Sunday, August 8, 2010

We got up, grabbed some breakfast, and waited for our car to the airport. Check-in was fairly easy here and we read and nap (I’ll let you figure out who did which!) at the airport. 2 hours later we landed in Chiang Mai and caught a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel was quite nice with pictures of various Thai royalty staying there as well as old pictures of Princess Diana and Prince Charles from many years ago!

Once settled in, we investigated cooking schools. We found one that is supposed to be the #2 attraction in Chiang Mai (#1 being the elephant tour we are doing on Tuesday) and signed up for an evening course. We wandered around the hotel area for a little seeing the remnants of the old city wall and moat. We got a delicious watermelon fruit shake at the hotel while we waited for our ride to cooking class! A pick-up Tuk-Tuk showed up and we were off!

The first stop was at a market where we learned about all the different types of spices and ingredients that would go into our meal. They have similar herbs but not quite. “Same-same but different!” We had a few minutes to wander the market; I bought some dried kiwi. Meanwhile, Trey found some durian fruit that we saw on a travel show that is supposed to smell off but taste great. The lady was amused by Trey’s interest and let us  try a little bite. It was almost creamy and quite rich tasting.

Next we were off to the family’s house where our lessons would take place. There were 8 of us; two Scottish girl, and a group of 4 Irish, 3 girls, and 1 guy. We had some water and mango as we picked our menus. Trey choose Hot and Sour Soup, Spring Rolls, Fried Holy Basil with Chicken, and Yellow Curry. I picked Chicken Coconut Soup, Chicken with Cashew Nut, Panang Curry (which is yummy red curry with peanuts crushed in), and Sticky Rice with Mango (my new favorite dessert). We learned out to chopped all the ingredients, cook things in the wok/pots, and more. Trey even got to play with fire. Then we got to eat everything we made!  Nancy, our teacher, was fantastic and wonderfully enthusiastic. With her guidance, we made some good food. I even have leftovers!

We had the Tuk-Tuk drop off us at the Sunday Night Market, but a rainstorm had just finished, and it was just starting up despite the streets being flooded. We wandered for a little and then caught a little Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel.