Mama Noi 田园间的泰式料理教室 [半日课程]

The course: We took the evening cooking course (17:00-21:00). It begun with pickup between 4 and 4:45, and they arrived roughly 4:30. We then picked up other guests and had a short visit to the market where the cooking instructor met us and showed us the fresh ingredients we’d be using, when they are typically used and what flavours they contribute, and we passed them round. We then had 15 mins to explore the market. Contrary to some other reviews I enjoyed this experience and thought it added a nice touch. We then drove to the farm based cooking course and sat down in our groups to pick the 3 recipes we individually wanted to make. One soup, one stir fry and one curry. We also had the choice of vegetarian option with tofu vs meat. Essentially we were organised into a few groups colour coded by plates, and the instructor was able to simultaneously instruct us all despite our dishes being different. I appreciated this, as it helped you appreciate the similarities between dishes and how certain Ingredients form the backbone of Thai dishes. I appreciated how vegetarian substitutions/options were offered for every applicable ingredient. We then all ate the food we cooked. We also made Thai tea, which was delicious. We were also given at the end a cookbook of all recipes on offer in all courses (half day morning and evening, full day) and then drop off back to the hotels. Overall comments: Very pleased with the value for money of the course, including pick up and drop off, the cookbook, and a very large amount of good food to eat including the option to take the last course (the curry) home if we were too full up. The cookbook was very good, including details of all the ingredients with pictures, the flavours they contribute, the curry pastes, and the dishes. Love it! The course itself felt a bit rushed, as 3-4 different dishes being cooked by different people, but (having never done a cooking course before) I would assume this is very much the norm in these cooking schools if people are offered the choice to cook their own menu. The instructor is excellent and managed it well and I didn’t feel neglected or unable to keep up.