Thai Farm Cooking School

Thanks to a great recommendation from my friend Rebecca we attended Thai Farm Cooking School. At around 8:30am our teacher Lee picked us up at our hotel. We then collected the 8 other students and headed for a large market outside of town.
The market featured meats, vegetables, condiments, flowers, and precooked food. Lee walked us through the differences in rice, the types of sauces we would be using and then let us wander for 10 minutes around the market. While the use of the market to pick up stuff for our class and instruct us about basic Thai ingredients it was clear that it was no place for tourists as Lauren quickly learned when one of the stalls refused her service.

After a 20 minute drive we reached the farm and area where we'd be cooking.
Our first lesson was rice, the component which took the most time,. We were shown two types: sticky rice, a northern tradition eaten with your hands and made in a steamer and jasmine rice made in a large rice cooker. 20 minutes for the Jasmine and 30 minutes for the sticky rice after it was soaked overnight.  Lee measured the water for the jasmine rice using her finger, a similar technique that my mom uses.
We then were shown around the garden grounds and got to smell, feel, and taste the ingredients which we would be using soon after.

Our second lesson was making curry paste from scratch using a motar and pestal to combine all the ingredients. I made yellow curry and Lauren made red.
We then made soup.
And then stir fry veggies with Chicken. Lauren made the basil version and I made the sweet and sour.
And then we made dessert. I made mangoes with sticky rice which was exceptional and Lauren made coconut milk with pumpkin which was sub par and led her to try to eat all of mine which led me to say hey give that back!
Finally we made fried spring rolls and wide rice noodles to take home for dinner.
Our teacher Lee was super cute and hilarious. She has traveled to 40 US states and met Kevin Spacey, Denzel, and Nic Cage. She taught us that pumpkin in Thai was fuktong. and alluded to the fact that lemon"grass" tea made you feel goood.

Ting Tong (the good kind of crazy)

Merry Christmas, it's early morning for y'all on the westcoast but I've done the gamut as far as holiday celebrating. It's been a pretty relaxing holiday and we spent our Christmas eve at a few places yesterday enjoying flowery garnished mojitos, and BBQ chicken wings.

It's a gorgeous night, I might mention I'm chilling on a hammock watching fireworks from my bungalow. It's unbelievable here, and only costing $24 a night for both Clare and I.

We ate Christmas brunch at Charlie & Lek, best thing I've ate since arriving: papaya noodle pad Thai, the flavors were incredible. Then we had some tea at cafe: All about coffee. Clare ordered Baen fruit and I went for pamdanas leaf ( we learned about this leaf in cooking school ;) afterwards we perused around town, doing a lil merry shopping for ourselves and loved ones. Then we indulged in some Thai massages, clare opted for a reflexology foot rub, she said it was better than any other massage she's had. We were a bit loopy but moved on to the south part of town to Fruit Factory! This restaurant was adorable and we both drank a smoothie, which have never disappointed me here in Thailand, and shared a surprisingly delicious spicy sausage fruit salad ( I dunno about the banana tho). It was about 6pm by then and we wandered into walking street, lots of crafts for sale and yummy street food served on sticks or banana leaf containers. We had a few fresh mojitos, the passionfruit ones are sooo good! And now I've retired for the evening. Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas. We love you :)

I heart Chiang Mai

Happy Holidays from Thailand!

Where to begin... 5 days in Chiang Mai have been a whirlwind. Starting from our taxi from the airport to last nights shenanigans, this city has welcomed us with open arms. We arrived late Monday night and stumbled into "Little Jamaica" right down the street from our guesthouse. My tummy was upset so we had an early night but definitely took note of the live music venues around us to visit later on. Next day was a walking tour of Old Town, complete with temples, monks, and street-art. My shorts were a wee bit inappropriate for entering the Wats but I still managed to snap plenty of photos--->

Later that eve Clare and I hopped over to Riverside for our romantic dinner for two. We ordered sauteed morning glory in oyster sauce, bomb! And then a whole ruby fish steamed with thai lemon and chilies. I had my first holy jesus, out-of-body spice experience. Nothing soothes that burn, just have to let it run its course. After dinner I was determined to find some flowy, breathable pants in the Night Bazaar. Both Clare and I got our haggle on with the street vendors and spent quite a bit of baht on goods. The next morning we were up early for our Thai cooking course... I'll let Clare do the honor of posting about our gluttonous day.course.

Recycle!

After a nap back at the M.D. house, which has a suggestively shaped pool, we went on a hunt for wine. As far as we found, most bars really only carry boxed wine... but when in Rome, do as the Romans do, we drank it and enjoyed it. We traveled all over Old town having one glass here and another glass there, first at 2nd Floor gallery, where we found a show by local Thai artist, Chumpol Taksapornchai. Then at Griffin in the tiny alley, Soi 7, off Moon Muang. Then the Writer's Club, this was our favorite place for vino, probably because their bar peanuts were so delicious. Then we headed towards "Little Jamaica" but first stopped at a gallery featuring the same artwork at our earlier venue. Low and behold the owner of the gallery was Chumpol himself, holding his one year old beautiful daughter. Clare and I chatted him up and I exchanged my info so he could check my artists' website.

Pool at M.D. House

2nd Floor Gallery

Water colors on Bamboo Paper by Chumpol

Next stop, Roots Rock Reggae. Super lively, full band including horn and maybe a sax? We made some friends here, first a muay thai boxing group, then Chumpol showed up. Apparently it was his night off, and the band playing at Roots were good friends of his. I met some local Thais and learned some new phrases while sharing thai whiskey and soda. After a few nights out, it seems the thing to do in Chiang Mai is to do bottle service. Also met a fellow west coast traveler, Brian from Portland.

Watermelon, dragonfruit, pineapple and goji berries

Jok, a vegetable, rice, egg breakfast soup

The next morning, more like afternoon, we went to Free Bird Cafe, recommended by Chumpol. Opened by a native New Orleans women, 100% of the Cafe's profits go to Burmese Refugees. The food was amazing and the juices as well. We spent a good three hours lounging there and then got our blood moving at a yoga class. It was a great pick me up and only about $6 U.S. to drop in. We met up with Brian and his new friend Ricard from Sweden, at North Gate Jazz Co-op that eve. After we polished off the remaining contents of the bar's box of wine we moved on to the Nimman neighborhood. It was quite a long walk and by the time we got to a bar, probably the hippest hipster bar in Chiang Mai, we had one drink and were told the bar was closing. It was 2 am but we put our trust in our Tuk Tuk driver who took us to Fabric, a super posh bar, with bottle service on every table. We made some friends with supposively Royal Guards (I'm not sure I believed that story) but they were nice and shared their johnny walker with our group. Then we traveled back to Old town and finished the night out at Lucky, probably the seediest bar but pretty harmless.

Tuk Tuk ride

The social stall

Fabric
Ricard, Brian & Clare, lights on at Fabric

I nursed my little headache this morning with a Passionfruit, pineapple and mango smoothie. This lady's operation is very popular, I've never seen anyone cut fruit faster than her. Then I walked around the city, explored the Nimman neighborhood in daylight. It's super charming, lots of open markets, I ordered a papaya salad and enjoyed it in the park. I realized the grass was buzzing with huge yellow ants that decided to crawl up my back and bite me so I moved my luncheon to a nearby fountain. Close by was the Chiang Mai University Art center with a museum and digital media department. I followed my ears to the roof of the building where a band was practicing for their show tonight. I wish I got the name, they had some talent. Then I walked down Soi 17 off Nimman, had an iced cappuccino and fresh spring rolls at Thun Churn and discovered lots of cute-sy shops and coffee houses along the same road. On my way back home, I found a big used clothing store, all 70's style and bought a "pre-loved" top. I also found Clare a x-mas present, I'm super excited to give it to her, also cause I'm hoping she'll share :)

oh so pretty

CMU Art Center, rooftop practice

Well were off to Christmas Pai tomorrow. It's supposed to be amazingly beautiful there, I'm picturing a Thai version of Tahoe but we'll see when we get there. Until then...