Cooking with Pantawan's Pan and Tawan.

August 9th,

After a night of shots upon shots and Connect 4 victory drinks and losing at pool drinks I was not feeling good at all the following day.

I was still up early waiting to get going to my cooking class. The slip said that I'd be picked up by 8:30. This was not the case. Pick up was at 9 so I was pacing up and down the main floor of the guest house for half an hour will one of the owners called the office with no response.

When they got to the gate I was really impressed. The owners, Pan and Tawan, picked me up in a nice van with AC and their English was spot on, no Thai accent at all. Then *we drove off to the market to learn about the ingredients we are using.

* We means the two owners and myself. The day before Pan was in a car accident. Subsequently, they decided to cut the Thursday morning class short and cancelled the afternoon class as well as Friday. Too bad for them only one person booked in advance. It made for a very awkward morning being hungover.

At the market, I learned that most Thai food contains three main ingredients Kaftir lime juice/leaves, chili peppers, and a mild type of ginger. When we got to the cooking area my breath was stolen away from me.

All the cooking stuff is on the second floor so you can look out at all the lush-green plants and the white ducks waddling around.

We made four dishes total: Panaam Curry, Pork and Shrimp Wontons, Fried Ruby Fish with Chili Sauce, and Stir Fried Prawns in a Mushroom Oyster sauce. All of them were really good. And it came with a complementary beer. Thankfully it wasn't Tiger Beer. Cooking here was a really pampered experience having Pan, Tawan, and the chef watching me chop and fry as I cradled my head in my hands and guzzled down water. After the second dish they started to chop stuff too because I was not much for small talk. All the equipment is really good and they use glass bowls so it feels like you're on the food network. Nothing got burned either. 

One problem I had with the process was I got to prepare each plate, sample it, and then we would put it on the lunch table and go onto the next dish. By the time the last dish was done everything else was cold, also if I got to eat each one after making it I would have eaten everything and not had to share. The beer made that impossible though and I brought food back to the guesthouse. Also lime juice is the best topper for any Thai food and they didn't provide that. 

I fully recommend cooking with Pantawan, they did an excellent job. At the end of the class you get a certificate (because everyone brings a folder with them when they go back packing) and an apron which now covers my bare chest when I cook bacon on the weekends :).    

Here are my meals all in one shot:

Top going clockwise: Fried Fish with Chili sauce, Stir Fried Prawn, Panaam Curry, and pork shrimp wontons.