I watched the NatGeo channel about a long neck tribe in Thailand, some friends suggested an elephant’s ride. It sounds cool, I want to try it all. Today I had a great day with my first Thai cooking lesson. It was amazing, I love it so much! We met another traveler from Melbourne Australia, Scott. A very nice guy who talks with a strong Australian accent. We met him in a local bar yesterday afternoon, I thought we won’t see him again after “the wall” bar. But we bumped on the road today, It’s such a small city I guess so easy to get around and meet the same person again and again. i signed up for the elephant tour for tomorrow, I paid 1000bath which is about $22, all package including an elephant’s ride, ox’s ride, orchid garden, elephant’s attraction, bamboo rafting etc. good price hey (we’ll see tomorrow).
Anyway, since I had nothing to do, I then signed up for Thai cooking lesson for 4 hrs. Scott has done it before and he also showed us the place where he got the brochure. We ended up walking around the city and he explained us things he has done and seen such as: tracking up the mountain, visit the temples, market, etc (he was like our un-paid tour guide, showing us around and explained things). we went to local traditional market where they sell everything from clothes, food, meat, vegetable, etc. across the street there was a small park where there were so many pigeons, it was kinda cloudy so there weren’t many good pics. We had lunch in a local restaurant called “same same”, i had Tom Yam soup, sweet sour chicken and rice. It was delicious. I was too excited about my first cooking class, the agent said they will pick me up, great!! I hurried up back to Hotel, took a nap and ready for the class, they picked me at 5 pm with this black truck along with 2 other participants, they both from London (Indian British). I though the class will be far away from downtown that’s y He picked me with a car, but then the car turned around then turned left to a small alley next to my Hotel then stopped. Then the driver said “we here!!”, I was like “WHAT!!” this is it?” I was laughing.. MAN the place is right behind our hotel. If I have known I would have walked… it’s only less than 3 minutes…
The teacher was still young, she maybe younger than me. First thing we did was shopping to the local market, she gave us a small bamboo basket then we walked to market through a short cut… passed the temple and local houses. It was only 5 minutes walks, when we got there, she explained the Thai ingredient such as ginger, lemon grass, turmeric, etc, which I could find it easily in my country because Indonesian and Thai food are very similar, we like spicy and a lot of spice. She also explained us what she called it shrimp paste… I thought ummm I don’t think we do have it in Indo but then when she showed it us, ouch it was “TERASI” (shrimp paste..mah di indo banyak kaleee, gue juga makan sambal terasi) it smells stink but tastes so good. “shrimp paste is one of Thai’s important kitchen ingredients beside oyster sauce and fish oil. We weren’t really shopping because she (the teacher) did all the shopping. I took some pictures and bought another kilo of “Rambutan”I luv it so much. Half an hour in the market then back to the class. They provide everything from the pan, knife, cooking board and all things we need for cooking. She has very good English with Thai’s accent and she is very good teacher too.
Each student can choose 4 different menus. I chose Tom Yam soup (for sure), Pad Thai, chicken with nut and red curry. First menu we did was soup and pad Thai. Oh it was so easy to cook, I ENJOYED it every moment as I love cooking. Chop, cut, smash, stir, etc… within half an hour we finished all. Then we ate our own food for dinner, it was delicious tasted like the one in the restaurant. She was such a good teacher. We all finished our food. Next menu was Curry and chicken with chestnut. She taught us how to make curry paste from zero.. cut and mashed all the spice.
So easy to make but then when we want to make it at home y it’s so complicated. Ah I think it is all about the passion. I do have passion in cooking and teaching, in fact I love it both and I don’t mind smashing, cutting, chopping, etc…. we cooked then we ate it.. oh 4 dishes for dinner.. I couldn’t finish it but I know someone who could finished it..yes Shea.. he eats everything I cook. He loves me cooking, he was happy to send me to the cooking lesson then I can cook for him. We finished at around 8.30pm, at the end we all got cooking certificate (I was so happy who knows I can show it to a restaurant where I work as reference in case if I change my mind to become a cook but I still love teaching best) plus a book of recipe. Shea ate the left over curry and chicken. He loved it. Chiang Mai has treated me great so far I love it here. im excited about elephant ride tomorrow. Happy day!!!
Ps: Thai Cottage is the cooking class’ name which apparently recommended by Tripadvisor. You can look at their website at http://www.thaicottagecookery.com/
Comments
Post a Comment