How to make Pad Thai

Learning to make Pad Thai was a bit trickier than I anticipated, especially since I was egger to learn to cook and present it inside of an egg omelet. The cooking demonstration at Suan Dusit International Culinary School was informative, and the experiential learning portion following was fun.

To begin, a chef went presented basic information about herbs commonly used in Thai cooking. This helped us better understand how to determine which herbs to use, as well as the part of the plant that is best in certain dishes. For example, it is important that you fold the double leafed stalk of Kiffer Lime in half and remove the center stem, since it is tough to eat and the aroma is better released when cut.

Next, the chefs demonstrated how to prepare and cook two dishes: Mock Pomegranate Seeds (Tab Tim Krob) and Pad Thai (Thai Stir-fried Noodles). Both dishes required many ingredients, as well as close concentration to the sequence they are utilized within the dish. The chefs made it appear easy to make both items, but it turned out to be much more difficult when we moved to the kitchen ourselves. We needed a little help cleaning the shrimp and felt a little reprimanded when we didn’t want to include the heads and fat in our meal. Our sauce, however, turned out nice. I was also excited about making the egg wrap, even though I think I may have overcooked it slightly.

Kristin and I worked together to create items that seemed very much like the ones made by the chef, but the expression on P’Poon’s face when she tried our food made me believe we missed the part by just a little bit. However, I am personally very proud of the meal we created.

Those interested in the recipe-I promise to share!