Day
3
We went for a Thai cooking class!
We chose a company called “Hua Hin Thai Cooking Class” which is one of the top rated cooking classes in Hua Hin. It costs 1500 Baht (~S$58) per person. Some may find it pricey, but I'm willingly pay for unique experiences when I travel. Besides, I’m learning a skill from the locals themselves and that I feel, is quite a valuable and fun experience.
They picked us up from our hotel in the
morning with a tuk tuk, and brought us to the wet market. Their experience of
bringing us around the market to purchase ingredients is one of the main
reasons I chose this company over others. It was really an eye-opening
experience, and well, it is always good to learn how to pick fresh ingredients
if you want to learn how to cook.
Some of the ingredients are familiar,
some not.
We saw a shop selling live frogs and
fishes at the market. The Caucasians with our group seemed shocked at the idea
of eating frogs. But sorry guys, in Asia we do eat them and it tastes somewhat like
chicken. In Chinese, we call them Tian Ji - literally means field chicken, not
to trick you to eat them but probably for the same reason that it tastes like
chicken (but more tender).
Some people eat worms, some people eat
frogs, some people eat semi-raw meat, I guess it’s just different culture and
it’s all about perspectives! (:
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| Lucky fish to be released |
As it was Buddhist day in Thailand, our
guide bought some frogs and fishes to be freed in the temple. Really
interesting!
Unfortunately, we also witnessed those
that were unlucky and fell under the butchers’ knives.
After our shopping in the market, we took
the same tuk tuk back to the cooking class. We were served lemongrass drinks and given a booklet with all the recipes we will be learning that day,
ingredients guide, places to order Thai ingredients in Caucasian countries and
even restaurants they recommend in Hua Hin. That is really more than I have expected!
Though, the restaurants are a bit hard to find because some of the restaurants
are in Thai in google maps, so you can’t search them- and you got to manually
find your way using road directions. Argh, I’m so spoilt by digital technology..
We get to prepare our own ingredients
and cook them ourselves after the teacher (who is also our guide) demonstrated
to us. Our teacher was very patient and speaks good English, and we learnt a
lot from her.
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| Aik diligently making his green curry |
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| Preparing dessert |
We learnt four dishes today:
They turned out better than I thought,
but that’s because I had a good teacher and fresh ingredients.
I think the secret to good cooking is fresh ingredients, sense for taste and good timing.
Overall, great experience for us!
Sea-Cret Garden Hua Hin Hotel
Next we drove to Sea-cret Garden Hua
Hin, another hotel by the same guys from Sea-cret Hua Hin. This is the hotel
that I look forward to the most, because of this:
How gorgeous this is! You can walk
directly into the pool, and you can take a stairs up to a private chilling
place right on top of your room.
You can also swim with huge balloons
like a flamingo balloon or pizza balloon. But note that they are not free. You have to pay at least 150 baht for the cheapest ones.
The pool right outside our room has
Jacuzzi. Yay.
And so does our room.
You may have noticed by now that we
changed hotels every day. That’s because there are so many unique hotels that we
want to experience. To keep things within budget we always alternate expensive
and cheap hotels. We also pack light and organised our luggage such that it's easy to pack and unpack.
Supper at Ku Rotee Chachuk
Next, we head for supper at a rotee place, Ku Rotee Chachuk. The place is pretty popular among Thais, and if you come late you might have to wait for a seat.
Rotee is something like Roti Prata/Canai. It has various flavours like banana, butter, cheese, curry etc, and we were so tempted to try all of them. We tried the crispy Rotee in the end and it is very addictive.
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