Event: Thai House Cooking Class at Urban Thai Bistro
Locations: Urban Thai Bistro
Area: Vancouver, BC (Yaletown/Downtown)
Address: 1119 Hamilton Street
Date Attended: October 10, 2010
The Thai House Restaurant Group is first to start offering Thai cooking classes in Vancouver, BC. They’re hosted at their Urban Thai Bistro restaurant location in Yaletown. It’s a one time 3 hour class on Saturday from 10:30am-1:30pm (only time available). There are 4 cooking classes and each class offers a different menu of 4 dishes that you complete in the 3 hours. Their Executive Thai Chef guides you on preparing some popular Thai dishes offered at Urban Thai Bistro using the same recipes.
Each person is given their own cooking station with everything perfectly set up, just like cooking shows on Food Network. Everything is pre-cut and all the hard work is done for you. Although it is a hands-on cooking class, it is very unlikely you will get your hands dirty and it is more for fun. With the much appreciated help of an acting “assistant chef” for almost each person, everything was very easy to make and prepare. The class includes a Thai House Thai silk apron, a Thai Cooking Class graduation certificate with your name, as well as a booklet of recipes from the class.
I was happy to be invited to attend the new Thai cooking classes since I love cooking but never really have time for it. I actually experiment with Thai cooking at home, so it was great to have some guidance of professional Thai chefs to teach me more about Thai cuisine. We ended up cooking a full meal for a family of 4, eating some of it for lunch there, and packing the rest of it home. I liked the small intimate classes (max 6) and considering the amount of food you get it’s a pretty decent price. There’s no prior cooking skills needed and there’s step by step instructions so really anyone can do it. Overall the Thai House cooking classes introduces you to Thai cooking and it’s a fun activity to do on a Saturday morning with some friends (if you’re not hung over).
Classes start at $90/person for minimum of 4 people. For more rates and class registration call: +1604-512-1788 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +1604-512-1788 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or visit Thai House Restaurant
1. Thai House Spring Roll
- If ordering at Urban Thai Bistro: Por Pia Tod – 4pcs (Thai spring rolls or Vegetarian Spring rolls). $7.95
- It’s made with vermicelli noodles, ground pork, garlic, white onion, green onion, carrots, cabbage, soy sauce and black pepper.
- All the ingredients are pre-chopped and measured so we just cooked them altogether and they taught us how to wrap them into spring rolls.
- We also made the dipping sauce for it which was a sweet garlic chili sauce.
I had some issues with sizing. They label your plates and deep fry them for you in the back just before you get to enjoy them later.
Huh… that’s odd… I made 7 spring rolls and now there’s only 6?… I just noticed that now. Hmm maybe one of mine exploded during the frying process… ?
2. Thai House Pad Thai
- If ordering at Urban Thai Bistro: Pad Thai (Traditional) – Stir-fried rice noodles with shrimps, ground peanuts, chili paste & bean sprouts with tomato sauce. $11.95
- Huh? With tomato sauce? So this was a very Westernized version of Pad Thai made with ketchup. I was really hoping that they would make the authentic version with tamarind.
- This Pad Thai was made with rice noodles, shrimp, bean curd, egg, turnip, ground peanuts, green onions, and bean sprouts.
- The sauce was made with ketchup, fish sauce, sweet chili sauce, white sugar, salt and white vinegar.
- Sauces and seasonings are adjusted to your liking so everyone could personalize their own Pad Thai during the cooking process.
And voila!
3. Larb (Traditional Minced Chicken Salad)
- If ordering at Urban Thai Bistro: Larb Gai, Moo, Neua (Minced chicken, pork or beef mixed with Thai herbs – extra spicy sauce). $10.50
- I actually like the larb pork (moo) version better than the larb chicken (gai) version. Either way I was most excited to make this dish because it’s my favourite Thai dish. It’s one of those authentic Thai dishes that Thai people would order. It often gets overlooked because it’s in the “salad” section of all Thai menus and the description never does it justice.
- This one is made with minced chicken, red onion, cilantro, roasted rice, lime juice, white sugar, fish sauce, roasted ground chili and fresh mint leaves.
- It’s a very aromatic and flavourful dish that’s savoury, salty, sweet, nutty, spicy, juicy and light to eat.
My finished Larb Gai. I just love this dish. See here for a very authentic one I had in Hong Kong.
4. Tom Yum Goong Soup- If ordering at Urban Thai Bistro: Tom Yum Goong (Spicy & sour soup with prawns, mushrooms, lemon grass & Thai spices). $10.50 or $4.50 Single
- This is a classic Thai soup made with chicken stock (made in house), lemongrass, galangal (type of ginger root), kaffir lime leaves, chili paste, mushrooms, lime juice, fish sauce, coriander, spring onions, tiger prawns, tomatoes and white sugar.
- If you like the Chinese hot and sour soup there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this Thai version.
It made a huge pot! We got to take our leftovers home though.
My completed Thai meal served with a delicious lychee, coconut and pineapple drink. Photo compliments of Sherman, who also joined me.
Always in good company.[geotag]
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