Learning to cook in Chiang Mai

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Day 340: Thursday 4th June - It all comes together

When I leave Sukhothai for the 5 hour bus journey north to Chiang Mai, the major city in Northern Thailand, I know what I want to do in and around the city during my remaining 9 days left on my visa, but I can’t get it to come together. The proverbial spanner in the works is the 2 or 3 day mahout training course I want to do. They can’t accommodate me until next week at the earliest, which would mean hanging around Chiang Mai longer than I planned. When I arrive in Chiang Mai in the mid afternoon, after checking in at a guesthouse I wander the city and try to see if I can get any closer to sorting things out. I also want to do a cookery course whilst in Chiang Mai, so I walk to the office and in the end book on for four days rather than the two I was going to do, which will fill my time in Chiang Mai until I go to the elephant centre. I hope I like it, otherwise it is going to be a long 4 days! Later, I get my elephant training course sorted as well. Due to the course timings and my visa expiry, I can only fit in a two day course, starting next Wednesday.

Chiang Mai is certainly a lot more laid back than Bangkok, the streets are quieter and the city is very cultural. Also, I notice that there is a large ex-pat community which has settled in the city. My guesthouse is a fair walk from the centre. I am to the east of the river, a 20 minute walk into the walled city, which is surrounded by a moat. Still not feeling a 100%, and feeling the effects of a number of bus journeys over the last week, I opt for a quiet evening hanging around the guesthouse. I can’t work out if I’m the only guest at Ben Guesthouse - I occasionally see other westerners around the place during my six day stay - but it is really quiet and looks like it isn’t going to be a great place to meet people. Combined with the location, I’m starting to think I didn’t make the best choice of accommodation for my stay in the city. However, it’s cheap, has hot water, free wi-fi, and I hate changing accommodation once I arrive somewhere. I move around enough as it is.

Day 341: Friday 5th June - Temple fatigue

Chiang Mai is home to more than 300 temples - almost as many as Bangkok, not bad considering it is a much smaller city. The most famous is Doi Suthep, perched on a panoramic hilltop outside Chiang Mai. Getting there doesn’t prove easy and I almost throw the towel in. I get a songthaew (a pick-up truck with two benches in the back) to the university where I understand I can get a different songthaew up to Doi Suthep. I can get transport up there from the university but the cost is prohibitive. I’m quoted anything between 200-500 Baht (ฃ4-ฃ10) one-way when it should be about 50 Baht. After wandering around the university aimlessly for probably about an hour, I finally find a songthaew driver who tells me that the shared transport leaves from the zoo not the university. I get him to take me there, where I have to wait further until there are the requisite numbers to make a trip up the mountain worthwhile.

Although one of northern Thailand’s most sacred temples, I find Doi Suthep underwhelming. Yes it’s another beautiful temple - the golden chedi is particularly impressive, as are the views to Chiang Mai below - but I think I can diagnose the problem; I have temple fatigue. I have seen so many temples over the last week: in Bangkok, Ayuthaya and Sukhothai that it is becoming a bit boring. I decide that although there seems to be many more worthwhile temples to visit in Chiang Mai itself, I will limit myself to three when I return to the city below. As it is, I visit only two. The first, Wat Phra Singh is nothing special, but the second - Wat Chedi Luang is a suitable end to Thailand’s temples. It contains the ruins of a huge chedi that collapsed during an earthquake in the sixteenth century. The ruins are partially restored and situated next to it is a modern temple, complete with golden Buddha’s and other beautiful decoration and for me is the star of the three temples I visit.

There is still no one around the guesthouse, so it is another evening eating alone. I really hope to meet some people, maybe on my cookery course which starts tomorrow?, otherwise this could be a rather boring stay in Chiang Mai. Despite hearing many good reports the city is yet to grow on me, just another city for me. Hopefully another quiet night will finally sort me out and I will be feeling back to normal tomorrow.

Day 342: Saturday 6th June - Day 1 of cookery school

Today is the first day of the four day cookery course I enrolled on the other day. There are many courses offered in Chiang Mai - Thai cooking, Thai massage, Thai Boxing classes, Buddhist meditation as well as language classes - but it is learning to cook some Thai dishes that appeals to me. I’ve enrolled in the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School, owned and run by a famous Thai TV chef since 1993. The programme is good in that you can choose to do between one and five days as each day’s menu is different, with a selection of six Thai dishes to prepare and cook. At the start of each day is an activity which takes up most of the first hour. Today’s is a visit to the local market where we have to buy the ingredients for today’s dishes and where we learn a few Thai ingredients and how to choose good ingredients. From the market it is a 20 minute drive out to the cookery school which is based at Somphon’s house in a gated community, a world away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The class follows the same pattern each day. Somphon or one of his assistants, Om and Am, demonstrate the dish in class first and then we return to our workstations where we try to replicate the dish. We are given all the ingredients in exact quantities and save chopping the fruits and vegetables, which go into the various dishes there really isn’t that much to it. Whilst we’re cooking the dish, assistance is close at hand if you forget the order to add the ingredients or what to do next. It is difficult to get it wrong and most dishes are really quick to prepare and cook. In the class we cook the first dish, then eat it, followed by the second dish which we eat immediately after we’ve eaten it, then we cook the third and fourth dishes together, which we have for lunch with rice. Usually after lunch it is a salad dish and a dessert which are light. It is a good job they are light as everyone is pretty much stuffed after eating four dishes!

Today’s menu is: fried big noodles in soy sauce (nice easy dish to start with); followed by steamed fish in banana leaves (wrapping it in the banana leaf is tricky, and the fish is too salty); then yellow curry with chicken (good but not sure the potato works that well in the dish); and finally chicken with cashew nuts (nice and light and probably my favourite dish of the day). After lunch it is spicy prawn salad north-eastern style (not bad) and to finish the day off bananas in coconut milk (which I don’t like) for dessert.

Each day the course runs for six hours, which is quite intensive. We’re dropped back in the city at 4pm, and then I have a 20 minute walk back to my guesthouse to work off the effects of 6 dishes! Walking back, I reflect on an idea a Canadian couple gave me who were at the cookery class. They used a travel planner to plan their two month trip, paying $50 Canadian an hour (ฃ20) for the service. With the knowledge I have accumulated already, I have the expertise and it sounds like a great way to make a bit of extra money. I think I’ll look into that when I get back home.

I get a surprise when I check my e-mail on my return to the guesthouse. I wrote an e-mail yesterday to Mike and Trudi, who I have travelled with a fair bit around south-east Asia already to see where they were. I expected them to be ahead of me in Laos, but they’re still in Thailand, and still in Chiang Mai. They are watching the grand-prix qualifying in a pub across town, where I meet them in the early evening. We chat about what we’ve been up to since I saw them last in Kanchanaburi a week and a half ago. They ended up staying in Kanchanaburi 5 days and listening to what they got up to, I kind of wish I hadn’t been in such a rush to get to Bangkok. Nothing in the week and a half since I left Kanchanaburi has been remotely as good. After watching the qualifying, we get a beer and when they head back to their guesthouse, I go and find a bar showing the England match against Kazakhstan which ends up being a predictable bore. On the way back to my guesthouse after the football, I see an elephant walking in the street. I can’t believe my eyes, it may be late (midnight) but I’ve only had three beers all night I think. On second viewing, it is definitely an elephant and apparently street elephants in Thailand are not uncommon, but I read later that the elephants don’t live long and are treated unfairly for the money they can get from tourists.

Day 343: Sunday 7th June - Day 2 of cookery school

This morning’s activity at the cookery school is vegetable carving. It is only a small group today, and half the group end up choosing to go to the market instead, so there are only three of us that attempt the vegetable carving. Am makes it look so easy as she shows us, and then it is our turn to replicate first a rose cut out of a tomato, then a lotus flower cut out of a tomato and then a leaf cut out of a carrot. My attempts look nothing like Am’s but with a bit of practice, and several kilos of tomatoes and carrots to practice on, I reckon I could master it!

On the menu today is: clear soup with minced pork (good appetiser); spring rolls (I roll mine too thin, but they’re easy to make); roast duck in red curry (the best meal I’ve had in Thailand, and I cooked it! .......a great mix of ingredients with pineapple and grapes going in the curry); fried chicken in ginger (another good dish). Then after lunch it is chicken in pandanus leaves (tastes great after it has been cooked, but a lot of effort for a mouthful of food)and then we are shown how to make mango and sticky rice for dessert (surprisingly good, the first Thai dessert I like).

I meet Mike and Trudi in the city in the evening to watch the Grand Prix. After the race finishes the three of us walk around the Sunday street market. The market is full of life, stretches from one side of the walled city to the other, has a great atmosphere and is a good mix of locals and tourists. Chiang Mai has a reputation as being an artistic city and there are many art and craft souvenirs to be bought, but none impress me enough to want to part with my Baht. After wandering around the mass of stalls for a couple of hours, the three of us get a beer and discuss what we’re up to next. Mike and Trudi are hiring a bike tomorrow and are going to ride the Mae Hong Loop, a 3-4 day ride around Chiang Mai. It sounds fantastic, and kind of wish I could go along as well, but I’ve committed to the cookery course and there’s no way I want to miss the elephant conservation centre. In short, I haven’t got the time before my visa runs out...you can’t do everything.

Day 344: Monday 8th June - Day 3 of cookery school

At the cookery school, today’s activity is an introduction to Thai ingredients. It holds less interest to me than the rest of the class, as I’ve seen most of them over the course of the last two days, whilst everyone else is a newcomer. Thai cooking uses almost the same standard ingredients in a lot of its dishes. On today’s menu is: Thai hot and sour soup (I wish someone has told me beforehand you’re not supposed to eat all the ingredients, before I get overpowered by Ginza!); Thai fish cakes (oddly not as good as those you get at home); green curry with chicken (always a favourite dish of mine and one of the best we cook); and then the final dish before lunch is that street food staple, Phad Thai (fried noodles, really easy to make, but far from the tastiest Thai dish). After lunch we continue with spicy minced pork salad (okay) and then finish making water chestnuts in a coconut milk and sugar syrup (another poor Thai dessert).

Given that there were many of the most popular dishes with westerners in Thai cuisine today I thought it would be better. However, I think it has been the worst of the three menu’s to date. I’m also starting to find the day’s a bit ‘samey’. Same format, same style of cooking, similar ingredients, same level of intensity.......maybe I should only have booked for 2-3 days???

Day 345: Tuesday 9th June - Day 4 of cookery school

It’s the last day of my cooking course, and possibly the best day’s menu and activities in isolation. We start the day learning how to make a curry paste from scratch, which I clearly must do a good job with as when I use it to make the first dish of the day, Panaeng curry with pork, the result is delicious. Only the roast duck in red curry was better. The rest of the menu is as follows: fried fish with chilli and basil ( a great light dish), Chiang Mai curry with chicken (another good curry, which has a ‘kick’ when you thought it was all over); sweet and sour vegetables (never been a fan of sweet and sour); spicy glass noodle salad (a nice salad); and finally we are shown how to make black sticky rice pudding which tastes better than it looks.

I’ve enjoyed the four days, it has been good to learn some new skills, but probably 2 or 3 days is an ideal time to do the course for. I look forward to recreating some of the dishes I’ve cooked on the course back home, hopefully with the same results. I have a feeling that back home it will be harder to create such tasty meals. First, it will be harder to get the ingredients. Second, if you do manage to get them, then some won’t be as fresh. Most importantly though, I won’t have the safety net of an expert stood close at hand reminding me what to do next. I do hope the cookbook that I got with the course is easy to follow. Somphon, Om and Am and the rest of the staff have been great. Om who’s a little sweetie, in particular I will miss, she’s always full of cheek and the banter we have is good fun. I think the best thing of the course is trying all the different dishes, which you wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to have such a variety of Thai food. I’ve also saved a packet on meals the last four days. I haven’t had a proper meal outside the class since I started it - I’m always full after eating six courses!!!

When we get back to the city I have a beer with Richard, one of the guys who has been on the course today. He has done two days on the course, I did four, another girl earlier in the week did three, but everyone else has just done a day, which also works fine, as the menu’s are similar and don’t build up in difficulty. We are joined later on by a Dutch girl who was also on the course, who we spotted walking past the bar. I wasn’t intending stopping as long as I did as I have to sort my bag out for tomorrow and I have an early start to get to the elephant conservation centre, but it’s good chatting with the other two so it’s almost 10pm when I get back to my guesthouse. I check out the night bazaar on the way back, but it doesn’t impress. Much the same stuff as the Sunday market but not as good, and it is very much aimed at tourists.

Chiang Mai which I wasn’t that fussed with at first has grown on me. I like it. Despite its size it is quite a relaxing city once you get off the main streets. The city also has a nice atmosphere, the tuk-tuk drivers are so much pleasant than Bangkok’s mafia, and it is quite a cosmopolitan place. There’s temples on most streets, and the Sunday market for me was a highlight. Nice city, beats Bangkok any day.

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