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October 18 - Thailand: Chiang Mai

Today we took a Thai cooking class at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School (http://www.thaicookeryschool.com) and it was AMAZING!!  This school has been written up quite a bit for being one of the best 'bangs for your buck' sort of thing, and it's exactly the type of culture Jon and I were looking for when we signed up the other day.

We got there at 10:00 for tea and coffee and to wait for the rest of the class to show up.  There were 9 of us all together - all westerners but that's obviously who these classes cater to.  The name of our class is "Intro to Thai Cooking" which is the first in a series of 5 classes but we're only taking this one.  Yui and Timmy, our two instructors, are very witty and charismatic Thai women who definitely know their stuff.  Yui kicked off the class with a lecture about various spices and Thai veggies, what they're for, how to cut them, and how to store them.  It was definitely informative, and she made more than one crack about the benefits of spices on the digestive system.  Jon, of course, found this topic very amusing.

Tom Yam Goong

At 11:30, we were shown how to make our first dish: Tom Yam Goong - or Thai Hot and Sour Prawn Soup.  We had to peel the prawns, cut the various vegetables, and cook everything up, but all in all it was a cinch!  Of course, cooking is very easy to do when someone else does the shopping and cleaning, but it was still fun.  It was SO GOOD, and very spicy.  

Tord Man Plaai

After the soup, we learned to make Tord Man Plaai - Thai Style Fish Cakes.  These are fresh-water fish cakes made with scallions, cilantro, red curry paste, and some other stuff.  Our jobs were to chop everything up, mix it together, form the little cakes, and take them to the wok where one of the "assistants" helped us by frying them.  I wasn't too crazy about them, although the dip that we made with cucumbers, vinegar, and peanuts was awesome.

Gaeng Kheo Wan Gai

Then we learned how to make Gaeny Kheo Wan Gai, which is Green Curry with Chicken - a Thai specialty.  This has Thai eggplant, coconut milk, spices, and red peppers and is OH SO GOOD.  It didn't take long at all (again, someone else had already shopped and set out the ingredients for us) and we were really anxious to it because it was almost 1:00 and we were hungry.  But they told us to save it for lunch and we settled into our next quick recipe:

Pad Thai

If you haven't tried Pad Thai, then you really haven't ever had Thai food.  This is a staple Thai dish much like "fried rice" is to Chinese food.  Pad Thai is fried noodles with bean sprouts, tofu, and peanuts.  We were shocked at how easy it was to make.  We learned it in no time and went back to our stations to whip up our own dishes.  So quick and easy!  Why don't we make this more often?

Then we all got to sit down and enjoy our Pad Thai and Green Curry with Chicken.  Jon and I shared a table with a girl from Canada who is here in Thailand taking massage courses.  Pretty darn cool.

Thai Chicken Salad

When lunch was over, we went back to the work stations to learn to make Thai Chicken Salad.  Unfortunately, none of us were hungry enough to eat it so the food kind of went to waste.  Regardless, it was pretty good with scallions, cilantro, red pepper and chicken.  And it was quick and easy to make.

Tab Tim Grob

Lastly, we learned to make Tab Tim Grob, which are water chestnuts in coconut milk and syrup.  We're not big fans of water chestnuts, but there was something about this desert in the heat of the afternoon that was absolutely delicious!

We were done with the class at 4:00, and were given cookbooks which detailed everything we learned today.  This is great because we're going to forget it all in a matter of weeks.  But what a great way to spend a day!  I swear I won't have to eat ever again.

Jon Goes for (yet) another run around Old Chiang Mai (special appearance by Jon:  run #15)

I know it might seem boring to do the same run three out of four days, so I decided to mix it up a bit.  First I decided that instead of just running around the perimeter of the old city, I would instead run a figure-8 through the city thus increasing the distance of the run substantially.  Also, since there are supposed to be 121 Wats in the old city itself, I decided to determine how many I could actually see along my run.  I think what made me want to count the Wats was when I realized after passing my third 7-11 (yes, they have 7-11s in Thailand, practically everywhere) that I had only passed three Wats.  The final count evened up a bit for the Wats, which is good since the oldest Wat was built in 1296 and the oldest 7-11 was built in about 1996.  Oh yeah, the final count was (25) Wats and (6) 7-11s.  Sort of like a miserable losing score for a Redskins game!

Of course, I was wrong when I said we wouldn't have to eat again.  When dinner time rolled around we were just as hungry despite our eating fest this afternoon.  But we didn't want to spend a lot of money at a restaurant because the cooking course wasn't cheap.  So we went out to one of the night markets where there are little food stalls and we got two orders of Pad Thai for 10 Baht each - about $.50 total for the two of us.  Now that's what I call a bargain!

Great day.  Great culture.  Great way to learn how to give our friends food poisoning in exotic ways!

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