Cookery Course in Chiang Mai

One of the things you should do while visiting Chiang Mai is joining a cookery course to learn some of the Thai dishes and its ingredients. I joined one at Thai Farm which is outside town and based in a big garden. The kitchen is open plan with a big table to enjoy your home made dishes and facing a vegetable patch. I joined a mixed group with Irish, Mexicans, and various Canadian based so it was a cacophony of languages and cultures. Our teacher was a young Thai lady called Goong who is a bright, energetic, fun and loving person who made the day even more interesting. Her English was very good and she was eager to learn more so we also tried to achieve that at the end of the day. I never will forget her hick-ups: She pointed into the direction of the toilets and said there are the ‘happy rooms’ we thought it was quite funny but unusual. Later on we found out that she meant ‘a pee room’! When we were outside in the garden and passed a banana tree she said these are Thai bananas which are thick and small and are different than the normal bananas which are tall and big. She bursted into laughter straight away and I’ll let you figure out why.

 During the day I prepared the following 5 dishes:

Thom Yok soup

Yellow curry

Stir fried chicken with basil

 Pad Thai in take away bag!

Pumpkin in coconut milk

 I ate all 4 of them and took the pad thai home for dinner (in case you were still hungry), of course I tried other dishes which my fellow students prepared and learned how to prepare sticky rice as well. It was great experience and at the end of the day Francois and I surprised the group incl teachers with a beer which was very much welcomed by the group. I returned back to my hotel with a very full tummy, recipe book and a doggy bag with my pad thai which I never ate.