Day 6 - Cooking School in Chiang Mai!

Our final full day in Chiang Mai, we got up to head to our full day cooking class at Asia Scenic Cooking School. We got a ride from the school via a red truck - a well known taxi-like service that cheaply offers rides around Old City Chiang Mai.

When we arrived to the school (which only ended up being about five minutes from the hostel), we were told to go to one of four large tables around the room to sit down. Soon, our table was filled (there were 15 students at our table) and our teacher for the day, Da, came over to greet us. Da was a younger Thai woman, and had a sassy demeanor - I enjoyed having her as a teacher. She taught alongside a young Thai man who was practicing his English. After introductions, Da walked us through the options for our six course meal and allowed us to choose the dishes we wanted to try. We got to make choices within the categories - for example for stir fried dishes we could make pad Thai, pad see ew, cashews with chicken or hot basil stir fried. I ended up choosing pad see ew, papaya salad, Tom yum (soup), green curry paste and green curry, and mango sticky rice. Everyone also got to make spring rolls as an appetizer. 

Once we made our choices, we all walked over to a local market to see what food we would be buying. Da and her apprentice talked us through the different kinds of rices you could buy, and which you would buy for curry versus which you would buy for mango sticky rice. Sticky rice appears whiter because it has more starch on the grains. They then showed us the different kinds of noodles you could buy, for the pad Thai and pad see ew dishes, as well as for Khao soi. They also showed us the various types of tofu you could buy for the dishes (we would be using some for the pad Thai). Probably the most interesting thing they showed us was a kind of tea that would be used for the mango sticky rice. They brew the tea and then cook the rice in it to give it a very subtle flavor, and more importantly, a blue color. The flavor isn’t really impacted much, but the blue color is fun. 

After perusing a bit more, we headed back to the school and walked out back to their garden. Once there, they showed us the various herbs and plants we would be using in our dishes. They had three different kinds of basil that would be used - Thai basil, hot basil and one other kind (blanking on it...). They also showed us the turmeric root that would be used for the curry paste, and also the Thai ginger. Thai ginger is different than normal ginger because it is more sweet than it is spicy. They also showed us an interesting root called a finger root (legit looked like an amputated digit) that would also go into the curry paste. Other things grown in the garden for the curry paste included green chilis, coriander leaf, kafir lime, and lemongrass. The kafir lime smelled so delicious - it seems like a core component of Thai dishes. Apparently it is so strong though so you only need a little zest to get a lot of flavor. Once we had gathered all of our ingredients, we ventured back into the school to start cooking. 

We started off by sitting down and having something like an ammuse bouché. Da handed us plates with lettuce leaves, pieces of ginger, garlic, lime, shallot, green chili, peanuts and toasted coconut. We were told to each take a lettuce leave and place one piece of the first five items into the leaf, followed by however much we wanted of the peanuts and coconut. Lastly, we poured in a spoonful of sweet chili sauce, packaged up our little bite with the lettuce, and ate it whole. It was delicious! A great way to start the meal.

After our “appetizer” we went to a different table that we would use for prepping the ingredients to start chopping. First on the menu was was the stir fry. First we chopped our veggies, then cooked everything up in a wok at a different station that had a gas burner. Once the stir fries were finished, we sat down to eat. Benji made pad Thai which I also tried, but my pad see ew was better - so good! 

After the stir fries, we moved through the rest of the menu. Overall, I would say the pad see ew was my favorite dish, followed closely by the green curry. The Tom yum soup was also delicious, but oh so spicy! 

We ended up being at the cooking school until a little after 3 pm. It was a long day of cooking, but it was fun and delicious. We were both super full when we left. Towards the end of the class, we became friendly with the other people that stayed for the full day - only five of us remained from the original 15. Doing the full day meant you got to make a salad and a dessert at the end - the half day course left those two dishes out. The other three people there with us were an Irish couple - Fran and Liam - and an Indian guy from Atlanta, Georgia - Sree. Sree suggested that we meet up later to go to the Sunday Market, and so we decided we were all game and would meet at U Go for beers at 5 PM. 

After leaving the school, Benji and I grabbed coffees and then walked back to the market so that we could buy him a backpack for our overnight trip to Pai. He picked a cool one with elephants on it for 400 baht. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel to chill out for some time. Around five, we moseyed over to U Go to meet up with the others for beers. Sree was already there. We had a couple beers each over the course of an hour, but Fran and Liam never showed up. Eventually, we made our way over to the Sunday Market to see what it was all about. It was crazy! They shut down one of the main streets in Old City so that it is only open to foot traffic. There are vendors that set up all along the street and sell everything. All sorts of food, art, handmade trinkets, clothes, massages - you name it. We drifted into a food area soon after we started walking, and Benji quickly bought himself a little crab dish. After that, we continued meandering down the road. 

Once we reached the end, we decided we had had enough of the chaos, so we tried moving a street up to make our way back. Soon thereafter, though, we somehow made our way back into the market. It ended up being pretty cool, though, because there was some sort of performance happening that we had missed the first time through. It looked like a reenactment of sorts, with soldiers and kings perhaps? Hard to say since it was all in Thai. Regardless, it was fun to watch for a bit.

After that, we finally left the market masses and walked on a quieter street to find some food. We eventually found a spot that Sree was known for their Khao soi. Since Benji was saying he wanted it one more time, we thought it was a good option. In the end, however, Benji ordered a cheeseburger - a seemingly very odd choice which soon became an apparently bad choice when it took forever for the kitchen to cook. We thought maybe they had to go out and buy the meet elsewhere, probably because no one actually ever orders the burger. Then Benji tasted it and it was even worse than we expected - completely dried out and with weird, unrecognizable cheese. No bueno.

Finally, we walked to the street where our hostel was on, bid Sree goodbye, and made our way to our beds.