Chiang Mai day 2- Cooking school!

During our stay in Thailand we wanted to be sure a take a cooking so we could make some of the food we enjoyed back home. We originally signed up for a half-day lesson, but when we got to the cooking school the half group was full of duds. The instructor informed us that some people who signed up for the full day cooking class on the organic far did not arrive and for an extra 100 baht each ($10 total for the 3 of us) we could join the class. We jumped at our good fortune and joined the full day class. Here is a the website with photos, recipes, and information about the school. http://www.asiascenic.com/index.php 

Here are some pictures from the in town cooking class.

Class began with an introduction by the owner of Asia Scenic, Gayray. She explained what our day would comprise of and then brought in our instructor, Mame. For each course we went around the table and got to choose from 3 options which dishes we would like to learn to make. Then we took a walk through the local market. We learned about fresh noodles vs dry noodles and what products we could find back home as substitutes. Then we went to the rice guy and learned all about the various types of rice used in Thai cooking. We were given 20 minutes to further explore the market. Then we hopped into van and headed out to the farm.

Learning about fresh noodles 

Coconut and how to make fresh coconut creme and milk

TOFU

store made curry paste

rice, rice, rice, rice,....

fresh fish at the market

THE largest bag of pork rinds I have EVER seen

Fresh produce

 At the farm, Mame took us around and we saw all the ingredients we would be using today in our class along with some fun fruits and vegetables. First she showed us her cool mushrooms that she grew, and then we learned the difference between hot basil (which is not spicy it just grows in hot climates) and sweet basil (what we see in stores and used in italian food). We smelled fresh ginger and galangal, fresh turmeric, and picked long beans. Mame showed off the giant zucchini which were easily 4 feet long. We picked hot peppers, kefir limes, and avoided the geese that lived in the local canal. 

Welcome to the farm:

Those tall leafless trees are PLUMERIA. 

They are all over Thailand and grow to be very large.

Hot Thai Basil. I will have to check our local asian market for it

 The mushroom cave

Our group and cool hats

Ginger vs. Galangal

Mame talking away !

GIANT zucchini 

a long bean

Picking green eggplant, they are delicious in curry 

undeveloped farm

 After are walk through the garden, we got down to business and made our dishes. First up was stir fry. All over Thailand stir fry is considered street food because it has many of the same ingredients, just different meats and sauces, and can be cooked super fast. After our stir fry crash course we got to taste our dishes. Allison's Pad Thai was good, but Mom's hot thai basil was great, and my Pad See Ew with fresh noodles was outstanding. Next course was appetizer. I made spring rolls, which we discovered are filled with pad thai and some glass noodles. Also, Thai's do not make their own wrapper, they buy them in the freezer section at the market. Mom's green papaya salad was okay, we agreed it would be very tasty made with green apples. Allison's glass noodle salad was light and refreshing. Perfect on a hot afternoon. 

Then we took a 30 minute break for the school staff to grab some lunch (they weren't eating everything we cooked like we were) and we got a chance to chat with some of our classmates. There was a young couple from France and the boyfriend had never cooked before. It was obvious to the class and the girlfriend loved how everyone teased him. There was a brother and sister from DC about Allison and my age. She LOVED everything Malaysian spicy which is even hotter than thai spicy, and he couldn't handle ANY spice. There was a single Italian woman, who was very comfortable in the kitchen and exchanged some tips with me to improve my cooking (like made risotto in a wok!). We sat next to a fun couple, he was from Great Britain with a quick sense of self deprecating humor, and she was Spanish and was eager to learn thai food so she could tone down the spiciness. There was a single Australian guy, who had little knowledge of thai food, but was planning on hosting a dinner back home for his friends so he needed to learn a few basics. And finally there was a single Brazilian woman, about my age who was very comfortable in the kitchen. Overall a fun group of people. 

After our brief siesta came all the hard work. Making our curry paste from fresh ingredients. There are 4 basic curries: red, green, yellow, and massaman. Red and green curry are the same, just made with different color peppers. Red curry is a base for panang curry (just add peanuts) and a local Chiang Mai dish khaw soi. Then there is massaman which is similar to red curry but has additional spices such as star anise, coriander, cinnamon, and is made with dried chilis. Mame informed us that yellow curry comes from a powder and is sold at all markets. Very few Thai's like yellow curry because it lacks complex flavors and is rarely spicy enough. After what felt like an eternity of grinding the peppers and spices into a paste using a mortar and pestle, we could make our soup, curry, and dessert.

Making the soup was incredibly simple, the base is either coconut milk or water. and then you simply steep the herbs and ingredients in the liquid, add your protein, and wait until fragrant. Enjoy! The curry was very similar. Start with a little oil and garlic, add protein of your choice. Mix in curry paste, then coconut milk mixed with water (more coconut milk for a thicker richer curry, more water for a soup like curry). Then stir in any additional vegetables, like green eggplant or potato and reduce by 1/3. Boom delicious curry! 

Our last course was dessert. Thai people do not eat dessert following a large meal like Americans or Europeans do. Dessert is more of an afternoon snack accompanied by a short rest before the long night (Thai's get moving around 10 am and the markets are often open well past midnight). Allison made friend bananas, which we will never duplicate. The banana's were raw and left a cottony texture in your mouth, yuck. Mom made sticky rice and mango. The cooking ladies kept telling everyone that mangos are out of season and are not as sweet as they are in April. But let me tell you, each mango we ate was considerably more flavorful than anything back home. The sticky rice is a dish native to the north. Northern Thai's prefer sticky rice to jasmine rice. The process of making sticky rice is long and requires a specific rice that Mame does not think we have in the states: First soak rice over night or at least 4 hours, then rinse in the morning with fresh, cool water to remove and starch still on the grain. Then place in a STEAMER basket and steam the rice for 30 minutes. To make the dessert, you then steep the sticky rice in a coconut milk mixture until all the milk is absorbed, making it slightly sweet. The dessert was okay, but we enjoyed to fresh fruit more than tough sweet rice. My dessert was the real winner, bananas in coconut milk. It was so delicious. In the class it was served warm, but we all agreed if it was cooled in the fridge and then served it would be perfect. We learned how to make the coconut milk mixture which has a light coconut flavor with a hint of salted caramel, and then you mix in cooked bananas. In the US we probably would just use fresh since our bananas are softer. 

We loved our class and would highly recommend it to anyone traveling through Chiang Mai, http://www.asiascenic.com/index.php 

Between Allison, Mom and I, we learned 18 Thai dishes! Pictures of our menu to follow in a second post. 

Chiang Mai day 1

Our train from Bangkok arrived in Chiang Mai on Thursday morning around 8 am. Part of our package deal with the travel company included transportation to and from the train station. They provided little orange stickers so we could easily be identified in the crowd. Once our group was accounted for, the drivers split us up into hotel groupings and loaded us into the local taxi, a red truck with two parallel benches and a luggage rack on the roof. Our taxi was comprised of a group of 4 girls who were here to backpack through the back country and a young couple from Great Britain. We compared experiences in Bangkok and offered each other tips. It was nice to come across another group of English speakers with the same interests. 

We arrived at our hotel, and within 20 minutes the organizer for the tour company stopped by our hotel to confirm our tour packages. She was very sweet, and assured us that we would not be scammed like in Bangkok. We then headed to the diner at the hotel for some breakfast. It was the usual two eggs and toast, but here we could have bacon instead of a hot dog. Now that we were comforted that there were now gem shops on our tour, and we ate some food it was up to our rooms for a short rest. We didn't get much sleep on the night train. After a short rest it was back down to the diner for lunch. They had decent pad see ew, spicy green curry with little green egg plants, and boring fried rice. But we were feeling adventurous so we also ordered some shakes. BEST DECISION. Essentially it is fresh fruit and ice blended together. I ordered passion fruit, Allison had watermelon, and Mom pineapple. It was just like drinking fruit. We are now obsessed with the cool refreshing beverage. Some places even have the option to add yogurt, which is particularly delicious with the passionfruit. 

For the afternoon we scheduled a trip up the Doi Suthep which is the local mountain that the hill people, Hmong, still live on and is also where the Wat Doi Suthep is located. First we traveled all throughout Chiang Mai, and our guide gave us a brief history lesson of Tha Pae, which is now Chiang Mai. We drove past the Tha Pae wall and saw the moat that 40,000 resident had dug for the king over 700 year ago. It is really cool. The we headed way up the mountain to the Hmong village where they have an amazing garden with all types of flowers, including poppies. There is also a small shopping area that sells items made in the region, including the intricately handmade purses. Our tour guide, "Thunder" was quite a riot and had a wealth of information about the history of the area.

 This is one of the pictures from our "photo shoot" we wanted to make sure to get the poppies in the picture.

After a walk through the village, we headed back to the bus and headed down the mountain a little ways to the Wat Doi Suthep which is a beautiful Buddhist temple overlooking all of Chiang Mai. The temple has 320 steps, or for 20 Baht you can ride the cable car. We took the advice of a riotous couple from Australia who have been coming to Chiang Mai every winter for 16 years and rode the car up, and walked down the steps. Once we were at the front of the temple, Thunder told us the legend of Suthep, who was a hermit that lived in the hills. After his death, a temple was built for the hill tribes. Thunder also explained that monks robes are orange from the bark of the jack fruit tree. Initially the robes are white cotton, and a monk scrapes the bark from a jackfruit tree and boils the fabric over a three week period to get the rich orange color. Any color difference comes from the bark, it does not signify and rank difference amongst the monks. If you see a monk with dark orange, or red robes then his dye was obtained from further inside the jackfruit tree. 

After we entered the inner courtyard of the temple, Thunder further explained Buddhist practice of walking around the center courtyard clock wise three times to show upmost respect. He also gave insight into the flowers, candles, and incense as all various offerings to Buddha. Then we visited a monk who was handing out the blessed string dipped in holy water. Out of respect, we chose to received one. Buddhist monks are not allow to touch women, so the men from our group had the monk tie the string around their wrist, while the women held out their hands and the monk gently dropped it into our palms without making any contact. After taking a group photo, we headed down the 320 stairs to our meeting spot. We were given 30 minutes to shop, use the restroom, and grab a snack. The fun Australian couple purchased a bag of thai pork rinds, and they were delicious. Although I prefer the mexican pork rinds that have some chili on them. I was surprised that the thai have not done that yet. 

On the way back to our hotel, Thunder kept our long drive occupied with various stories, thai legends, and a short lesson in the thai language. We had a fun group and laughed for over an hour. Once we were back at our hotel we called Uncle Rick and Kannika and met them in the lobby. Rick and Kannika took us to a cool restaurant just outside the old Chiang Mai wall, called John's Place. It was 3 stories and over looked the city. On really busy nights, there are several traditional Thai dancers, on Thursday there was one. She was so beautiful, and her hands were so precise. Kannika ordered several dishes including Lam which is a traditional dish from her home in Isan that is chopped chicken or pork with onions and a salty lime sauce, kung phaw chicken, green curry, and a local dish of chiang mai sausage. It was all really good. We drank and ate and spent hours chatting. For desert we ordered sticky rice and mango. We really like the mango and the coconut creme, but the sticky rice is a little weird to me. After dinner we walked along the Tha Pae wall, and stumbled across the BEST rotee in all of Chaing Mai. Is was these two older women, and they carts was covered with newspaper, magazine, and online articles about their rotee. Allison and I ordered a banana and chocolate with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk. It was delicious! 

January 2- Our last day in Bangkok

For our last day in Bangkok we chose to spend it at the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was American born and almuni of Princeton University. He was a architect and With the escalation of the war in Europe in the early 1940s, Thompson volunteered for service in the United States Army, an important turning point in his life. During the Second World War, Thompson was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a move which offered him an opportunity to see more of the world.Thompson as a member of an OSS group was assigned to work with French forces in North Africa. His assignments also took him into Italy, France and Asia.To prepare for his mission, Thompson undertook rigorous training in jungle survival. He completed the course successfully.However the war ended abruptly as Thompson and the other OSS men were en route to Bangkok. A few weeks later, he assumed the duties of OSS station chief. In late 1946, he received orders to return to the States to receive his military discharge. Thompson had developed a certain fondness for the country and its people. He began to seriously contemplate settling down and going into business in Thailand. He foresaw a promising future for the country and wanted to be a part of this process. He decided that upon leaving the service, he would return and take up residence in Thailand permanently.Soon after his return to Bangkok, Thompson turned his attention to Thai silk. Thompson soon gained worldwide recognition for his success in rebuilding the industry, for generating international demand for Thai silk and for contributing to the growth of the silk industry. Time magazine stated that Thompson single handedly changed the silk industry when his silks were used in the movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I"

The house and gardens are truly a magical oasis in the bustling city of Bangkok. Thompson purchased a piece of land off the klong, or canal. Thompson who was an architect noted that many of the fine old houses in existence were still in excellent condition in spite of their age of a hundred years or more . He thus decided to purchase several old houses and reassemble them. The original Jim Thompson house and outbuildings were re-constructed from all or parts of six separate old houses that were brought from various parts of the country to the present location. He reassembled the structures into one large house with a separate house for the boat, his maid, and rice. Although Thompson was Christian and never converted to Buddhism, he deeply respected the Thai heritage and built his house in a similar fashion.  

Thai houses are constructed without using nails by creating interlocking pieces of wood. The structures are wider on bottom and narrow at the top which provides a stronger structure than 90 degree corners. The houses are also built one story off the ground to prevent a home from being flooded during the monsoon seasons. Also, note that the door ways have an 8 in lip that one steps over to enter a room. This is for 3 reasons 1. flooding it prevents any chance of water from moving from room to room should the roof leak or a water surge from the storm 2 it prevents small babies from crawling out houses and falling off of the second story or into any water below and 3 spirits are unable to move between rooms or enter the home since they travel along the floors.  Part of the tour also included information on how silk is made. The first step finding silk worms. And LOTS of them.  Here is a museum employee feeding the worms  At the end of their pupa lifecycle the worms spin themselves into a cocoon of raw silk.  Next the cocoons are divided by color. Each cocoon will have a single thread about a mile long. This needs to be untangled before it can be spun into thread. In the traditional style, a cottage weaver with boil the cocoons to soften the threads. They will then thread 10 strands through the eye of the reel. This reeled thread is now useable for fabric.  You can see the 10 tiny threads converging into one. It looks like a small cocoon had gotten caught in the threads.  Here is a Thai girl in a traditional Thai outfit with a display of the various types of silk from raw to reeled to processed.  Below is Mom standing with a loom.  After Jim Thompson's house we wandered through the city and stumbled upon the largest bookstore in Thailand inside the Siam Paragon mall. We spent an hour searching the racks of books and came up with some really interesting finds. Then returned to our hotel by 4 pm to head to the Hua Lamphong train station to catch our overnight train to Chiang Mai.  We were in 2nd class air conditioning; which means there are 40 upper and lower bunks per car. Initially there are two benches, and when one is ready to go to bed to car operator will make your bed with fresh linens and fold down the top bunk. Before bed, we had a really fun time in the restaurant car. The ladies on the train will pressure you to buy your dinner from them, but you can easily go to the restaurant car which feels like a dive bar with dive thai food. Music blaring, everyone drinking and sharing stories. We loved it. Recommendations for anyone planning to take a night train: small luggage is a must, there is limited storage. ear plugs to drown out the train noises and noises of other guests. Eye covers to block out the light as the florescence lights on the train never shut off. It was quite the experience and are glad to have done it.  We arrived in Chiang Mai on Thursday January 4. There is plenty more to come as Chiang Mai is a wonderful place.

New Years Day

On New Years we bid adieu to Melinda and she headed back to Roi Et. We could not have survived Bangkok without her and will be forever be grateful for our personal English "teacha" guide. After a few days of none stop running around, we chose to relax a bit on New Years. We treated ourselves to a semi American breakfast at McDonald's where the only thing that tasted like home was the hash browns.
Today was our free day to try and find silk fabric for mom to take home. In the silk capital of the world you would think it is easy to buy yards of silk, but it isn't! Our journey started at the Pratunam market, which is the mostly thai bargaining market. The shops were mostly closed for the holiday. Then, we hopped into a taxi and headed to Little India. There were all sorts of wonderful fabrics, but no silk. We found great costume jewelry and then walked our way to Chinatown. There was SO MUCH SHOPPING.

Chinese silk dresses in Chinatown

For lunch we had thought we would go to the infamous Oriental Hotel. But we could not find a taxi driver who knew where it is was or was willing to take us. So we headed to MBK the sister shopping center to Siam Paragon. Melinda had mentioned the awesome food court, and she did not disappoint. Upon entering the food court you are handed a plastic credit card where all of your purchases from various vendors are stored until the end when you pay. There was ALL kinds of food from Indian, to Itanlian, Thai, Pizza, and the saddest looking Mexican food. The drink stand made smoothies, soft drinks and cocktails. We each picked a food from a different region and stuck to soda water. 

I was officially shopped out by the end and needed a nap. Back to the hotel we went. After a luxurious afternoon slumber in the cool hotel room, we walked up to street to the posh hotel with farang Thai food. Farang (spoked like fa-lang) is thai for foreign. After dinner I took Mom and Allison next door for Thai Oil Massages. We were the only people there and had the back room to ourselves. It was not the most serene environment (no soft music in the background and the only thing separating us were curtains so anyone could hear when my back was cracked). But it was certainly relaxing and much needed.

We began to pack for our next leg of the trip and went to bead early, anticipating the next days adventures and travels. 

New Years Eve

Hello friends and family! Sorry I am behind a little bit, internet has been unreliable. But we are settled in Chiang Mai so I will catch everyone up on what we have done, with each day as its own post.

New Years Eve- We had set aside Monday to head to the other side of town and visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. We quickly discovered that most of Bangkok does not wake up and begin their days until after noon. So we adjusted our schedule to wake up earlier than the Thais and late night party goers. There was still considerable traffic and it took quick some time to get across Bangkok. Our Taxi driver explained that there are 3 major holidays in Thailand and New Years is one of them. Many Buddhists were headed to the temples in anticipation of the New Year. Once we arrived in the vicinity of the Grand Palace we hopped out of the taxi, wound our way through the admission lines, and almost made it through security before we were turned away. Well, really Allison was turned away. There is a strict dress code at the Grand Palace; all shoulders and knees must be covered. Apparently leggings are not pants in Thailand either. The Palace guard said we could rent a sarong at the front gates, but the lines were MASSIVE. Mom and Allison headed back outside the Palace gates, walked across the street, and proceed to purchase a sarong for 150 Baht ($5 usd).

Melinda and I goofing off in the out courtyard

After our outfits were approved we headed inside the courtyard. It was AMAZING. The Grand Palace was easily my favorite part of the trip thus far. After entering the gate, we quickly turned right because I spotted a filter water station where I could top off my water bottle with cool, clean drinking water. While I was finagling with the machine, mom noticed a little sign that read "Free English Tours." The department of tourism provided free English tours hosted by the funniest Thai guard ever, Jeffrey.

We learned SO MUCH about Thai Buddhism, the Grand Palace, and Thai history in general. First is that much of Thai Buddhism in drawn from India, so there are many deities and statues that look Indian. The second, is that originally the capital of Siam (Thailand's name before 1949) was further north. King Rama I relocated the Palace to Bangkok. It took 3 years to build in its entirety. Jeffrey also told us that the current capital, Bangkok was almost exclusively Chinese. The Siamese government  relocated all of the Chinese to China Town, which is still a vibrant portion of the city. When the Chinese were uprooted, many of their possessions were left behind, including large amounts of tea cups. All of the pagodas in the inner courtyard of the Palace are made from bits of the the left behind tea cups. Also, Jeffrey mentioned that many of the statues in the gardens looked like chinese art because it was. The Thai people often recycled all aspects of ones life. We also lucked out, according to Jeffrey because the Emerald Buddha was open for tourists. The Emerald Buddha is in Wat Phra Kaew which is considered the most holy temple in all of Thailand. The Emerald Buddha is emerald in color but is actually made from a solid piece of jade stone. 

Here is Mom and Allison touching a solid gold pagoda which houses ancient relics 

The wat which holds the Emerald Buddha

 Tea cup pagodas

Our next stop on our self guided tour, was Wat Pho or the Golden Reclining Buddha. Again, the Buddha was busy because of the new year, but it was well worth it. The Reclining Buddha is 95 feet long cast in iron and then coated in gold and inlaid with gems. The Wat Pho is also the birthplace of Thai massage and has the royal thai massage school on its grounds. 

Buddha head

small shrine with little reclining Buddha

Buddha feet. Made of mother of pearl inlay

Gong for good luck 

Check out the little girl in bottom right hand corner 

After Wat Pho we hopped into a tuk-tuk and headed to Khao San Road, or touristy back packers paradise. We stopped for lunch at a little hole in the wall and enjoyed some pad see ew, panang curry, thai basil and beef, and beers all around. Then we walked up and back checking out all the shops. We purchased all kinds of tank tops, mini purses, and most importantly rotee. Melinda's favorite dessert/street food in Thailand. It is a crepe that had banana in the middle and is topped with chocolate, nutella, peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk, or any combination there of. It was AMAZING! Around 4 pm we were exhausted from our hot day of walking around the temples and khao san road, so we hopped into a taxi and headed back to the hotel for a nap. 

Rotee- YUM

As I previously stated, New Years is a BIG holiday in Thailand, and Bangkok had plenty to offer from river cruises to rooftop parties with DJs and open bar to Central World which is Southeast Asia's Time Square. We opted for the free fireworks in downtown Bangkok. Luckily for us, our hotel was in walking distance of the sky train, which has a stop right by the Central World building and adjacent is 2 of the biggest shopping malls with tons of food options. We chose to eat at MK in Siam Paragon the 7 story shopping mall complete with aquarium, movie theatre, and luxury auto dealership. According to Melinda, MK is one of the only chain restaurants in Thailand. It is basically make your own soup. In the middle of the table is a big pot of water, and you order what types of meats and vegetables you would like in your soup. It was great! 

After dinner we hung around the mall until 11 pm when we decided to find a place to stand on the street. We walked 20 feet outside the mall and found a great open space with less than 100 people standing by. By midnight there were a few hundred, but nothing compared to the almost 1 million expected on the other side of the building. We bought hats from street vendors and made friends with people in the crowd. It was amazing to countdown in with so many different languages around you. The fireworks did not disappoint either. After the show we hopped into a tuk tuk and it took over 45 minutes to travel back to our hotel. We ended up going out for drinks and returning to our hotel close to 2 am. It was a great night.