Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School

This Sunday nine girls and I took a Chiang Mai cooking class.  We started off by having our Easter breakfast at the Uniserv restaurant The Lemon Tree around 9am and then a songtao picked us up and took us to what we thought was the cooking school, but it was actually just the meeting place and then another songtao drove us waaaay out to a gated community with huge houses where the cooking location actually was.

At the cooking school we each had our own station with a stove, wok, cutting board, knife, and apron.  We did all of the cooking outside so it was VERY hot, I think the temperature was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day.  Thankfully they had a couple water jugs (yes it was filtered water) that some how stayed cold so we were drinking that all day. 

Before we made each of the dishes we had a lecture/demonstration by one of the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery teachers.  We sat in a small room with tiered seats and it was air conditioned so that was a nice break from the heat.  Another cool thing was that there was an angled mirror so even if you were sitting in the back row, you could still see what they were doing.  Then we would go outside and try to recreate what they just did.  They did a lot of the prep work for us though so that made it faster.  Then once we finished we got to eat our food!


This first dish in the top righthand corner was the hot and sour prawn soup.  It was a little bit too strong for me but I think if I put less spice and lime in it next time it will be better :)











The dish on the left is a Thai salad which they actually eat after their main course.  It has chicken, rice seasoning, chives, and some other things in it.  It was actually my favorite dish of the day because it was the least spicy!   The cucumbers are there because the Thai people actually use them as spoons for eating the salad.









The picture on the right was the dessert that we made, and it was definitely interesting.  What you do is cut up water chestnuts (yes, the vegetable usually used in stir fry)  dye them pink with food coloring, and then roll them in tapioca flour so they are all covered in the powder.  Then you take the little cubes and put them in boiling water until they start floating up to the top, scoop them out and put them in cold water, and then put them in coconut milk and ice.  It has a very interesting texture but it wasn't awful, I think if I were to make it again I would dye it with fruit juice to give it more flavor and then put it in with cow milk instead. 


We got to keep a recipe book with all of the things that we made and also the recipes from other cooking courses.  Hopefully when I come home I can find all of the ingredients and make some of the dishes again!

Michelle <3