I came across this portal, withlocals.com and I found very interesting website. Why? Because it allows a community of locals to offer their services to foreigners. Basically, it connects travellers with locals through food and experience.
You can either EAT with locals, TOUR with locals or do an ACTIVITY with locals.
To review it properly, I knew I had to experience this for myself and which do you think I chose?
Of course become a guest, to EAT with locals! You have to sign up for an account before you can do anything.
1) Signed up an account
2) Go through a list of experiences and choose the one you like
3) I’m attracted to this experience – Cook Like a Local!
4) I proceeded to make payment. It can be done via Credit Cards or Paypal.
5) After making your payment, you will receive messages from your host to confirm your dates. And for my case, Predaphol asked if I had any special requests or any diet restrictions. I couldn’t wait for the actual day to experience it for myself!
The Experience – Cook Like a Local!
I made my way to BTS Chong Nonsi and I couldn’t find the exact location through Google Maps and hence I called Predaphol. He met me at BTS and brought me to his “second home”.
Predaphol is a chef by profession and he likes cooking so much that he does it the whole day in his little workspace.
Look at the pictures of his food creations!
So for this experience, I will get to cook with Predaphol one dish. He recommended Tom Kha Gai (Coconut Milk Soup with Chicken) which is actually one of the top and favourite soup of the world. So here we have the ingredients ready…
Let the cooking begin! And it’s cool, you get to cook with a chef, although he does almost everything. You get to learn the ropes from him. And we had some other thai dishes from the restaurant beside his workspace.
Pla Goong (Spicy Shrimp Salad). This dish consists of 4 flavours: Sweet, Sour, Salt, Spicy. It is extremely appetising and now one of my favourite salad besides Som Tam.
Fried Catfish with Salad. This is actually catfish, smashed and then fried. I thought it was just some crispy skin but it’s not! You get to learn so much with a local chef! Too excited that I did not capture the salad. This dish usually goes together with Som Tam and the sauces just go so well with the fried catfish.
Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts. If you have not tried this dish, you should. It is one of the popular chicken dishes in Thailand and you can get it almost anywhere.
So we had a very filling dinner, talking about life, thai food and best of all, he recommended many new places to explore in Bangkok! I will definitely be checking out his recommendations soon!
And he also offered me his best seller, Creme Brûlée. He uses a secret recipe and it’s so delicious. Soft, silky and milky. Can I have another one? Haha.
Had an extremely great evening learning about Thai dishes, cooking a thai dish, talking about life and also receiving lots of recommendation for good food in Bangkok. Indeed, it was really coming as strangers but leaving as friends! Thank you, Predaphol, once again for your great and warm hospitality! See you soon!
Glad to have found withlocals.com offering such special experiences and I would probably be going for another one soon!
