Learning to cook... like a Thai vegetarian

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I realise that I haven't been in Asia very long but this has already been one of my favourite days (and I say that typing this up a couple of weeks on).

I was collected from my guesthouse at the reasonable time of 9.30am and driven to a local market to learn about local ingredients and just have a general browse around. There were lots of foods that I've never laid eyes on before so it was quite an experience, and a colourful one at that!

After the market, it was time to go to Siam Rice Thai Cookery School and learn how to cook - Thai style!

We took our places at the table and chose from a menu, one type of each of the following: soup, appetizer, vegetable dish, salad, curry paste, curry and dessert. And they were absolutely brilliant with my vegetarianism, replacing all the meat with tofu and the fish sauces with soy and mushroom sauce!

First dish on the menu was soup and I'd chosen 'hot 'n' spicy basil' which was surprisingly easy to make and smelled amazing. 'Now put your dishes on the table and come back to make your second dish.'

'Whaaat?' I don't get to eat it straight away but the smell is making me so hungry!

Moving on to my next dish, sweet and sour vegetables, I discovered tomato sauce (ketchup) was one of the main ingredients. Who knew?

Time to throw my ingredients into a pan (I just typoed 'man', which would have been quite funny but unfortunately, no food fights today) and the teacher (possibly up there with my Spanish teachers as being the best teacher in the world) had put water into my bowl of tofu so when I came to throw it into the pan filled with oil, the whole thing went up in flames - amazing! I wondered why he had told me to stand back when I put the tofu in!

After learning the art of making many spring rolls, it was finally (although to be fair, I really hadn't waited that long, I was just being impatient) time to eat the first three courses. I'm actually a good cook! Well, when under instruction of an amazing chef, of course your food is going to taste great. Although I did make the mistake of putting one or two too many chillies in my soup and it was too spicy for me to finish, or actually even start. I learned my lesson nice and early to take it easy with the chillies.

Filling myself almost to the brim, it was time to waddle on back over to the kitchen and learn to make a red curry paste. I've previously had a pretty nasty allergic reaction to green Thai curry so it was interesting to learn that the main ingredient is shrimp paste, perhaps that's what I'm allergic to or perhaps it's just because I don't normally eat fish or meat that my body reacts badly to it and I'm not actually allergic at all. My shrimp paste was replaced with mushroom paste but I don't think anyone could tell the difference.

Making the curry paste involves a great deal of smashing things up in a mortar and according to Thai tradition, the harder you smash it, the better a wife or husband you will make. As I'm smashing away, I can hear my teacher singing a song quietly under his breath, the only words of which I hear go something along the lines of ' and Japan has an earthquake' which it did just have so I guess it's an appropriate little tune.

A member of our small group asked the teacher where he learned to cook and in the most dead-pan way ever, he replied 'on the internet'. Oh well if we could have learned all this on the internet what are we doing here? He burst into laughter and corrected himself ' I learned with my mother (and a little bit on the internet)'. Ah, that's a little more authentic!


Once my paste was finally all mashed together, I used it to make a pumpkin curry which I was not yet allowed to eat. Thankfully, because I was still stuffed from the last three dishes!

Before being able to eat, dessert and salad had to be made but salad last so that the ingredients would be super fresh when you eat it.

My dessert is now my absolute thing to eat in South East Asia and if I could just have one a day and nothing else I would be fine. Bring on the mango and sticky rice! The rice was pre-made for us because on a quick day, it takes six hours to make . We mixed the rice with coconut milk and palm sugar and sliced ripened mangoes were placed atop et voilà, it was ready to go.

But not ready to eat until my papaya salad was made and as salads go, it wasn't so bad.

I loved my curry and the school wrapped up my leftovers for me to take back to my guesthouse and eat later whilst I devoured my mango and sticky rice (and kindly shared with the Dutch girl sitting next to me).

Before leaving, we had one last challenge: carrot carving. I am not an artist by any means and mine was appalling and looked nothing like the flower it was supposed to be. Poor carrot.

I was sent packing with a full belly and a certificate stating that I had 'passed examinations in Thai cooking'. So, who wants me to cook them dinner when I get home?

My evening was spent at the (and I rarely use this word) 'fabulous' Sunday night market, set up along a long walking street lined with lit up temples and pumping Thai music loudly. It had everything! I walked up and down for hours but was good and only came away with a print of elephants in the river and a postcard!

What a great day - I love Chiang Mai!

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Photos

Photos never do food justice
and that's why I don't eat in restaurants that have photographs on their menus!

My favourite!
Mango with sticky rice