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Published: April 5th 2013
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Chef Leez cooking school
Mia cooking Tom Yum Gung (spicy and sour prawn soup) Hi everyone! It's only taken me two weeks to start blogging...we've been very busy cooking, eating and relaxing with limited wifi access...
We finally arrived in Koh Phangan yesterday afternoon and have all just gone 'ahhh, this is what it's all about'. Mia and I had a great time together in Bangkok the first week (which this blog will start to cover) and then we met up with Gav (who had 3 near death experiences in Nepal mountain climbing before he finally arrived in Bangkok safe and sound but around 2 stone lighter and literally wasted away inc frostbite). We headed down to Ko Lanta for a days but were underwhelmed and then went to Phi Phi where again we were pretty happy to leave as fast as we could...but more on that later.
Friday 22nd March We had a great flight...time flew as we just watched heaps of movies and before we knew it we were here. We arrived at our hotel around 10.30pm local time which was 2.30am Melb time, so were both pretty tired and ready for a good sleep! Mia hadn't eaten on the plane as the foods and smells make her feel sick
so we had a quick bite of Pad Thai across the street befor hitting the sack and falling asleep around 4.30am Melb time!
We decided to stay at the Nouvo City Hotel instead of D&D's where we normally stay on Khao San Rd, as I can't really stand the whole KSR scene anymore. The Nouvo is still in Banglamphu (the old city, about a 5 minute walk from KSR but with a much better vibe and local scene. The hotel itself is great and we'll definitely stay there again.
Saturday 23rd March Today we headed off across the road (literally) to Chef Leez Cooking School. I had researched pretty well on Trip Advisor in regards to cooking schools that suited us and had come up with three that I booked throughout our first week - Chef Leez, May Kaidee's and Thai Private Home Cooking.
Chef Leez was rated number one on Trip Advisor for things to do in Bangkok and the reviews were brilliant. I was a little concerned as the menu was the ordinary tourist menu of soups, pad thai and curries that I had been trying to avoid BUT it was awesome. Chef Lee
Nearly asleep but hungry
Mia didn't eat on the plane as airline food makes her feel sick... was brilliant - very knowledgeable, friendly and involved. Although she runs these classes daily, you could tell she was passionate about what she does.
There were only four of us in the course - two lovely Americans Chris and Emily and me and Mia. We went to the local market first which was great - very fresh and made me wish we had the same markets available in Aus. In the course we prepped and cooked all our own food which is what we wanted) except for when we were shown how to make fresh coconut milk (we had bought the freshly Grated coconut from the market - one of chef Lee's helpers made it and talked us through it which was fine with us. We made Tom Yum Chilli Paste (Nam Prik Phao), Spicy and Sour Prawn Soup (Tom Tum Gung) Spicy Prawn Soup with Coconut Milk (Tom Kha Gung), Fried noodles with prawns (Pad Thai Gung), Green curry paste, green chicken curry, panang chicken curry, green papaya salad (Som Tom) and to top it off coconut sticky rice and mango.
We had an awesome day and Chef Lee was great. She taught us a few new
$2 pad Thai noodles
And so much better than the ones in Thai restaurants in Aus at around $17 tricks of the trade that we'll use when we get home!
I've attached lots of photos below and will update more shortly...
And as an fyi as I've been writing this blog I've been sitting on a deck overlooking the beach and sunset watching beach volleyball! A gorgeous setting...
Hope you are all well!
xxx
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Shelley
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Hi
Looks like you are going to come home with some great cookin skills. Look forward to taste testing when you get home. Did you find any utensils ?