Thai Cooking Class!

Chiang Mai, Thailand - Jan 4th
Ashley here

One of the things we were most excited about doing in Thailand was taking a cooking class, and we found a great place to do it in Chiang Mai!

I think it was called Thai Cookery

So excited to start cooking!

For $30 each we were able to pick 6 dishes to learn to cook, got to stuff our faces, and got to walk around a local market with a really cute basket where we picked out our ingredients. It was awesome!

Shopping in a local market with a basket.  Dreams really do come true!

The only lame part was that we had to spend the entire day hanging out with an eclectic group of semi-annoying fellow travelers.  All of these day long excursion situations are super hit or miss.  For example- the elephant thing was extra awesome because we were in a group with a bunch of really fun people who made me cry laughing the entire time, and cooking class was only a regular amount of awesome because we were in a group with some too cool for school Americans (some of the only Americans we've seen actually!) and one of those really annoying people who is constantly adding in extra facts when you're not even talking to them... 'Oh yeah! This is Thai basil-you probably haven't seen it before. Did you know the Thais and the Vietnamese went to war over a dispute involving ginger?'  Blah, blah, blah.  It was really annoying!  But aside from our classmates the cooking school was really great.  The teachers were awesome and everything was super clean and the food all ended up tasting delicious!  And this wouldn't be social media if we didn't post tons of pictures of it, right?

My "green" curry (no spice)

Kim's green curry- super spicy!

Sauteing baby bananas for dessert

Add caption

Chicken fried rice- even easier to make than the soup!

Making chili paste from scratch

Kim enjoying the fruits of her labor

The most important thing we learned is that Thai food is super easy to cook.  I know!!  I was shocked too!!  Now put down that take out menu (or popcorn and wine you were about to have for dinner) and chef yourself up a delicious Thai meal instead.  Below I'm including the recipe for my favorite thing I learned to make.  It's that coconut chicken soup you can get at any Thai food place, but I swear it's even more delicious when you make it yourself, and I think it took maybe 10 minutes to make?  Oooh maybe I can be the next Rachel Ray!  Ten Minute Thai Meals.  Yumm-eeee!

Some of the ingredients

Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup (Tom Yum Gai)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups coconut milk (you can do half coconut cream and half water to make this)
1/2 cup of coconut cream
4 slices of galangal (thai ginger- but regular ginger works too!)
A few lemon or lime leaves
A handful of oyster mushrooms
A couple green onions diced up
A quarter of a white onion diced up
1/2 a small tomato
2 Tbs of lemon or lime juice
1-3 tiny red chilies depending on how spicy you want it
1 and 1/2 Tbs of fish sauce
Fresh cilantro to garnish

Directions:

1.  Put coconut milk in the wok and add the chopped ginger. green onions, regular onions and tomatoes
2.  Add the chicken and cook until tender
3.  Add the mushrooms then the think coconut cream, lemon leaves, and chilies.  Cook for another 4-5 mins
4.  Take off heat and add the lemon or lime juice and fish sauce
5.  Be impressed with how quickly and easily you just made that awesome soup!  And if it doesn't taste good blame me and look up a better recipe online :)

Yumm-eeeee

For my Foodie Friends - Singapore/Malaysia

The food in Singapore and Malaysia was pretty delicious. Most meals cost between $1 and $3. Breakfast was usually a banana pancake (roti) or dim sum with Chinese green tea. Yes, I am eating street food and no, I haven't gotten sick.

Sometimes I'll eat something like this for breakfast:

Lunch and dinner:

And beverages to go:

-Kim

Day One in Bangkok

I wanted to title this post Bangkok-a-doodle-doo because of the lovely way we were woken up this morning at the crack of dawn, by what seemed like 100 roosters, but then I realized some of my friends (Laura) would probably never read this blog again if I came right out the gate with a pun like that, so I refrained.

Our first day in Bangkok turned out to be exhausting and awesome. Kyle and I patted ourselves on the back for (despite the apparent proximity to a chicken farm) choosing the most perfect hotel that had everything we needed to get acclimated including a private room with two beds, sweet sweet air conditioning, free wifi, and a real toilet! Plus it's just a 10 minute walk from the backpackers place to be- Khaosan Road.

Here's how we spent our almost only day in Bangkok:

1. We walked about a million miles (20,000 steps! Thanks Fitbit!)
2. We saw a very long lizard floating down the river which I at first thought was a sn@ke but then it wasn't so we were ok.
3. We got approached several times by random Thai people who spoke perfect English who were 'just being friendly' who gave us advice on what all to see, and then all of a sudden a tuktuk would pull up and they'd be like oh here! Get in this one! They take you to all those sites I tell you about - 40 bhat! You like! You like!
4. We ate our first meal. Phad Thai from a street vendor. THE BEST PHAD THAI OF MY LIFE. It cost $1.33.

5. We almost went on a private long tail boat ride of the river but it was too expensive and they wouldn't be haggled with. They wanted $12 for the hour!
6. Instead we tried the 'fish spa'. My.god. It was one of those rare times when something was actually way worse than you thought it'd be. When I first saw it I was like- little tiny fish sucking on your feet in a vat of water for 20 minutes?? How bad could that be?? Turns out, very bad. But I eventually came around enough to at least not waste the $6 I spent on it. I've included a video of this little fiasco on my FB because I cant figure out how to on here. Don't laugh.
7. Then we took a siesta. Or whatever it's called in Thai when it's way too hot to be outdoors.
8. Then we accidentally siesta-ed for 5 hours. So we got up to explore Khaosan Road and get some dinner around 9.
9. Khaosan Road was completely insane and packed full of backpackers. We were kind of groggy and jet lagged still so we just kind of walked around in awe not knowing what to buy or do.
10. After walking forever without being able to decide on somewhere to eat we chose a spot with delicious looking curries and live music that completely made our night. They've figured out exactly what makes white people happy and played it allll night long. Awesome 90's music. We sat there listening to the guy and girl sing for hours, got to see some incredible breakdancing street performing kids, and then danced ourselves out of there to some Justin Beiber around midnight.

Day 2 in Bangkok should be starting any minute now thanks to the roosters who have already woken me up. We've only got a few hours for sightseeing this morning because we've got a flight this afternoon at 3 to meet Kim in the south by the beaches! Cannot wait!!

-Ashley

Pandora's Box

I have opened Pandora's Box in the form of a puff pastry. During my research of SE Asia I kept coming across a fruit called a durian. Apparently it is regarded as the "king of fruits" over here and due to its scent, you are not allowed to carry it on public transportation. But people love the taste and they are sold on almost every street corner.

I did not take this picture but I always appreciate using money to show size

A little intimidated by the fruit as a whole, I waited until I saw them offered in a more manageable presentation- a puff pastry. Advertised as "Just One Bite" I thought it would be the perfect way to sample durian without any major commitments. 

Aren't they cute? Just like the ones you get with pho. Except they taste like toe fungus. Rotten, pudding-like toe fungus. Fortunately I was smart enough to not eat this in one bite and it took all my strength not to spit out what I had already put in my mouth. The rest went in the garbage can.

Usually you eat bad things and you move on. No big deal. But durian is a different beast. With that one tiny little bite, I unleashed a durian sensor that picks up the smell everywhere. Walking down the street the scent leaks out of uncut durians hanging from the stalls. Biking down the road the smell follows you like a dead skunk. Even in a car the durian can penetrate the windows. 

If you come across a durian, I do encourage you to try it. You may be one of those rare people who come to love it above all other fruits. But beware that once you try it, there is no escaping the durian.

-Kim

Is it chicken, or does it taste like chicken?

I've quickly realized I never mastered EnglAsian. Spanglish, no problemo. Franglais, sexy. English with a slavic twist, second nature. But English with a heavy Asian accent isn't something I've had a lot of exposure to so I'm finding myself saying "Sorry, could you repeat that?" a lot. This is the reason I ate stomach and intestines as my first meal in SE Asia.

I hadn't eaten in over 16 hours and was starving but I wanted my first meal to be epic. I'm pretty sure food is 85% of the reason I am here. So I started my search for the Golden Mile Food Center. I'm terrible with directions and almost gave up but I finally found it! I spent the next 10 minutes slowly walking past about 20 different stalls until I found a picture of the perfect dish, loaded with lots of veggies. It was also the only picture that didn't have a name associated with it. 

I placed the order and the lady said something to me I didn't understand. I asked her what was in it, chicken? She tilted her head to the side with an inquisitive look and gave me a slow nod, repeating what she had said before. I still didn't understand what she said so I returned her slow nod and sat down. When she brought out the food I tried one more time. "What is in this?" "Stomach and intestines," she said while rubbing her belly. Ah, third time and sign language is the charm. 

What I decided was the intestines wasn't quite as good as what I decided was the stomach but the dish was pretty delicious. Does anyone happen to know if the brown jalapeno looking thing (top, center of pic) is intestine or stomach?

-Kim