The Curly Girls' AsianCation: Good Mood, Good Food: Thai Cooking 101

Sawasdee - kah! Hello from Chiang Mai.

We're really enjoying our new city in Northern Thailand. It's full of veggie food (guess who today's author is), small wandering streets, and bargain-priced massages. At 200,000 people, Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand and a huge tourist destination. We met girls from Cincinnati, OH and Eagan, MN on day one in Chiang Mai. The pace is much more relaxed than Hanoi - and a daily massage helps to relax too :)

We are definitely in the jungle region of the county, and the decor of our family-run hotel and nearby restaurants reflect it. Lunch was at an authentic Burmese restaurant that was shrouded in greenery. The food was delicious - we had a green tea leaf salad, a stir fry, and basil tofu. Reading the menu was a trick ("what is khai poo??"), and just after I'd gotten somewhat decent at identifying key menu items in Vietnamese and Thai. It's all part of the adventure.

Temples, temples and more temples. I swear there's one on every other block, golden spires poking up into the sky and jeweled walls catching the sun. We toured three of the must-see temples, though I kept asking Alysa, "Are you sure we're not supposed to look at that one? How about that one?" I should trust our designated map girl (Alysa is in charge of Chiang Mai and is doing a wonderful job), but the sparkle of these temples always catches my eye and tempts me to come in.

We also had to try the coffee that northern Thailand is famous for, which comes from arabica beans. Not weasels, this time. I ordered "coffee jelly", which the barista could not explain to me in English, and I always take that as a good sign. She came back with a half cup of gelatinized coffee, poured milk and sugar on top, and said, "Shake." I shook it and sprayed milk everywhere. The straw worked better to break up the coffee jello into chunks. And of course, it was delicious. The drip coffee that Alysa had was also very tasty, and a single serving had her bouncing off the walls at 11 pm. I now monitor her intake of Thai coffee in the afternoon, mainly for my sanity. Just kidding (but seriously).

We've been a bit more bold with street food in Chiang Mai, and so far (knock on wood) we haven't regretted it. We sampled a black bean bun, durian (which is a fruit that smells awful to about a third of the population, but tastes sweet to me!), a chocolate banana waffle, roasted sweet potatoes, and pad thai (from the most popular street food vendor in town, judging by the line). Our dinner cost less than $3 for the both of us l that evening and it was delicious. The closest comparison that I can make is grabbing food from stands at the State Fair, but in SE Asia, their carts are much more makeshift and their grills or fryers sit on the pavement. It's a cheap eating thrill!

We found these treats at the "Saturday Walking Market", which are stands lining both sides of a street for miles. Vendors sold gifts, jewelry, silk, crafts, those big patterned pants, and lots of unique food. Half of the fun is people watching (and chatting too). Silver work is especially abundant in Chiang Mai, and the carvings made from it are stunning. One of the temples that we visited was covered in silver from tip to toe. We ogled, watched monks who were creating more silver artwork, and rang a huge gong. Not in any particular order.

The biggest highlight so far in Chiang Mai, and I think that I speak for both of us, was a Thai cooking class. I should really call it a cooking "experience" to adequately describe how awesome it was. We spent 8 hours at a "real" Thai produce market, touring an organic farm, and then cooking six incredible dishes that we couldn't believe were actually our own doing.

The market was so much fun because Alysa and I thought that we knew our way around with vegetables, after a year of farm-share boxes and spending a lot of time cooking together with a variety of herbs and spices. Let me tell you, all that knowledge was blown out of the water at this market. We learned about roots that we've eaten but never really understood, like turmeric, galong and ginseng. Three new kinds of basil, two new varieties of eggplant, and countless crazy tropical fruits were added to our repertoire. We were led by Liam, a firecracker of a young woman with a degree from a local culinary school but "all knowledge come from Thai grandma." She was witty with her English (let's just say there were lots of jokes about bananas, and leave it at that). She was our friend, tour guide, and cooking trainer for the day. Everything that she said was followed by a cackle ("You no eat fish? That why you so pretty! Hahahahah!").

After picking up a few necessities from the market, like freshly squeezed coconut milk and tamarind chili paste, Liam led us around the farm. All produce grown is for the cooking school; none is sold and 80% of what we cooked came straight from their land. She taught us that chilies growing up at the sun are hot, while those that point to the ground taste mild. She yanked out lemongrass stalks, kaffir lime leaves, and turmeric root (to name a few) just to show us what they looked like in nature before we cooked them in our food. Seriously, I was in a veggie state of bliss.

Next came the actual cooking. It was a choose-your-own-adventure style of cooking. We selected a curry (green/red/yellow), soup (tom kha or tom yum), basil or sweet and sour stir fry, etc. Alysa and I teamed up to make one of each option and consumed the entire menu.

Using a mortar and pestle, we ground our own curry paste - and holy cow, I could eat the green curry that I made every day.

Woks were key to all cooked dishes, especially the "Asian fast food dishes, just like McDonald" which referred to the stir fries. They only take literally 90 seconds to cook, probably because huge flames are involved. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Drool on.