Travel Tips

My cooking lesson began with a visit to a typical Thai wet market in Bangkok. Our guide who is also a culinary assistant took us to the Surasak BTS right in front of Blue Elephant Culinary School and we hoped on the train to the next station (Saphan Taksin).

At the market, our guide showed us a variety of Thai fruits, vegetables, meat fish, curry paste and spices.

This is a typical place to eat at the market. It's pretty similar to a hawker place in Malaysia.

We stopped at this dessert stall where our guide bought us some pretty tasty desserts. Later we stopped by a drinks stall for some cool iced Thai coffee which is sweet and creamy.

There were some pretty interesting looking fish. However, I was sad to see a fish stall selling a tropical parrot fish which I usually see when I dive. I think it's cruel to kill such beautiful fish.

However, the one photographed here is a fresh water fish that I have not seen this before.

These were some of the ingredients used in Thai dishes such as galangal, lemongrass, lime etc.

Here I am at the fruit stall at the end of the market visit.

Some of these local Thai fruits taste really good. The pink one is a dragonfruit which has a sweet white flesh. My favourite though is the mango, yum!

After our market visit, we went back to the culinary school where we went through a theory class. Here our instructor presented a cookery demonstration of the dishes that we will prepare. I also receive a booklet with the recipes of the day.

More stories in Part 2.