COOKING WITH A LOCAL BANGKOK CHEF
Look at this beautiful spread fresh from the market!
When I visited Thailand for spring break with my friends back in March 2018, we really wanted to immerse ourselves in a more local, cultural experience. I remembered this awesome program called Traveling Spoon, where you can meet with a local chef wherever you’re traveling to and learn how to cook their cuisine. My friends and I all love Thai food even back home, so we wanted to experience something more unique and build a connection with someone here.
Before heading to Bangkok, we booked an experience with Chef Jekky. Part of her offering included a market tour in addition to the cooking class, so we were all very excited to see an authentic Thai market and how to select the best food.
Traveling Spoon website
THE MARKET
We first met up with Jekky at the Saphan Khwai BTS station and then made our way to the nearby market. She walked us through picking the best veggies and meats for our dishes. Jekky was friends with many of the vendors there so the experience was filled with lots of fun conversation and easygoing energy.
After walking through the market, Jekky called her personal TukTuk driver and we had a fun yet hilariously crammed ride back to her home. Once we got to her house, her beautiful puppy greeted us and we met her kind family. The TukTuk driver even let my friend, Jim, try a hand at the wheel but he almost crashed it into the neighbor’s house…props to these drivers for maneuvering through busy Bangkok streets!
THE COOKING
Prior to arrival, Jekky gave us a list of dishes for us to choose from. We opted for her to recommend some dishes for us instead. She recommended green papaya salad, Pad Thai, Green Curry, Pad Ka Prao (traditional Thai dish), Tom Kha Gai, and a delicious mango sticky rice dessert.
We started off making the green papaya salad. Jekky taught us the proper way to cut the papaya so we could achieve those thin slices without spending too much time on chopping.
After making this appetizer, we moved our cooking over to Jekky’s iron and charcoal stove. This cooking method cooks food really evenly and quickly. We cooked our Pad Thai, Green Curry, Pad Ka Prao, and Tom Kha Gai each in a wok on the stove. We each took a turn making a dish and everything tasted so delicious!
Jekky’s Pad Thai recipe was so much better than every Thai restaurant I’ve been to!
Green Curry has a coconut milk base and is usually served with chicken and other veggies. We also made a tofu version for Olivia (vegetarian).
Pad Ka Prao is usually cooked with chicken, thai basil, spice, and thai fish sauce. It’s typically served hot with rice.
Tom Kha Gai is a coconut soup that’s usually spicy and sour that contains many veggies, like bell peppers, mushrooms, and basil
THE DESSERT
Mango sticky rice is a classic Thai dessert, but Jekky wanted to add a little special flair to it. She added butterfly pea flowers to simmer in the coconut milk for the first 5 minutes. Doing this allows the milk to turn blue, which will eventually dye the sticky rice into a beautiful indigo-blue color.
Beautiful blue mango sticky rice
THE CONNECTION
Hanging out with Jekky was honestly one of the highlights of our entire trip to Thailand. She was so welcoming, gave us a lot of recommendations, and let us stay and drink with her for a few more hours than the original Traveling Spoon time slot. We even took fun photos together afterwards because of how much of a great time we had. When visiting Thailand, I highly recommend cooking with a local chef because you will build connections beyond just making a meal!
