Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it. One of the best souvenirs you can bring back from a trip is to learn how to cook the tasty food you enjoyed while traveling. We did just that at Sammy’s Organic Thai Cooking School (on a recommendation from our friend, Sarah!).
If you do a Google search for this place, you’ll find a Facebook page and myriads of links to other travel blogs documenting one amazing time after another at Sammy’s. Did I mention they also have a 5-star certificate of excellence from Trip Advisor? Ok cool, so this is going to be good.
Here’s your first tip: just call. He doesn’t respond via email, even though it’s listed on the page. After emailing twice, I called him up. He confirmed there was room for 2 the next day and that we should be at the Tha Phae gate by the McDonald’s at 9:00 am for pick-up (they usually pick you up at your hotel, but since we live in Nimman, it was too far). I gave him my name and said I have red hair. That was it. I crossed my fingers the next day in hopes that this was actually going to happen.
In the morning, just as we were approaching the McDonald’s, a guy came up to us with a sign for Sammy’s Cooking School. Wow, it all worked out. We hopped in the back of a song taew where we found four French dudes also eager to start their day at the famed cooking school.
We took a 20 minute ride outside of town to a local market. This is where we got to decide what we’d be cooking and also dive a little deeper into the workings of a Thai market.
Shiv’s menu:
- Deep fried vegetable spring roll
- Jungle curry with chicken
- Hot and sour prawn soup
- Stir fried minced chicken with holy basil
- Mango with sticky rice
Michele’s menu:
- Papaya salad
- Green curry with chicken
- Chicken in coconut curry soup
- Pad Thai
- Mango with sticky rice (duh)
Sammy, who has pretty good English as he studied in the UK to be a chef, was a charming host. He showed us the difference between sticky rice (very opaque) and jasmine rice (very translucent) and the types of quantities you can buy: a kilo, a big tin cup, a bamboo basket, or a giant bag.
We were also shown how fresh coconut milk is made. You take bits of the brown coconut variety and put it through a shredder. Out comes newly shredded bits. If you pick the shredded bits up and squeeze really hard, coconut milk drips out from your hand. Luckily, they have machines that can do that automatically. You run the shredded bits through the milk machine twice and after that it becomes good composting material or food for chickens. Or, as Sammy joked to the German students, exported to Germany.
We were given 10 minutes to explore the big market. We got fresh pineapple to munch on as we viewed all the beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables. We even wandered over the meat area where we discovered that keeping the heads and eyeballs on the animals is kind of the norm. Moooo.
After the market, we got back into the song taew and drove another 20 minutes past many rice paddies to Sammy’s farm. The twelve other students (a mix of French, German, and Swiss) headed towards Sammy’s outdoor classroom. At our cutting station was a mortar and pestle and the ingredients for curry paste. All the ingredients, except for the coconut milk, are from Sammy’s organic farm. Our first task was to chop the ingredients for the curry paste and smoosh them for ~10 minutes in the mortar. Everything smelled so good until we had to put the shrimp paste in the mortar. Let’s just say that the smell of shrimp paste would knock a buzzard off a sh!t wagon. Holy cow, are we really gonna eat this stuff?!
After recovering from the shrimp paste stench, we went to the cooking stations to get started with cooking. Sammy’s wife led the class during this portion and helped everyone out. Not an easy task considering there were 14 people with 3 different dishes to juggle. These people have it dialed in though. Sammy’s wife kept giving Shiv extra chilis to make his dishes spicier since he was vocal about wanting some heat. Three yummy dishes later, we were ready to eat. And so back to the cutting station where we feasted on the delicious fruits of our labor. Mmm, mmm, good (and no trace of stinky shrimp paste!)
We were then afforded a luxurious, one-hour break to relax on Sammy’s farm. This included using his most exotic bathroom facilities and resting in one of his many hammocks as our tummies digested all that food. This was important because we had two more dishes to cook (and eat) afterwards!
After the break, we went back to our stations to make our appetizers (spring rolls and papaya salad) and dessert (mango with sticky rice). At this point, most of the food was already cut up for us and we simply had to assemble it. Again, another delicious round of food – especially the mango with sticky rice!
We finished up the food, were given Sammy’s cookbook to take home, and were put back on the song teaws back to the city, drowsy with too much food in our bellies. All Shiv and I could do for dinner that night was eat some yogurt. Alas, it was a good day. Can’t wait to come home and impress you guys with our Thai cooking skills and all the delicate interplays between sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and, of course, spicy!
4 Comments
I expect this meal when I come to visit!
As soon as we get our mortar and pestle, no problem!
YUMMMMMY! I’m ready for my meal as well.
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