Thai food cooking class in Cologne

What to expect at the Thai food cooking class in Cologne:

Thailand has become one of the main destinations for international tourism. As a result, Thai cuisine has also found its way into Germany — particularly in the last 10 years. It stands for delicious exotic dishes as well as for a light and healthy diet. In this country, too, people know and love the Thai national dish phat thai or tom yam kung, the spicy, sour-hot soup with fish sauce, shallots, lemongrass, lime juice, galangal, tamarind and many chilies. How would it be if you cooked these dishes yourself?

Thai cuisine was originally characterized by water; the table was primarily served with rice, aquatic animals and aquatic plants. There were changes in cooking habits due both to Chinese and Indian influences and, from the 17th century, to influences from Europe. For example, chilies were introduced to Thailand by Portuguese missionaries.

The staple food in Thailand is rice (the preferred type of rice varies by region). The Thai term for “take a meal” (kin khao) literally means “eat rice,” no matter what type of food it is.

Thai cuisine includes numerous typical ingredients. In addition to rice, these include noodles, rice noodles (usually eaten in noodle soup or fried, e.g. as Phat Thai), noodles made from wheat flour (sometimes egg is added), glass noodles made from mung bean flour (often used as an insert in clear soups or prepared as a refreshing salad), Thai eggplants, cha-om (shoots of the acacia type Acacia pennata, including in soups, curries and omelets used), spices and herbs such as Thai basil, various types of fresh and dried chili peppers, dill, real star anise, fish sauce (in almost used in every Thai dish), Chinese ginger, galanga root (also known as galangal or “Thai ginger”), kaffir lime leaves, garlic, coconut milk, coriander (both the roots, leaves and seeds are used), cumin seeds, turmeric, lime, shallot, tamarind and lemongrass.

Dishes:

Basically, there are two groups of dishes according to the way in which the meal is served and consumed. In “one-plate dishes” (e.g. phat thai — fried noodles or khao phat — fried rice), a complete meal is served on a single plate and eaten by one person alone. These can be stir-fries, in which all ingredients are prepared together, as well as dishes in which the meat, egg and/or vegetable ingredients are cooked separately and only finally served on a plate together with the (usually steamed) rice. On the other hand, there are “community dishes”, such as “Thai curry.” Each participant in the meal receives bare rice (less commonly noodles) on their individual plate, the actual main courses (meat, fish, vegetables) are placed in several bowls in the middle of the table, from which everyone can help themselves.

Thai cuisine can be divided into four regional cuisines, which are more or less different from each other and each has their own typical dishes: Bangkok, northern Thailand, central Thailand and northeast Thailand. Central Thailand's regional cuisine is often regarded as “classic Thai cuisine”; it is characterized by kang dishes with coconut milk and many spices — known as “curries” in the West.

Dive into the world of Thai cuisine with us!