Recently, we took Thai cooking lessons at the Blue Elephant Restaurant and Cooking School in Phuket, Thailand. This was a shore excursion offered on the Seabourn Sojourn during a cruise from Singapore to Mumbai, India,
First, we visited the local market to learn about key Thai ingredients with one of the Blue Elephant chefs.
Next, we returned to the Phra Pitak Chinpracha Mansion for cooking demonstrations of four different Royal Thai cuisine dishes, followed by each of us making those four dishes on our own (under supervision.)
Finally, it was time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
At the Blue Elephant Restaurant, we were served the dishes that each of us had prepared. (They numbered each of our dishes as we prepared them.)
We were ready for a cold Singha Thai beer that was served with our food.
First was the Yum Ma-Muang Plaa Krob (Spicy Green Mango Salad with Crispy Fish.)
The chef used six red chilies when making this dish. We used three chilies, and it was still too hot. (And we like spicy food.)
The Tom Kha Kai Sai Mapraow Orn was our favorite dish, and it is easy to make if you have the right ingredients.
This is coconut milk soup with chicken and young coconut flesh.
It’s still difficult to believe that we were able to turn this tray of ingredients into…
This red curry chicken stir-fry with long beans. (Kai Phad Prik Tua Fak Yao.)
I’m pretty excited to try my red curry chicken stir fry with sweet basil leaves. You learn how easy it is to make Thai stir fries, especially is you used prepared red curry paste.
I still can’t believe that I was able to make these Green Curry Prawn and Chicken Stuffed Crispy Golden Bags (tied with steamed green onions.)
The restaurant took care of frying them for us and preparing the sweet pineapple dipping sauce.
My “bags” stayed together well through the fryer, but I used too much kaffir lime leaf in them. Eating what you cook is a great way to fine-tune your recipe and cooking style, especially when you tasted the chef’s version.
We also enjoyed getting to know some of the other cruise ship guests who also aspired to learn and/or improve their Thai cooking skills.
Each of us received a certificate for completing the course.
Plus, we received a goody bags of Blue Elephant items to take home. We also purchased some items from the gift shop.
This was a fun and in-depth education in learning to make Thai cuisine. You can take cooking lessons at the Blue Elephant in Phuket or in Bangkok.
Here are links to the other posts on our Thai Gastronomy at the Blue Elephant Cooking School experience: