Our second Chiang Mai adventure was at the Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School. Here, we would learn to cook a variety of Thai dishes, shop at a Thai market, and visit their on-location organic farm.
After an early morning pick-up, we met our fellow chefs: an Australian who worked in e-commerce (read: sells baby products on eBay) visiting with his mum, and a French woman on holiday with her teenage daughter. The daughter had just graduated from Flight Attendant U. (located near its sister schools Hamburger U. and Harvard).
After arriving at the local market, we learned about the various ingredients that go into Thai cooking, including pink easter eggs and pigs' heads. In all seriousness, the Thai market was pretty interesting, not at all like an American supermarket. It was more like a Thai farmer's market, there was even an video store farm. While we toured the market, the assistant purchased the goods we would need.
After a short trip through the Thai countryside, we arrived at the farm. We took a short tour around the farm seeing which site-grown ingredients would go into our dishes.
We got to make six courses, choosing from among three options for each. We made some delicious Thai dishes, including Chicken with Basil and Chicken with Cashew Nuts. We also made Pad See Eiw, though it tasted slightly better than our pre-trip dinner (we didn't have fish sauce), it was still not quite restaurant quality. For dessert, Molly made bananas in coconut milk (she describes it as the "best dessert ever"), and I made mangos with sticky rice.
We found it to be a very interesting experience, and look forward to cooking some of these dishes at home. Molly is especially excited to make a Green Chili curry with sticky rice and the bananas. Dave looks forward to an improved Pad See Eiw and Chicken with Cashews.
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