Asia may have invaded Ukraine with its electronics and clothes. But its world-famous cuisine has yet to push salo and potatoes off our dining tables.
While Asian restaurants are still rare and on the expensive side of the market, cooking at home is possible. You may be surprised, but the capital has everything from woks to bamboo shoots. You just need to know where to look and how to cook.
Step by step: students of the culinary course learned to masterfully prepare four different Thai dishes. (Yaroslav Debelyi)
Paul Miazga from Canada started Ukey Thai Cooking Course in his own abode for those missing comfort of Asian take-out or just willing to test their stomachs before traveling to Indonesia. He devotes his first lessons to Thailand – where he mastered the craft himself – before exploring other exotic destinations.
A few years back, Miazga picked up his towel from the Koh Phangang sandy beach and headed for the kitchen — partly out of hunger, but mainly because he wanted to learn how to conjure a paradise meal from the forest of spices and greens.
Back in Kyiv, sifting through traditional dill and cabbage, he dug out kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and diligently recorded coordinates of their whereabouts. He also tested his signature Thai style dishes on his wife and friends before spreading the word in search of students.
Courses are currently held on the weekends in a small group of four. Miazga turns his one bedroom apartment into a cooking zone with two working tables and his elegant spider leg table in between. An unusual, somewhat bohemian room with green plants, jazz on the stereo and lazy couches makes it all the more different, friendly and exciting.
Professionally as he would, Miazga asked to bring aprons. But we, being students, carelessly forgot them. It turned out we really didn’t need them at the end.
The chef started with the coconut milk soup with chicken or Tom Kha Kai. On the chopping board, there were a dozen veggies and greens staring at us. Step by step, Miazga explained how to peel or cut ginger, lemongrass, coriander leaves, and other ingredients – some very strange to Ukrainian climates. Then, in pairs, we headed for the kitchen to mix tender chicken file with our finely chopped green oasis in the coconut milk. It took only a few minutes before we trotted back to the living room with bowls of delicious Thai soup. It was as authentic as you can get.
To sample another starter, Miazga suggested we cook the Ukey Thai salad. Bean sprouts, yellow and red sweet peppers, chilies, onions, sugar snap peas and Napa cabbage were bathed in the dressing we blended ourselves. It was a feast of different condiments: peanut, olive, sesame oil, soy sauce, lime juice, fresh ginger, basil, and garlic. The salad turned out zesty, fragrant and incredibly light.
Green curry with chicken and eggplants or Gang Kaiw Waan Kai took a little bit longer to cook than appetizers because of jasmine rice but still under 15 minutes. One of the students, a real estate businessman from Manchester where curries are as popular as potatoes in Ukraine, approved the dish.
I chose to add more than one chili and needed water to stop the heat. Miazga advised to have something dairy instead – turns out milk or sour cream quenches fire more effectively. The curry was no different to what I had in Asia before.
Portions were handsome and what we could not finish, we packed away. The last entry, stir fried chicken with cashew, went straight into Tupperware as it was removed from the heat. My family – usually skeptical of new cuisine – cleared the box without even reheating the meal.
Lasting up to three hours, the course made for a splendid Saturday afternoon. Don’t forget to come hungry and bring boxes for leftovers. Miazga provides the cooking booklets and a shopping guide. He also tips on effective ways of treating utensils and beautifying your food. His greasy towel wrapped around the waist testifies to the long hours of practicing you may want to check out.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliya Popova can be reached at [email protected].
Price: Hr 390
To attend, email Paul Miazga: [email protected].
