Eat to Live, Cook to Eat

You'd think with all the "street food" around one wouldn't want to step into a restaurant let alone sign up for a cooking class, but when you approach food like we do, variety is the name of the game.

While I was out painting Jess signed us up for a Thai cooking class at an out of the way school run by a family. We first found out about it from a "ladyboy" information agent. Jess didn't know this until I explained why she had such big hands... and it wasn't just to take our money. The fact is they work on commission and her recommendation of the place was exactly what we wanted. Maybe that'll get her a manicure and then some.

The teacher and her husband picked us up at our guesthouse at 4:45 (with one other couple, from Holland, in tow). Next we headed to the "local" market. Meaning, this is where most of the restaurants and street vendors get their fresh ingredients. We each picked 6 different dishes we'd cook that night. What we didn't know was that we'd be eating them in two sittings... yummy, to a point!

My favorites were the Massaman Curry made with fresh cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, anise seed pods, cardomom seed pods, tamarind sauce, palm sugar, and a few other tasty ingredients. I also dug the one dish I had eaten a couple times that week, the Khao Soi Chicken with egg noodle. Gotta taste it to believe it.

Jess's favorites were the Cucumber soup made with a hollowed out cucumber stuffed with chicken and spices... very tasty. The other was a really great Papaya Mixed fruit salad.

Everything including desserts was made using a wok, and we learned several new techniques. Great "mortar and pestle" action in making the curry paste, too.

I'm here to say that I had not eaten much for lunch, so please don't judge as I was able to eat all six of my dishes and sample Jess's cooking as well. It was probably too much food but when something so wrong tastes so good... how can you throw it away?

Cooking Class

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