Sunday 10th May 2009
So I remembered to set an alarm to get up at about 8am. This gave me time to have some breakfast at the hostel and wait for my pick up at about 9.30am. They pick everyone up from the different hostels and hotels and we meet at the main office in Chiang Mai. They then take us out to the school which is about 6k outside of the city.
Sunday was Course 2 - Making Curry Paste
We cooked the following
- Panaeng Curry with Pork, with the curry paste made from scratch this was absolutely amazing!
- Fried Fish with Chilli and Basil - too spicy for me!
- Chiang Mai Curry with Chicken
- Sweet & Sour Vegetables
- Spicy Glass Noodle Salad
- Black Sticky Rice Pudding
It was such a good day, definitely a highlight making fresh curry paste. Particularly as you can see all the ingredients going in and frind them altogether using the pestle and mortar. Met lots of nice people, a really nice couple from Birmingham, Kate and Richard, they were doctors and Richard was a native Welsh speaker from Carmarthen. He sounded just like Phil, one of Sarah's friends from Cardiff Uni.
Got back to the hostel early, around 3pm so had a swim and read my book in the shade. Got a Tuk Tuk back into the centre to meet Alex, Steph and Alessa again for dinner. They was this amazing walking market which just went on for, what felt like, miles and miles. We found the food area and ate for street vendors, Pad Thai, Mango Sticky Rice, Mango smoothies, kebabs and Papaya Salad. Fantastic and all cost about 2 pounds.
We went for a few drinks later on at this rooftop bar which seemed a little bit trippy?! But we had a few beers and I met a random Welsh guy from Neath who used to live in Walter Road. Its a small world!
Monday 11th May 2009
Found it difficult to get up and out of bed. Decided to opt out of breakfast as I knew how much food I would be eating during the day.
Course 3 - Tour of the local market
Today we started with a tour of the local market which was very interesting. We also had a lesson in Thai vegetables, spices, herbs and noodles etc. I wasn't too bad but felt a bit like those children in the schools Jamie Oliver used to go to when they didn't know what a potato was!!
We cooked the following
- Chicken in Coconut Milk - My favourite dish of the day!!! Amazing.
- Red Curry with Fish - Too spicy for me!!
- Fried Mixed Mushrooms with BabyCorn
- Fried Big Noodles and Thick Sauce & pork
- Papaya Salad
- Finally Steamed Banana Cake - Wonderful.
I met more really nice people today, Sebastian , French but lives in Spain a chef who is doing the full course as well. Doug and Kim, a teacher and a nurse from Brisbane who were working in Chiang Mai for two months. Hannah, from South Korea, who was training to do Thai massage.
Was so hot and full and tired when I'd finished the course that I went back to the hostel and had a bit of sleep for a few hours before I went to meet the guys in town.
We were all so tired, they'd been out seeing Elephants & white water rafting during the day! Very energetic compared to the fact that I was just cooking and eating! We had a quick dinner, some coffee and I went back for an early night.
