Day 6 - Chiang Mai

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     I felt bad for Day Six. Having to follow such a life changing experience is like batting 5th after the clean up man hits a grand slam (Radler: that’s 7 baskets in the 3rd period). So, what does Day Six do? It hits a back-to-back home run. I booked us a day long cooking class with Thai Farm Cooking School. Unlike most cooking schools, Thai Farm only uses the organic fruits and vegetables it grows on its own farm. The school is about 45 minutes outside the city of Chiang Mai. Blue skies and mountains surround the farm, and the kitchens are set up in pavilion looking out at the site. In usual Thai style, they pick you up at your guesthouse. Our chef, Sue, crammed us into a songthaew (a pick-up truck with two long benches attached to its bed with a roof above). One couple had to lap sit in order for Beth and I to fit. First we stopped at a large food market. At the market, Sue explained the different types of rice. Thais mainly use two types: sticky and jasmine. She then showed us the different sauces we would use (oyster, fish, and their vegetarian counterparts soya and mushroom.). Afterwards, we were given 15 minutes to walk around and explore. The market had every type of food you could grow, catch, or slaughter in Thailand. We saw exotic fruits and vegetables, whole fish being cooked, and a large pig’s head. After our exploratory time, our group was split into two songthaews for the 30 minute drive to the farm.
     Upon arrival, we were given a tour of the farmland, and taught about the different vegetables, roots, and herbs we would be using in our cooking. Throughout the day, we would be making one curry paste, and five dishes. There were different options to choose from for each dish, so Beth and I made sure to cook different ones so we could share our accomplishments. My menu included: green curry, tom yum soup, tofu with basil, sir-fried big noodles, and mango with sticky rice. Beth chose: yellow curry, Thai vegetable soup, Tofu with cashew, pad Thai, and pumpkin in coconut milk.
     I won’t go into how we made each dish, but I do want to tell you about the curries. Apparently, the Thai’s say there is no real difference in how “hot” the different curries are. It all depends on how you make the paste. The three main curries (green, red, and yellow) are all made with the same peppers. The green is just picked before it turns red. The red and yellow curries use the pepper when it is red and dried. And the yellow gets its color from adding turmeric. The “hotness” comes from how many small hot chilies you use, and if you use the pepper seeds. After you get all the ingredients, you put them in the mortar and pound away.
     Sue walked us through each dish step by step, while providing vegetarian options for the 3 veggiesaurs in the class (of 12 people). After making our first three dishes we got to sit at a long wooden table outside and enjoy our own Thai cooking. Beth and I were amazed at how good our food tasted. We can only hope to reproduce the results at home. While we ate, we enjoyed the fellowship of our companion chefs, and got the hear some of their traveling tales. Beth even got to speak a little French with a Canadian from Montreal. Before heading back into the kitchen to cook our final meals, we walked around the farm, and tried to let our food digest. After cooking our last two choices, (and bagging them up, since most of us were still too full from our lunch) we jumped back into the songthaews were taken to our guesthouses.
     Right now, (on Day 11) as Beth lays in the hammock, and I sit on a chair on the porch of our bungalow, we can’t seem to remember exactly what we did after that long day of cooking. We know we were too full the rest of the night to eat another meal, not even our leftovers. We are pretty certain, we went next door to our guesthouse and had a massage. And we think we may have walked around the night bazaar a bit. But, I’m not complaining about being too relaxed to remember everything!

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