It was a gorgeous Saturday morning and B and I were happy to walk over to the South End from our apartment. We arrived shortly before 10 A.M. and were enthusiastically greeted by the ever so friendly Cheri Clarkin along with our instructor for the morning, Chef Matt Barros. The entire staff had on name tags and we soon found our own, grabbed a cup of tea and took our place at the chef's counter. Soon thereafter the restaurant's proprietors, Christopher Myers and Joanne Chang, arrived...along with a platter of pastries from one of their Flour bakeries, which we were all happy to munch on. With sweet pastry treats in our tummies and a warm introduction from Christopher Myers, we were ready to begin our cooking adventures.
The next hour and fifteen minutes flew by. The ever so charming Chef Matt (sorry ladies, he's taken) put us all at ease - interacting with us, asking questions and demonstrating techniques that he has done a million times over. After all, he has been with the restaurant since its opening as a sous chef until promoted as Myers + Chang's Executive Chef last year. Although he told us that this was only his third time teaching a cooking class, he was very comfortable with his students and kept us all interested. While we were mostly learning about food, we also learned a little about our instructor from his Massachusetts roots, to his time and experience down in Florida, and his recent inspiration trip to New York.
Our agenda for the class was to make three of Myers + Chang's popular dishes. The first dish was the house scallion pancakes, which are a bit different than traditional Chinese scallion pancakes. I don't want to give too much away but the difference is all in the dough. Chef Matt showed us what to do and also showed us what not to do by showing the common mistakes in making these pancakes. I think a lot of cooking instructors fail to point out the common mistakes in a dish in their classes but for me, this is really helpful.
And of course after making the pancakes, we also got to taste them - hot out of the pan. They were light fluffy and definitely not greasy. I've had the scallion pancakes at Myers + Chang before and this only made me enjoy them all the more.
Next we were onto the green papaya slaw. I actually haven't tried this dish at the restaurant before but after this class, there's no way I'll miss ordering this delightful North Vietnamese salad again! The ingredients were simple yet the taste was anything but.
The papaya had a nice cold crunch to it, which was refreshing until the heat hit you from Thai bird chilis. Yet you didn't want to stop eating this dish - bite after bite. Chef Matt gave us some great hints on what to substitute if you can't find green papayas along with where you cant try to find it in the city. I know with absolute certainity that I will be making this dish this summer with a nice grilled skirt steak.
Finally we were onto the main event - Mama Chang's famous pork and chive dumplings. As the name indicates, this is from Joanne Chang's family recipe and Chef Matt amused us by telling us his first time making these dumplings with Joanne's mother and aunt.
This was a lot of fun because we got to be more hands on and actually fill and make our own dumplings.
Here is a photo of B's three dumplings. He was ridiculously proud of them!
Chef Matt brought up a few students to help him pan fry and steam the dumplings on the stove top, which definitely made the class more interesting.
Although I've made Korean-style dumplings (mandu) many times before, this was a bit different and something that I'd like to try to make at home. I'm sure I could convince my friends to come over for a dumpling-making party!
After the class, the entire group was seated at their community high tabletop and shared in some incredible tasty dishes. My favorite was of course the wok-roasted lemongrass mussels which had a spicy lemongrass broth that we sopped up with both bread and rice. I also couldn't help drooling over the tea smoker pork spare ribs which fell so tenderily off the bone. Other highlights included the tamarind glazed prawns, which were a bit difficult to eat but worth the struggle. And B was in love (and I do mean love) with the deep-fried (you heard me right) dumplings. There were probably four or five other dishes during our dim sum meal and by the end, we were all incredibly stuffed.
Despite the fact that the restaurant was now open and busy for dim sum service, Chef Matt generously offered to take us over to Ming's Supermarket, where the restaurant picks up a lot of their ingredients for their dishes. We listened eagerly and took just as many notes in the store as we did in the restaurant as this was a rare treat. At his recommendation, B and I picked up a few goodies, including some fish sauce, a Chinese rolling stick and a vegetable peeler. Sadly our schedule forced us to leave the market tour a bit earlier as we were meeting B's parents to head up to Derry for the day, but we thanked Chef Matt for his time, attention and expertise.
I've taken a few cooking classes and cooking demonstrations but this was by far the best. The staff is all very involved in making sure that you really are getting something out of the class and that you will try to make these dishes on your own. Plus, the class costs only $50/person and this is a steal considering the fact that you get a complimentary dim sum with the class. I highly, highly highly recommend this class. To my understanding, they will be offering this introductory class for the next several months before moving onto other dishes on their menu. B and I have already promised ourselves that we'll sign up for the next class they offer on different dishes since we both has such a great time.
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