Thai Cooking School

On the third day in Chiang Mai, we took an all-day cooking class. The class was actually held about 30 minutes outside of town at the school's own organic farm. On the way to the farm, we stopped by a very local market, and browsed around. Who knew there was so many different kinds of rice! Not only are there different varieties, but they age the rice for different periods of time. 

Anyone need some eggs? My first question is, how long does it take these people to sell all of those eggs? One day? One week? And I assume they get new shipments in all the time, which they probably just place right on top. Does that mean the eggs on the bottom are weeks old? Maybe.

Vegetable section!

This is a giant press that they use to make coconut milk! The young, green coconuts are the ones with the water inside that everyone likes to drink. No Mom, not the icky stuff you buy in a bottle, young coconut water is sweet and refreshing. The meat is also like jelly, nice to scoop out with a spoon. The mature brown coconuts are used to make coconut milk. Once cracked open, whatever water is left is dumped out, and the firm meat is put through this press with some regular water. Out comes wonderful coconut milk! The first time through the press makes coconut cream, the second time makes coconut milk. Delicious! A great dessert is coconut milk and bananas boiled with some cinnamon and nutmeg! Dessert soup!

This is pre-made curry paste of different varieties. We got to make our own curry paste in the cooking class, but it was very labor intensive, lots of pounding with a giant pestle and mortar. I'd imagine buying it in bulk like this would be much better. And more flavorful than what we can buy in a jar at home! 

This lady was making portions of mango and sweet sticky rice. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. This is a favorite local dessert for good reason. The sticky rice is mixed with sugar, and then you eat it with a slice of mango. Heaven on earth. Perhaps we could use honey instead, make it more paleo? Look at those beautiful mangos!

This lady was making fried chicken. Those are the biggest woks I've ever seen. Talk about deep fried..

These were our outfits for when we walked around the farm, learning about what local ingredients they use. Some stuff, particularly herbs and roots I have never heard of before. Such as galangal? Almost like ginger but with an even sharper taste?

Here, Drew is cooking a single portion of big noodle stir-fry. Cooking is really fun when all the prep work is done for you! And it doesn't take nearly as long. The staple ingredients for almost all Thai dished is fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and salt. Not soy sauce surprisingly. But I bet you could take out the sugar and the dishes wouldn't be too different. 

Pad thai anyone? Ingredients are quite simple! Throughout the day, we made a soup, a curry, a stir-fry, pad thai, and dessert! We were so stuffed we had to take the pad thai home! 

Here Drew is making his own mango with sticky rice. I think that is corn starch and sugar getting dumped onto the rice. I never said it was healthy. 

That night for dinner we went to a place known for grilling whole fish in a salt brine. Delicious!

The last day we had an early afternoon flight, so we relaxed in the morning, going back to FreeBird cafe for lunch and some reading time. These scooters were lined up outside of a school. 

A FreeBird cafe chai! 

By the time we had left Chiang Mai we had tried all three of the most popular forms of transportation. Scooters are obviously best for individual or pair travel. Tuk-tuks are for 3-4 people and behave like taxis, and songthaews are like the buses. You could fit around 8 people in one of those. However, because we were there in the low season, the songthaews would act like taxis and would be willing to pick just you up and drive you somewhere. Normally they follow more specific routes. Overall, loved Chiang Mai!