One week down, 9 more to go! It feels like a month ago that we left Orlando, but it’s been just a week and a day – my, how time flies when you’re having a blast!

[Blog warning: this post will take the form of TLDR, so if you don’t have the time right now, come back later when you do. It covers a LOT over a 2 day period.]

The night’s prior overnight train ride from Bangkok wasn’t…the most comfortable. We both awoke numerous times throughout the night thinking “we’ve got to be getting close” just to find out by our watch that only another 30-90 minutes had passed. But we eventually made it, after 13 hours, traveling just shy of 700 kilometers (about 435 miles). We were taken to the hotel where we could check our bags, since check-in is 2:00 p.m. Many of us hungry, we walked to a local coffee shop called Stories and their food menu reminded us of the Cheesecake Factory! So many options, but we were told we’d be making a TON of food at the cooking class, so we opted for smaller dishes and lattes with oat milk. Andrew had a bagel with cream cheese, avocado, and tomato. I enjoyed a whole wheat toast with peanut butter, apple, and seeds.

We walked back to the hotel and our transportation for the Northern Thai cooking class had arrived. Another tour group with G Adventures was also in town – this group opted for a less expensive version of a tour and was staying in a nearby hostel.

The chef instructor’s husband (whom also cooks) came in the taxi with the other group. He introduced himself as Miew (pronounced like “meow”) and made a joke that it would be easy for us to remember his name, since it’s like the cat. Miew explained that we would first stop at the open air market to pick up ingredients, then head to the cooking class location. Then, we were off. Many of Chiang Mai’s taxis are “converted” pick-up trucks where you load from the back via stairs and sit inside an enclosed alcove on benches. They were actually really fun, with open windows and the back wide open as well. About half our tour group signed up for the class, so we filled this taxi truck and got to the market in no time.

Miew toured us around the market, showing various common ingredients purchased in Thailand. We zig-zagged through all the stands to get the ingredients for our class. We got to see a lot of different types of produce, prepared foods, fish, and the like – some new that we had never seen before. Andrew also captured on film one of the Thai women “preparing” a frog and its legs for purchase (don’t worry – I’m not posting that one!). Once we had our ingredients, Miew took us to the next building over to buy coconut cream and coconut milk for the curry we would be making (among other dishes). I’ve made from scratch Thai green curry before, but I used canned coconut cream. Here, they actually buy coconuts by weight, and then the purveyor puts them in a machine that essentially removes the pulp from the shell. The pulp is then put into a different machine that extracts the coconut cream from the pulp, cycling through the machine 3 times. The latter cycles through is runnier and results in the coconut milk as opposed to the coconut cream in the earlier cycles. Water can also be added to the cream to make the milk. It was really cool to see this process happen. Miew let us try some of the fresh pulp and the flavor was incredible.

We loaded back into the taxi trucks and headed to the cooking class. Relatively quickly, Gavin (one of the Irish in our group) discovered the Bluetooth speaker installed in the ceiling and connected his phone to it. We had a blast jamming out to music on the way!

We arrived and quickly saw that this was a very well run operation. They had one prep station and an opposing cooking station for each student. First, we each signed their guest book while tasting some freshly cut dragonfruit and green mango.

We met Vannee, the head chef and instructor. She was probably in her 60s and had been making curry almost all her life. She led all 16 of us to the stations and we picked a spot at the prep station area, where I instantly recognized the ingredients for green curry paste already laid out for us for a perfectly-sized single serving of curry paste, along with a knife, cutting block, and a mortar & pestle. She led us through the process and we diced all our ingredients and added them to the mortar, followed by shrimp paste, and Thai green hot chilies (1 for mild, 2 for medium, 3 for hot – she and her husband like to use 5!). Andrew and I both opted for 1 chili in each of our batches. She then showed us the proper way to pound all the ingredients until they were fine, making the green curry paste (“Nam Prig Gaeng Kiaw Wan”). Those of us who were brave tasted the small smidge of the paste before washing our hands – and WOW the flavor (and yes, the heat from the chili!).

We put our small batch of green curry paste to the side and then returned to our prep station, where we had new ingredients already placed by Vannee’s team. We had pulled off sweet basil leaves from their stems, julienne red chili, chop small green eggplant, and tear kaffir lime leaves. We each then moved to our cooking station and Vannee walked us through making our own individual portion of green chicken curry (“Gaeng Kiaw Wan Gai”), in our individual woks. First the oil, and then immediately the curry paste we made (don’t let the oil get hot). Next in was the fresh coconut cream immediately followed by the cut chicken strips. Then the fish sauce, rice sugar (or can use palm sugar), and coconut milk; and then brought it to a boil. Next we added the eggplant and kaffir leaves, and reduce heat to simmer. Then in goes the Thai sweet basil, remove from heat, and let sit. Garnish with coconut cream on top and the red chili pepper. Voila – we had just made curry!

Next, we prepped ingredients and made three more dishes:

• Stir-fried chicken with hot basil leaves and chilies (“Pad Krapao Gai”)
• Vegetarian spring rolls (“Paw Pia Tod”)
• Sticky rice with yellow mango (“Khao Niew Mamuang”)

Andrew had made spring rolls and sticky rice with mango before, but it was my first time. It was actually a lot of fun. For the spring rolls, we cut, prepped, and cooked all the ingredients that would be the filling; then we rolled them out and sealed the spring rolls, and fried them – so crispy and delicious! While we made each dish, we put them off to the side to make the next dish. But, Vannee had pity on us because several people were hungry, so she let us eat 1 (just 1!) of our 3 spring rolls we each made. Last, we made the sticky rice from scratch and added the garnish and cut mango. This was also my first time eating sticky rice with mango and it was absolutely fantastic! After making all these dishes, we finally got to feast on everything that we made for ourselves – and all of it was absolutely worth the time it took. The flavor and balance of spiciness, saltiness, and sweet was wonderful. See – anybody can be a cook! After our feast, Vannee and Miew used the guest book we signed to print out a cooking class certificate for each of us – a very cute touch.

[NOTE: For those chefs and wannabe cooks out there, I’ve posted the recipes at the very bottom in case you want to try to make any of this at home. We will be! Every year we go to PTown in Cape Cod and spend 2 weeks with friends. We take turns every other night cooking dinner for the group, and Robert always does an Indian night (and it’s so good!). Andrew and I are going to bring these Thai dishes home and do that one night – get ready PTown gang for some delish food!]

After cooking class, we headed back to the hotel and checked in. We had a small break before meeting up with our entire family to head to one of the most sacred temples in Thailand – Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Doi Suthep is actually the mountain (elevation ~3500 feet) and the temple is said to have been founded in 1383! Wat (temple) Phra (entails of an honorific Buddha image) That (relic). The legend is in the name – the temple is said to have an actual relic of Buddha in the sanctuary (Buddha’s shoulder bone). We toured the entire temple grounds with our guide and actually got to see Buddhist monks praying and meditating. We learned that they use candles, incense, and flowers as part of the way to honor Buddha, which you’ll also see in the video.

After the temple, we were driven back down to Chiang Mai and dropped off at the night bazaar for dinner. There was obviously a lot of Thai food, but also delicacies from around the world and everybody seemed very pleased with their choices. We hung out for a bit, then headed to the Muay Thai – a form of Thai boxing that uses “8 appendages” (fists, elbows, knees, & shins on each side of the body). Muay Thai is very popular throughout Thailand, so we were fortunate to be in town on the night of a fight – 7 in total, actually. And 2 of the fights were females, the other 5 males. The age range was pretty significant, but they fought by weight class. I’ve never been a big fan of boxing (the idea of one human pummeling another – not my thing). But it was interesting seeing differences in Muay Thai, the respect each fighter had for the other, and the ceremonial ritual that each fighter completed prior to their fight (each fight started off with this ceremony). After the fights, our group got to go into the boxing ring and take some photos and pretend (mostly?) to beat up on each other. We went out for a few drinks, then turned in for a hopefully better night’s rest than from the train, despite our backs and necks yelling at us.

The next morning we awoke after sleeping pretty hard. We were so tired from a long day and poor night’s sleep the night before. We’re finding that many of the beds so far are very firm. So, we had a quick breakfast then ran across the street for a quick massage before hotel check out time. Andrew and I both had a 60 min. massage that focused on the neck and back. It turned out to be almost full body, but a lot of attention was on the areas that we were achy from the last 2 nights. I never really knew what Thai massage was, but now after 2 different ones, I can honestly say they are trained very well, the massages are very different than in the U.S., and use different techniques. But, they both were amazing and can’t wait to do more of them. And the price is quite different than the U.S. – both Andrew’s and my 60 minute massage, together, was $19 USD! So, so worth it after being so sore.

Next, our tour group hopped into two vans for a 6 hour ride further up north. The trip was broken up into 3 parts, with stops along the way: to stretch, use the restroom (“happy place”) and get snacks at “Cabbage and Condoms” (yes, you read that correctly); visit the White Temple; make it to the border town of Chiang Khong where we will spend the night before crossing the bridge tomorrow into Laos. I’ll briefly touch on the White Temple, as it has been the most unusual, semi-unorthodox, but most fascinating temple so far to me. “Wat Rong Khun” was designed by an artist and opened 27 years ago. Not that much unlike Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, this temple has another 30-60 years of development and construction. Andrew and I thought it might be fun to come back in 30 years to see how much it has changed. But it is absolutely spectacular and expansive, so far. As you walk into one of my favorite worship rooms, Nirvana is depicted on the wall in front of you, behind the Buddhas. If you turn around, though, you see a very interesting mural painted by the artist, which – kid you not!! – includes characters such as Pokémon, Harry Potter, Gladiator 300, Bumblebee, Jigsaw (from the movie franchise “Saw”), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a scene from 911 in NYC, Spider-Man, Kung Fu Panda, Jack Sparrow, the earth exploding, a NASA space shuttle entangled by giant octopus arms, and a watch (I think a Rolex?) and so much more (sadly, no photographs can be taken whatsoever). Our temple guide Abby explained that we have to leave all these things behind and move forward to the future (toward the forward wall) if we are to find Nirvana. It was a very interesting and unique take, but also one of the reasons Andrew and I were discussing about why we fundamentally seem to like the tenants of Buddhism.

I’ll sign off here, for now. We have another 2 hour drive to Chiang Khong where we’ll spend the night, have dinner as a family, and tonight is karaoke night!

Jeff

PS—Happy birthday Joanne (one of our new friends from Ireland)!

---

Recipes

Green Curry Paste (“Nam Prig Gaeng Kiaw Wan”)

Ingredients:

2-6 bird eye chilies (green thai hot chili pepper)

1 small chopped shallot (peeled off)

2 tsp small thai garlic with skin

½ tsp chopped galangal (Chinese ginger)

1 tbsp chopped lemon grass

½ tsp chopped kaffir lime rind (only skin)

10 black peppercorns

¼ tsp dry coriander seeds

¼ tsp cumin seeds

1 pinch salt

¼ tsp shrimp paste

¼ tsp chopped turmeric

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients and spices in stonr mortar and pound until the paste turns fine. You can also use a blender.

2. This curry paste could be packed in a tight container and keep ih the fridge for more than 3 months or outside for only 1 week.

Green Chicken Curry (“Gaeng Kiaw Wan Gai”)

Ingredients:

30g chicken, sliced thinly

1 tbsp green curry paste

½ cup coconut cream

½ cup coconut milk

1-2 tbsp cooking oil

1-2 kaffir lime leaves (stem out, tear in half)

2 tsp fish sauce

¼ tsp palm or rice sugar

1 green egg plant, cut into bit sized pieces – can use Japanese egg plant and/or mix with pea egg plant

¼ cup sweet basil leaves (horapa)

Garnish:

2-3 red chili cut into strips

extra coconut cream

rice, for serving

Directions:

1. Fry the curry paste in oil with minimum heat until it has an aromatic smell. Add coconut cream and wait (don’t stir) until a lot of bubbles come out, then keep stirring.

2. Add chicken, add fish sauce and palm sugar and stir until the chicken is cooked through. Add coconut milk and turn up heat to bring just to a boil. When boiling, add egg plants and kaffir lime leaves. Reduce the heat to minimum and leave about 5 minutes. Add sweet basil leaves and stir gently, then turn off the heat.

3. Remove from the heat to individual bowls and garnish with red chilies on top with a dollop of coconut cream added.

Stir-fried Chicken With Hot Basil Leaves And Chilies (“Pad Krapao Gai”)

Ingredients:

100g chopped chicken

5g hot basil leaves

2-4 hot chilies, rolled/smashed

50g green beans (snake beans), chopped small

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp cooking sauce (Maggi, a fermented wheat protein similar to soy sauce but much more flavorful and umami-full)

¼ tsp black bean sauce

2 tbsp vegetable cooking oil

¼ cup water

Directions:

1. Heat the wok with the cooking oil, and add garlic and chilies together with the chicken. Cook through until the chicken is fully cooked.

2. Add fish sauce, cooking sauce and water with high heat.

3. Add green bean, black bean sauce, and hot basil leaves. Stir quickly and transfer to a plate for serving with rice.

Spring Rolls (“Paw Pia Tod”) & Thai Sweet Chili Sauce

Ingredients (spring rolls):

10g sliced ear mushroom

2 garlic cloves, chopped

10g glass noodles, soaked

10 g bean sprout

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp soy sauce

¼ tsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 spring onions, chopped into ¾“ strips

10g bamboo shoots

10g carrot, finely shredded

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp corn flour

spring roll wrappers

freshly ground white pepper

Thai Sweet Chili Sauce Ingredients:

1 tsp rice vinegar

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp corn flour

2 tbsp water

pinch of salt

1½ tbsp red chili pepper, well pounded and add a little water

Directions (spring rolls):

1. Drain the glass noodles and cut into about 5 cm lengths.

2. Heat the oil in a wok, add the garlic, and fry for 30 seconds.

3. Add the carrots, bamboo shoots, noodles, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and spring onion. Season with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and pepper. Place into a bowl when finished cooking through, about 2-3 minutes.

4. Put the flour into a small bowl and mix with a little water to make a paste.

5. Place a spoonful of filling on the corner edge of a spring roll wrapper.

6. Turn the bottom edge over to cover the filling, then fold in the left and right sides. Roll the wrapper up almost to the top edge, brush the top edge with flour paste, and seal. Release with the rest of the wrappers and filling.

7. Heat the oil in a wok. Slide in the spring rolls a few at a time, and fry until crisp and golden brown, then turn over for other side.

8. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain any excess oil; then drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot with Thai sweet chili sauce.

Directions (Thai Sweet Chili Sauce):

1. Mix corn flour with the water.

2. Mix the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and chili. Heat to boiling, and a little of the flour water, boil a short time, then remove from heat.

Sticky Rice With Yellow Mango (“Khao Niew Mamuang”)

Ingredients:

100g high quality sticky rice

pinch of salt

1 tbsp sugar

¼ cup coconut cream

½ cup coconut milk

1 ripe (yellow) mango

1 tsp corn flour with water

¼ tsp mung bean

Directions:

1. Clean the rice, soak in cold water at least 3 hours, or up to 24 hours maximum time.

2. Place the rice in a cooking steamer bottom with cheesecloth and steam until cooked, about 10-15 minutes.

3. Dissolve salt and sugar in the coconut milk. Boil with medium heat about 2 minutes.

4. When the rice is cooked, place it in a glass bowl, and pour in the sweet coconut milk and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Leave it to cool. After that, remove the rice to a plate, in portioned sizes.

5. Boil the coconut cream with corn flour mixed with water and a little salt until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.

6. Peel and slice the mango. Arrange on a serving plate with the cooled rice.

7. When serving, spoon coconut cream over the rice. Top the rice with a little mung bean on top as garnish.

Note:

Ripe jack fruit can also be served with sticky rice.