Thai Cooking Class

We spent half a day taking a cooking class in Chiang Mai. There was only one other group at the cooking school for the morning session, so we had a personal instructor for the two of us! They picked us up in the morning and then immediately went to the market so our chef could explain the process of identifying and buying the ingredients we would use. We’ve used Thai curry paste before (the good stuff is Mae Ploy from amazon), but it was awesome to see huge bowls of fresh paste sitting there at the market! We also went over all sorts of other ingredients, some of which were familiar and some we’d never seen before.
Arriving at their farm on the outskirts of Chiang Mai was refreshing. This was our first time outside a city in a while and it was very welcome. We were greeted by gardens of holy and sweet basil and lemongrass.
We got to make red curry paste from scratch! This was a lot of fun (and work, actually) with a mortar and pestle, grinding the dry ingredients and then the wet.

The instructor suggested we make the spiciest curry, but we both chickened out and went for somewhat less spicy options. I chose to make coconut soup, cashew chicken stir fry, and panang curry. Priscilla went for rice soup, holy basil stir fry, and red curry. We both made mango sticky rice, pad thai, and papaya salad. The kitchen we cooked was open air with a nice breeze passing through. There was a koi pond right next to the structure and it looked out on rows of banana trees. Since there were just two of us, we did a little kitchen fire thing to cap off the class. I managed to singe my eyebrows and beard pretty good, lucky only about 1/3rd of my eyebrows were singed off so I don’t look too crazy. Priscilla made it look easy, of course. I like the ‘aahs’ (or semi-screams in my case) from the other group of 16 people who were watching. No pressure.

The second half of our feast in the beautiful outdoor pavilion where we cooked! After the cooking class, we spent more time exploring around Chiang Mai. We walked right past this stall at an outdoor market before realizing what she was selling. It’s slabs of honeycombs!

There are unique, beautiful and intricate designs above the entrance to most Wat temples. This one had colorful tiles with dark wood.
Got some dragon fruit from the market! Such a beautiful thing to cut into.

One of the oldest temples in Chiang Mai (Wat Chedi Luang), built in the 14th century. It was damaged in an earthquake in the 1500s and they couldn’t agree on the proper way to restore it, so it remains unfinished.

We were amazed at the size of this tree just growing out of the concrete. As we continued down the street, we realized the entire sidewalk was filled with them. Still pretty cool. Also, a stray dog latched onto us near this street and followed us around and waited for us outside shops. We tried to lose him for a very emotional hour before succeeding.

Highlights of Chiang Mai and Thai Cooking Classes:

• Learning to make sticky rice, pad thai (the secret is tamarind sauce), and curry paste
• Making (and eating) so many delicious Thai dishes
• Starting to get in a rhythm and feel very comfortable in Thailand

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