It was our honeymoon and my 2nd trip to Thailand in less than 2 years, so I signed up for a unique experience in Krabi. Thai food has been one of my favourite cuisines and the opportunity to learn how it’s made was too enticing to miss out on.
After a bit of research, it was decided that “Madam Ya’s Cookery School” was the right place to experience Thai cooking at it’s best. Even the famed “Gordon Ramsay” has visited Madam Ya’s and she also works with renowned hotels from around the world.
We signed up for ‘Program A’ (1,500 ฿ per person) which included pick-up and drop from the hotel. The session starts at around 9 am and winds up by around 1 pm by which time you are starving and you get to gorge on the wonderful things you have cooked during that time.
So for ‘Program A’, we were shown the below menu to choose 4 dishes from.
Curry Pastes (made from scratch)
Penang Curry
Green Curry Chicken with Vegetable
Yellow Curry
Lab Kai (Chicken Mint Salad)
Pad Thai (Fried Noodle Thai Style)
Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew Nut
Stir Fried Sweet and Sour Chicken or Vegetable
Fried Rice with Chicken or Vegetable
Spicy Prawn Soup (Tom Yum Goong)
We ended up choosing the Penang Curry, Green Curry Chicken with Vegetable, Stir Fried Chicken with Cashewnuts & Spicy Prawn Soup (Tom Yum Goong). We were given a crash course on the different types of ingredients we were to use and how to prepare the curry pastes for each of the curries we were to cook later on.
Since we were the only guests for the session, we took our own time preparing the ingredients, cutting and separating them for each of the curry pastes. The curry pastes were a breeze and each of them had so much flavour and aroma. The kaffir lime has so much more flavour than the traditional lime that we use. I especially loved how edible the galangal was too. I was given the task of preparing the ‘Penang Curry & Tom Yum Goong’ while Sareeka had to prepare the ‘Green Curry Chicken with Vegetables & Stir Fried Chicken with Cashewnuts’.
Since we were the only guests for the day, they also showed us how to prepare ‘Green Papaya Salad’ which happens to be my absolute favourite street snack.
I would rate this experience a 10/10. They were very patient with us, answering our questions with ease and packing the leftovers for us to take back to the hotel. They also gave us 2 cookbooks which I will be trying out in the near future.
“If you are in Krabi, then a Thai cooking class with ‘Madam Ya’ is just what you need!”
Shayne Haridas
Location: Krabi Ya’s Cookery School
FOOD WITH SHAYNE 