Ko Samui (“ko-so-mu-ee”) is Thailand’s second largest island, behind Phuket. In recent decades it developed the reputation of party-central, kind of like spring break or Ibiza. There are many, many beach resorts on the island. And one of them offered yet another cooking class.

Hmmm, there’s been a lot of cooking classes this segment. That changes in Bangkok, but you’ll see that in a few days, as I will be going on an overnight field trip. Stay tuned.

Back to Ko Samui, where we took a van to the other side of the island – to the Nora Resort. The resort seems lovely, with jackfruit trees on the path to the beach.

The teaching kitchen is in a covered restaurant right on the beach, but has glass walls for when the wind blows. We started with stuffed crab. We were given shredded crab and ground pork with assorted sauces and spices. Our job was to mix it all up and stuff it all back into the shell.

We followed the crab with a chicken coconut soup. Making it was very similar to the soup I made in Phuket, so here’s just the result.

Now, to the Pad Thai. Yes, pad thai again, but this time we are making the sauce. Well, mostly. We are combining several other sauces to create “pad thai” sauce.

Put oil and onions to the wok, add the prawns after the onions reduce then the rice noodles. You have to soak the noodle in water before hand, but even then you add stock to the wok to really soften the noodles.

Move the food to one side and combine the sauces: Soy, Oyster, Tamarind, Ketchup and can sugar. Once slightly caramelized you mix it all up.

Maybe next time I’ll learn how to make the starter sauces from scratch? That seems like a lot of work. Anyhow, I worked hard enough to earn my chef’s hat.

As we left the resort we passed their spirit house, which was so elaborate it was kept in the lobby.

Next: Bangkok.