13th December 2006 - Cookery Course

Sue and I are now experts in Thai Cooking and we have certificates to prove it from the Gap's Cookery School.

There were only 3 of us. Sue myself and Rachel (who comes from Hawaii). We went round a market and then to a lovely garden with about 20+ little gas hobs set under a canopy. There we met Joe who has many years experience as a chef in Thailand.

We made: Green curry paste (from scratch), Chicken and green curry in coconut milk, Red curry, Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, Tom Yam and a Green Desert.

"Is eeeaaasy. You say to me, Joe how much chilli i put in? I don't know, you feel it in here (bangs chest above heart) mnaaaaaahhhhhhh (he finished most sentences with this long drawn out sort of laugh)". "You taste. Too Spicy? Put in a little stock. Too sour? put in a little sugar, too sweet? put in a little fish sauce! Is eeeeaaaasy, mnaaaaaahhhhhhhhh". The soup was the best one, we made the basic soup and brought it to the table where Joe was sitting. "OK you taste soup......what is like?" "Water", we say. "Mnaaaaahhhh (points at all the spices etc. on the table) OK you put in some chilli, you say Joe, how much chilli and I say, I don't know, your friends they say oh Joe is too hot I no like mnaaaahhhhhh. So what you do?" We shrug. "Is eeaaassyyyyyy, you give them soup and put the chilli and sugar and fish sauce on the table mnaaaahhhhh. Then they say- too salty? Add sugar. Too sweet?........mmmnnnnaaaaahhhhh. Is easy right?"

He does this every day of the week. Quite early on when we asked if he ate this food he said, "If you ask me to taste your green curry, I kill you,mmnaaaahhhhh!"

For every dish we did we went through the ingredients. He would ask us to turn to a page and then start talking "Green curry - we know thaaaaattt!, Galangal - what's this? (he would then show us), stock, we know thaaatt, " It took me 2 dishes to realise he was running through the ingredients in the recipe because he wasn't looking at the book (he knew it by heart.) and because he wasn't looking at the book, neither was I. I was looking at him wondering what the hell he was talking about! It was obvious (afterwards) that he was reading the list of ingredients, (after all he had just told us the page number) but, because he didn't look at the page I didn't make the connection between what he was saying and the page in front of me! Now you might think I was just being stupid (and you may be right) but there is an important point here, he assumed we would realise he was reading the ingredients because it was obvious to him.

This is a problem when teaching maths (and English!!) when you describe something or give an instruction, YOU know what you are talking about, you have a mental picture of the concept involved and the danger is that you assume the person you are talking to is coming at it from the same place you are and can therefore follow your train of thought, because it is obvious to him. But, if they are not thinking about things in the same way you are or if some basic idea at the start of an instruction is missing, the whole thing goes to pot.