On Monday, we were up bright and early to go on a Thai cooking course. The head chef pulled up in front of our guesthouse at 9am in a pick-up truck converted into a sort of minivan, and we headed off to get our shopping from the local food ,market. The market really was an experience. It was pretty huge, with a selection of fresh meat and vegetables that put our local supermarkets at home to shame. Our chef, Pam, showed us some of the ingredients they use most often in her school, such as galangal (similar to ginger), huge string beans, tiny dried shrimps and, or course, lots of varieties of chillies and chilli-paste. We also got to see some of the more obscure foods on offer (that we weren't using), like whole baby squid,
... read more