narrow passage ways that some people managed to navigate by motorcycle.

Noi, the teacher, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
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The first stop was to a dessert stand and Noi explained that the Thais like their sweets very sweet. She also told us that certain sweets signify certain things, such as wealth, prosperity in business etc. Also, all the very brightly colored desserts are naturally colored which is quite amazing because the colors are really so vibrant. Next was the prepared curry paste stand. Here Noi told us that when Thais eat (and they love to eat!) they never just have one dish and there is always a mixture of spicy and non-spicy dishes so that you can switch back and forth as necessary. She let us try 2 of the pastes, one dry and one wet, with the dry being the spicier of the two.

My creations, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
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Onto the herb section. There was a mass of green leaves before us and it was hard to really tell what was what. Noi took the time to explain what each leaf was, letting us smell each one as well. She explained that with Thai cooking, every ingredient has a role, with the majority to aid digestion. Additionally, certain ingredients are always paired together. At the chicken stand, every part of the chicken was there, from the head down to the feet, the Thias waste nothing, not even the blood which they eat to get iron. Noi warned us about eating minced food, saying you really don't know what kind of meat it is. I shall have to think twice now when ordering my food!

Cooking up a Sweet and Sour Dish, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
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We next visited the chili pepper stand and I was very glad she didn't make us try the peppers! We then wandered through the rest of the meat part of the market, trying to avoid the water that was dripping off from the fish. Two last stops, the first back at a dessert stand where Noi bought us a Thai treat. It was a combination of rice, sesame seeds and peanuts all stuck together with a sweet substance. I guess the closest thing I could compare it to would be CrackerJacks. It truly was very sweet, but also very good. Will have to keep an eye out for that elsewhere. The second stop was at the fruit stand. She pointed out the different fruit, some of which I had tried before but I probably need to be a little braver and try some of the more exotic looking ones, except for durian which is apparently a very potent smelling fruit that is actually banned from most guesthouses due to the smell - I think I shall pass on this one.

Fruit Stand at the Old Market, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
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With our market lesson done, we headed off to the new kitchen that had been built as part of the new location of the guesthouse. It will probably take a year before the guesthouse is ready to accept guests since everything is being built using cash - so work only gets done when the cash is available. The new location is across the river from the rest of the activity, so it will definitely be a tranquil place. The kitchen was covered but open to the air which is nice given how hot it gets. Thankfully we had a cooler day, but the humidity was still at 90+%.

Chili Peppers at the Old Market, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
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We sat a dinner table and discussed what we wanted to make. Surprisingly with seven of us, we were all very agreeable. Aprons on, we followed Noi to the kitchen where she demonstrated how to prepare our first dish, chicken pad thai. After a tasting of what it should taste like, it was our turn to try. Everyone got together into their pairs, leaving me to fend for myself - but Noi kept a close eye on me :) Having completed our first dish, we went back to the table to try what we had made and to sample each others creations. Despite having the same recipe, the dishes really turned out quite differently. We were told that noodles are generally always eaten on their own and as a snack.

Lots of Herbs at the Old Market, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
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Next dish was Tom Ka Gai, a spicy chicken soup made with coconut milk. Same procedure, we watched Noi, tasted, prepared ourselves, then tasted. Already somewhat full, we weren't even half way done yet. The next three dishes were shown to us one after the other which included a mussaman curry, a red curry and a sweet and sour dish. The interesting thing about mussaman curry is that it usually is only cooked for special events because the paste is quite hard to make as it has so many flavors going on with it. Also, Noi showed us how her family eats it, which is not over rice, but on toast topped with a vinegar cucumber salad. I must stay, this was very tasty indeed.

Brightly Colored Desserts at the Old Market, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
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Once we all had prepared all three dishes, we sat down for the final tasting. This time everyone focused on just eating their dishes - just too much food to sample everyone's. As we ate, Noi told us how she wanted to be a tomboy growing up, but her mother would punish her by making her help with the cooking that her mother would do over charcoal (and still does today) taking 2-3 hours to make the evening's meal. Noi also told us how she doesn't really like to cook and is not a people person, but you could have fooled me! She seemed to be having a great time sharing stories with us, especially the one where she told her mother that she was going to teach a cooking course and she asked "Don't these people know how to cook already?". Noi had explained that people outside of Thailand generally don't know how to cook Thai food. I think her mother would be quite shocked to realize just how many people out there, really don't know how to cook, anything!