Calling all chowhounds!
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2004
1
22
44
Trip End
Jun 01, 2004
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Reason: No matter how far we trek (some days twenty plus kilometres); no matter how hot it gets (some days over 40 degrees); and no matter how heavy our packs get (we have added a few items long the way)...calories expended will never exceed calories taken in!
Reason: The food is fantastic! (and ridiculously cheap...)
We are dedicating this entry to the foodie gang at Harper's who will be thrilled to know that we are eating the best pad thai in the world for 20 baht! (about 75 cents or so)
In the cities in Malaysia we had a great variety of tasty Chinese, Indian, Nonya and Malay food
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. Here in Thailand, we are eating almost exclusively Thai since it is just so amazing. Few places have menus in English though and many do not have prices either. Our efforts to ask for things are often misunderstood , so the phrasebook and the pointing method have some in very handy...The dishes are all quite fiery and the curries are beyond belief. Some of our favourites have been chicken with chilies, garlic and holy basil and of course, penang curry! The massaman, green, red and yellow curries are all great too.
There are 22 cooking schools in Chiang Mai so choosing just one was a daunting task. However, once again a bit of planning and some good fortune led us to Thai Kitchen where we spent an incredible day. Our main reason for choosing this school was that they would allow us to do different courses, meaning we got to learn 12 dishes instead of just six. While I was on a market tour learning about indigenous fruits and vegetables (and western substitutions), Paul was back at the school with his mortar and pestle smashing green curry paste for our lunch!
There were only six people in our class, and it was very hands-on, each with our own cooking area
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. We had three girls from the UK and a chef from the south of France with us and it was great fun.Our dishes included beef salad, green fish curry, chicken with basil, papaya salad, pad thai, grilled fish salad, prawn and coconut soup, ginger chicken, massaman curry and fried rice. For dessert, we did fried banana with thick coconut toffee and mango ice cream and sticky rice with ripe mango.
And the best part of all was that we cooked two dishes, and ate two; cooked two and ate two; cooked four and ate four in thai traditional style; cooked two and ate two, cooked two and ate two. This was the only way we could have eaten all of that food!!!
We've also seen and eaten some bizarre things: silk worms, crickets and grasshoppers at Chatuchak in Bangkok...and on our recent trek into the hill tribe villages, we had steamed bee larvae for dessert one night!
We are thinking of you all often and can't wait to get the chance to show off our newly acquired skills by cooking up a thai meal when we get home.
