On Saturday May 3rd, my birthday, I took a Southeast Asian cooking class at the San Leandro Adult School, taught by the same instructor (Jenny Sin), that had taught the Malaysian cooking class I took last month. It was quite good, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as the last class.
Part of it was that in the middle of the class we had the fire alarm go off. It was probably the strong smell of the frying sardines. We had to leave the building and wait in the parking lot for quite a bit until we were given the clear to return to class. We couldn’t continue inside, however, so we moved the whole class outside. It was a nice day, so I think that turned out quite well.
Another part was that neither dish we made (and we only made two 🙁 ) was my cup of tea. One was a shrimp sambal – and I don’t like shrimp. The sauce was very good, but it wouldn’t be a dish I’d made by myself. The other dish was nasi lemak, or “rice in cream”, a dish of rice cooked in coconut milk with other flavors, and served with a variety of “toppings”. In the class, we made ikan bilis samble, dried anchovies cooked in a sauce. The result was pretty tasty, but they were anchovies all the same. The instructor also cooked water spinach – which I didn’t sample -, fried some peanuts, and served it with other veggies that I can’t remember, but I photographed the whole thing so it should be apparent when I upload the pictures 🙂
I’d like to be able to take more classes like this – they are a lot of fun. Alas, the principal of the adult school is considering not holding any more due to poor attendance. If you like/want to take this type of *very affordable* classes, please e-mail her at swong@sanleandro.k12.ca.us (her name is Suzanne Wong).
If anyone wants the recipes we’ve cooked, let me know and I’ll type them in. I’m feeling too lazy to do it otherwise 🙂
