I Cook Thai in Chaing Mai

Our second day in Chiang Mai we spent in a full-day cooking course at Baan Thai Cooking School where we learned to prepare customary Thai dishes. After being picked up at our hostel, our first stop was to a local farmers market where we learned about the different Thai produce and starches. Our class of eight stood out among the locals, but we really enjoyed learning more about the funny things we'd seen since Bangkok. The Thai enjoy very literal names for their ingredients and some of our favorites are Mouse Shit Chilies (because they look like mouse shit apparently) and ear mushrooms, which definitely look and feel like someone's ear! Steve never takes any normal market pictures, so here's another gross one.



We picked up the ingredients we'd need for our six courses and headed outside of Chiang Mai to the Baan family home. It was a beautiful setting with an organic garden and fish pond surrounding our outside seating and cooking area. All that was missing was a hammock for our soon to be realized food-coma. They even welcomed us with a plate of some of the fruits we had just learned about. Jack fruit (the yellow one) tastes like laffy taffy.



Throughout the day we made a stirfry, appetizer, soup, curry paste, curry dish, and dessert--and ate all of it! The dishes were spaced throughout the day so that we could make room to stuff ourselves course after course. We learned certain techniques like rolling out a Thai lime makes them sweeter and less bitter, how to make curry paste from hand (it takes a lot of physical effort), and all the herbs that are fantastic for flavor but will make you sick if you eat them.



The dishes turned out great, we met some nice people from Scotland, Quebec and California, and we took home a complete recipe book. We're excited to cook a Thai feast for you all upon our return, complete with our new favorite beer: Singha!

After cooking Steve did some work online planning the next leg of the trip and Lindsey took in another $5 massage. Life is tough! Late at night, our hunger returned and we returned to Lemontree for a small $4 meal.

Next stop Pai, Thailand for trekking, elephants, and the remote countryside.

As usual, click on any of the above pictures to navigate to our complete online album.