The Phangan Thai Cooking Class with Chef Oy

Thai food it is considered to be one of the most delicious in the world.  So what better than learning how to prepare some of these dishes to repeat once you are back home? 

That's the best souvenir to take with you! And for sure your family and friends will love it too! 

If you are in Koh Phangan, taking a cooking class with Chef Oy it is by far the best option.

Let's meet her first. 

She is Chef Oy, a lovely thai lady born in Koh Samui, a professional chef that worked in Thailand, Belgium and Australia.

She is really knowledgeable, and makes the class go smooth and fun. 

At the beginning of our class, Oy gave us the menu, to select the dishes that we want to cook. We chose the 3 dishes option (1200 baht), but you also have the 4 dishes option (1500 baht) with one dessert included. 

You get to choose 1 starter and 2 main courses. Starters need to be the same for the whole group, but main course can be completely different for everyone. 

Once that we are ready, time to go shopping! 

Oy brings the bikes and we are off the local market to learn some more about Thai food, spices, and condiments.

The market experience it is definitely worth it!

As I said before, Oy it is really knowledgeable, so she shows us a lot of spices and things we never saw, and that going by yourself you would't stop twice to look at it. Or maybe you would stop... but you would have no idea why is it used for. 
 

A friend of hers also shows us how they do fresh coconut milk, the same milk we will use for preparing our curries later on. 

Back to the kitchen, it is time to start working and learning! 

We get our chef uniform on, and we are ready for this.

Well, after eating a few fruits that Oy bought for us to try out: Rambutan, Mangosteen and the famous, hated for some, loved for others... Durian. 

The starter that we chose as a group is 'Thung Thong' (Deep fried golden bag), and the great news is that vegetarians can make the vegetable option while the non veg can make it with chicken! 

Oy explains all the preparation and shows us how to do it, but we cook the whole thing ourselves! From cutting the vegetables, to put the filling inside the dough, and frying them later. She is always around, correcting us and giving us extra information such as other ingredients that we can use once we are home to replace some of  thai ingredients that may be too difficult to find. 

First dish finished! 

So we take a break to enjoy them now while they are hot and fresh. Delicious! 

We still have a lot of work to do! 

And the other dishes that we selected are: Green curry, Massaman Curry, Fish Curry, Pad Thai and Stir fried Chicken with cashew nuts.  The Phangan Thai offers a big variety of dishes you can choose from, and most of the dishes you can do the vegetarian option of it. 

The whole experience takes around 4 hours, counting the market trip, preparation and the most expected part: eating! 

At the end, you get to keep the recipes, a whole bunch of left over food that Oy will pack for you, and awesome memories of a great cooking class with lots of fun. 

Super recommendable!

Just look at our happy faces!

Thanks Oy! 
By Natu Medina