Two Beers and a Pretzel

I’ve been in Chiang Mai for 2 days now, and I really like this town.  The “Same Same Guesthouse” is really laid back, clean, cheap, and the staff is super friendly (like insisting you try the food they just cooked for free).  No AC, but large rooms with ceiling fans for $7/night – and free wifi.

The first night I walked around the old town, across the stone wall, and to the open street market.  Along the way I stopped for some street food and had spicy fish soup – sharing a table with a local.  The guy must have gotten a kick out of me turning red and crying as I ate the delicious, but extra spicy concoction, so unbeknownst to me, he paid for my meal.  As you can imagine, people in Chiang Mai are really friendly and laid back.

Later, at the night bazaar, among all the fake sunglasses, fake North Face backpacks, fake jemstones, real artwork, funny t-shirts, and shoe kiosks along the street, I found a place making large, fresh fruit juice smoothies for over $1…

I went with a yummy Pineapple / Strawberry.

Yesterday was a good chance for me to catchup on all kinds of things – especially with a fast and free internet connection.

Today I just completed my 1 day Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai.  It was actually only about 5 hours since we only had 4 students and the peak season class size is 18.

We started with a tour of a local food market where chef/owner Permpoon Nabnian taught us about the different fruits, veggies, eggs, and rice, how to chek if their ripe or good, and compared alternate ingredients.

Making coconut cream

Kafir Lime:

Plain and sticky rice:

After driving to his house in the countryside about 13km outside of Chiang Mai, the chef started by showing us how to prepare Spicy Papaya Salad, Spring Rolls with Plum Sauce, and Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango.

One important lesson he gave us was that when tasting someone else’s cooking, you taste, close your eyes, savor for a few seconds, swallow, give a slight smile, and say “unbelievable”.  Never say “mmmm”, “good”, “yummy”, “yuck”, or “eeeeww”…  Just say “un-be-liev-able” in a slow and meaningless way…

Then we each got to chose 4 out of 12 possible which the chef giudes us as we prepare them ourselves.  I elected to learn how to make spicy Tom Yam soup with Prawns (delicious):

Chicken Pad Thai, Panang Tofu, and Sweet and Sour Chicken.

I still can’t decide if it was more fun to eat the food, or to make it.  I think I’m going to take a nap after eating all of that at once…

The Sweet and Sour Chicken was really great, and a blast (literally) to make.  The Pad Thai Chicken and Panang Tofu were both wonderful, but after having similar meals for most of the last few days, some of the food with different flavors and textures topped my list.  My favorites were the Spicy Tom Yam Soup with Prawns, Papaya Salad with Sticky Rice, and Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango.

The best part is that we get to keep a copy of the cook book and get a certificate saying that we did not singe our eyebrows too terribly.

Tomorrow I start a 2 day motorbike tour of the countryside.  I should get to do the popular things like riding elephants, bamboo river rafting, seeing the Long Neck ladies in the Karen tribe, campfires, and waterfalls – also riding about 200 kilometers on a 250cc dual-sport bike.