Recently someone described me as someone who loves to cook. I don't think of myself that way but I suppose it must be true since I seem to enjoy taking cooking classes when I travel. Italian food class in Florence and now Thai.
We happened upon Dash! Restaurant and Bar by chance. The gorgeous teak building and open patio space caught our attention; The customers having lunch on the patio told us that the food was great and that the restaurant was even rated 1st on TripAdvisor. Enough said! I agreed with the assessment so I later contributed my own review.
The owners Noi (mom) and Dash (son) are Thais who have lived for many years in Seattle so their customers benefit from excellent Western food and Western quality standards of meat cuts and cleanliness. But unlike so many places which serve farang food at Dash! we found the best of both worlds with no compromise to the authenticity of Thai cooking and style. The Thai food was so good that I inquired about Noi's cooking classes.
Joe and I did a semi-private class with a couple from Long Island and in the process how to make 15 different dishes over the course of 10 hours spread over two days.
Our class started with a visit to the wholesale market which was blocks and blocks of vendors of every conceivable food and food-like substance. Here's Noi with a mushroom which looks like an ear:
Back at the restaurant, Noi's amazing assistant Pet had washed and chopped all of the ingredients. I was a little disappointed as I'd hoped to do a little more of the hands-on prep-work but because we were making 15 dishes I understand why it was necessary to have some of the work done up front.
Chicken broth is added to every dish when more liquid is required. This pot was cooked on low for quite a long time.
One of my favorites from the entire class was this one. I don't remember the name but it's essentially fried shrimp in a cornstarch batter topped with tamarind sauce and crispy fried onions and cilantro. Really delicious. Ask me to make it for you sometime.
What an amazing value!! While more expensive than other classes I saw advertised with Noi we got private attention, learned how to make almost every dish we could desire, were fed for two days, and benefited from Noi's cross-cultural knowledge in ways we may not have in other situations. Our brains and our stomachs were FULL, FULL, FULL. Noi generously shared her knowledge, secret recipes and those of her mother and kept us entertained with her lively, quirky personality. If you're interested in learning how to cook Thai food, I'd recommend getting to Noi quickly since she's talking about retiring. Hopefully, she'll keep offering her wonderful classes even as Dash and the rest of the lovely staff (like assistant Pet) take more and more responsibility for the business.
Oh, yes and be sure to try Noi's excellent cheesecake (ours came with a lovely passionfruit sauce). We've got another week to try more of the menu and the coconut cake is on my list.
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