Bangkok private cooking class

The Blue Elephant has invited us to a private class to pick up some handy tips aimed at the restaurant chef rather than the hobby cook. We are given over to one of their top chefs who gives us a lesson in making our own chili paste and chili oil. I am the class photographer and chief asker of dumb questions. I am very competent at one of these.

We are treated to chili paste sandwiches, sort of like peanut butter but with a real zing! The color is gorgeous. The next thing we do is cook a fish dish. This is wonderful, but not something everyone will like. Using a small sea bass we fry the head, tail and a dozen bite sized pieces. While this is cooking we mix up a yummy chili & pineapple sauce. Putting everything together on the plate we rebuild the fish, ladle the sauce and add deep fried bay leaves to the top. Delicious, but the darn thing is staring at me.

This was really fun to have a private lesson and we are ready to head out when we get invited to tour their processing plant. All of the prep work for the 9 luxury restaurants is done in Thailand and shipped overnight. This includes the cleaning and packaging the vegetables, making batches of the sauces, oils and pastes. The farms in Thailand provide fresh and lovely vegetables year round, the labor is available and affordable and this process provides consistency from restaurant to restaurant to have the basics all provided from the same location.

This is a very sterile operation and we are required to don long lab coats, hair nets and rubber boots. The operation is spotless and very impressive!

The Blue Elephant has 9 locations of their Royal Thai Cuisine restaurants, several fast Thai service restaurants and provides prepackaged meals for sale in grocery stores. They have a good business plan and are now looking to expand into the USA. Perhaps we can help them with distribution introductions. We could be a first customer for them in the USA.

We have the best of tour guides today from the Chef that showed us the recipes to the our host for the 45 minute ride to the factory & back to the factory director who interrupted his busy day to show us around. A unique and wonderful experience.

Bangkok I am invited to lunch

I have been invited to lunch with the Blue Elephant cooking school class for today, Victor's final day. This is exiting as he is so animated by his new knowledge when he gets home. I feel lucky to enjoy this small part of his program.

We start the with our breakfast routine and walk and split up to our respective school-internet. I am concerned as this is my last day to log some hours at the computer. After this we are together again and I don't want to spend our time at the computer. I am blogging swiftly but still only get through our Macau adventures.

I meet the class at the time Victor has said they are going to be done, but today there are some slower students and we must wait for everyone to finish one recipe, then we get a class on the last recipe and then prepare it. It was fascinating being there for the course program. Very well done. After everyone finished the recipe we were sat in the main dining room to enjoy all the courses for the day. Each student is served what they cooked for the morning. The only caveat being that Thai people enjoy their foods all together mixing the flavors of sweet and tangy with mellow and spicy and this often means every dish is no longer hot. This is not deemed a matter of any importance to the Thai people, but I sort of prefer hot soup and main courses.

Over lunch we enjoy talking to Victor's class mates and learning what brought them to the school and Thailand. I hand out Hotel Charlotte flyers to everyone. We have handed out so many flyers that I hope I don't run out before we have to go home! Everyone we meet is interested in the Hotel and Yosemite and takes a brochure. This is excellent!

A word about this fine restaurant. The people at the Blue Elephant could not have been more kind and accommodating and it wasn't just business, it was a way of life. We met many of the team and enjoyed their hospitality to no end. On our way out, Nooror one of the founding owners asked if the two of us would like a private class on Monday or Tuesday. We were planning to run away to Chiang Mai for my Birthday on Wednesday, so we sign up for the class for Monday.

And off we run to the dentist.

Bangkok Blue Elephant Cooking School

Monday is a glorious day to have a first train trip in Bangkok (this wasn't our first, but if you go and can time it for a Monday, do!) The Thai people have a great deal of respect for their royal family and every Monday is King's day. It would seem that all the Thai people wear a yellow polo shirt with the royal emblem on the left pocket. Imagine the vision of a train crowded with folks on their way to work in a sea of yellow shirts. This was an amazing piece of choreography that is seldom experienced in the US. Perhaps seen only near stadiums on game days. But in Bangkok, this is a whole city of millions all in yellow. We were awe-struck

I escort Victor to School quite certain that on his own he will be lost. I am the minister of money and transportation, so this is not a strain for me, but my calling. I know right where the place is having viewed it from the train. Getting there is no problem, but the registration is surprised to see two of us as we have only reserved for one. This is quickly resolved and we head out for coffee as we have a half hour wait.

We review the map and I am tasked with exploring the Chit Lom area to see if this is worthy of a visit.

We separate—for the first time this whole trip. I experience both elation at my new freedom and some trepidation. While I am the minister of transportation, Victor is in charge of my security...and here I am, heading off on my own amidst this sea of yellow!

So, with chin up, I head back to the train, purchase my ticket and board. At the transfer station I remember to get off and get on the other train line. Good thing they have signs posted in English at each stop. It didn't take too many stops for me to read one and realize that I was going the wrong way. Quickly rectified by an exit, walk down all 49 steps, cross over and back up the 49 steps. There is never an escalator when you have erred on directions!

When I do get to Chit Lom, I find myself in the a wash in a superb down-pour. I give it 5 minutes to clear. It doesn't. In spite of the daunting 49 steps, I head back to the train. My internet cafe is just a few stops away and I can spend the morning catching up on this blog.

Since Victor has another dental appointment after school, I find myself with the full day to myself and after internetting for 4 hours, I decide that it is time for lunch. Being the voyager that I am, I walk around a bit and find several Indian restaurants in the area, which Victor isn't a fan of. Narrowing the choices down was a matter of lighting and I picked the one I could see into so as not to be kidnapped and whisked off to a waiting ship to spend the rest of my life trying to get home. Well, isn't that creative thinking? It just felt safer if I could see into the restaurant. Either the seasonings were so strange to my taste buds that it was difficult to like or it just wasn't that great. Perhaps this is why Victor isn't a fan of Indian dining.

I head back to the condo for some R&R and a nice cooling shower. Today it is 100% humidity and this does nothing to halt the discomfort of the extreme heat.

Victor is back by 6 and we go out to eat at a restaurant that is both open on Mondays and open.