Phuket (“pu ket”) is the largest island in Thailand. As most of south-east Asia, the history is decorated with migrations from the north and “influence” of European powers. To heck with all that, today I’m cooking!

Five of us jumped into the (mercifully) air conditioned van and drove the one hour+ to the Old Phuket Farm, which is an educational farm, restaurant, shop and classroom. There were several groups of school children here on a field trip while we were there.

There were many small plots of different spices, vegetables and fruit. I was more focused on the flowers.

It boggles my mind that people live where such flowers are simply ordinary.

After touring the grounds we were brought to the open-air classroom to prepare a five-dish meal. Any steaming or deep fry was done by professionals in the kitchen, but we prepared all the food and stir fried when needed.

The “Banana Cake” desert involved banana (duh), palm sugar, coconut slices and milk, rice and tapioca flour. We squished it all together with our hands, scooped the contents into a banana leaf bowl and set them off to the kitchen to be steamed.

Next were the spring rolls. We finely (well, kind of) sliced veggies, stir fried them with glass noodles, placed in wheat flour roll pastry and rolled them up. Off to the kitchen for deep frying in sunflower oil.

The Pad Thai was easily my favorite. Our teacher explained that many of these dishes were built around certain sauces, which you could make at home or (of course) buy at the market.

I quickly learned you can’t stir the meal once the noodles get soft without breaking them. You need to flip all of it like an omelet.

More of the same with the sour shrimp soup and Panang curry. A great class and meal. While leaving we thanked the “spirit house” for their assistance. You see such “yard art” in front of the majority of homes and businesses – a throw back to pre-Buddhism / Islam / etc times.

After leaving the farm we did quick visits to a local temple and drove thru downtown Phuket town before returning to the ship.

Here are the recipes for you to try at home: Recipes