Breaking the Thai food barrier

For some reason, I had always been utterly intimidated by Thai food. In terms of preparation I mean. I suspect it had something to do with the proliferation of mediocre Thai restaurants in Toronto. That and the fact that Thai cookbooks seem to fall squarely into one of two categories:

Open curry paste.

Or

1/2 tsp lemongrass, galangal, oyster sauce, fish sauce, kecap manis, ginger, ginseng, small green chili, small red chili, big green chili, dried big red chili, cane sugar, etc.

So when I spotted an ad for a cooking school, on an organic farm no less, I figured I should give it a shot. And am I ever glad I did.

The Thai Farm Cooking School is terrific. After a quick tour of the food market, you're whisked off to the farm, where you get to prepare the dishes you've chosen. I made Tom Yum soup, red curry tofu, basil chicken, pad thai, and mango with sticky rice.

And it was all awesome. I had to take the pad thai in a doggy bag, but conveniently enough, I'm taking the sleeper to Bangkok tonight, so I've got dinner.