Mmmmm Mmmmmm Gooooood!

Yesterday, I had the best Pad Thai I’ve ever had, and I made it.  What????  I know, right?  Yesterday was all about the food at Thai Secret Cooking School in Chiang Mai.Thai Secret Cooking School   

The day started with being picked up in a truck taxi and then shuttled to an extremely large market.  We shared our taxi with a 19-year-old girl from London named Lucy.  She is 5 months in on a 7-month backpacking trip; and she’s doing it alone!  I can only imagine the life experiences and lessons she’s learning along the way.  I wouldn’t be brave enough to do it.

We met May at the market (I’m not sure how she spells her name, I’m guessing here).  We wer surprised and delighted to find out we were the only 3 in today’s lesson.  VERY rare.  May said her lessons this week were down in numbers due to the holiday and poor air quality as some people had to cancel their trips into Chiang Mai.   So we were going to get a very special opportunity to have an “almost private” lesson. 

After we chose what dishes we wanted I could quickly see her calculating what ingredients she’d need to purchase at the market.  She took us through, pointing out different vegetables, herbs and spices while giving us a reason for using certain items.  She also pointed out some items that we can’t get or are very difficult to get in the US,  but are cheap and easy to pack for flight.   After the tour she asked us to meet her at the front in about 15 minutes so she could do her shopping.  We used the time to snap some photos (of course).

Soon we were back in the taxi and headed to her home out in the agricultural area.  She has a rice field and large garden at her home.

First order of business, don our hats, grab our baskets and head to the garden to gather some items for our meals.  May was particular about making sure we filled out baskets in a beautiful way.  Everything is about presentation.  We picked some butterfly pea flowers for mango sticky rice and a special drink.  We also picked some different grasses, herbs, long beans.  

When we returned to our station we already had tasks to perform – peal and chop up the shallots and garlic on our station.  After that was done we went quickly into the cooking.  It was very fast paced and amazingly easy to do with her direction.  She did have some sous chefs creating plates for us to cook from and they also cleaned our dishes as we went. 

She always had us tasting the ingredients as we went so we’d get a feeling for how much to put into the dishes.  Even though we received cook books at the end of the day, she said you have to taste to make sure you’re putting in the right ingredients for us.  Some may like it spicy, sweet, etc.

Eric and I chose different dishes so we’d be able to make a wider variety between the two of us.  I’m so glad we did.  Everything was delicious!  We ate each dish and then rested a bit to make room for the next.

Eric's Chicken in Coconut Milk soup

Tanya's Pad Thai

Eric's Chicken with Cashew Nut

Tanya's Noodle soup with Chicken

For the curry’s we made our curry with a mortar and pestle.  We put the herbs and peppers into the mortar and pounded away for a good 15 to 20 minutes.   

Panang Curry

Eric and Lucy working on their green curry

We also needed some coconut milk for our desserts so May chopped a coconut in half and then we shaved the coconut out of the shell.

May showing us how to shave the coconut meat

To make the milk she added a little bit of warm water and one of the herbs to the coconut, then Eric mashed it with his hands and squeezed the milk out.  She had us compare natural coconut milk to canned coconut milk to taste the difference.  Natural is a much brighter flavor. 

To make the blue sticky rice we took the blue flowers we picked and boiled them.  It turns into a dark blue water.  We took some aside for the rice and the rest she poured into ice filled glasses.  When she squeezed lime juice into the blue drinks it turned purple – so cool. And refreshing!

At the end I felt like I can recreate some of these dishes at home.  I may not be able to get all of the ingredients, but we’ll definitely need to get a mortar and pestle to make our own curry paste!  It’s sooo yummy.  And I hope when we create a meal like this from scratch our guests feel the love.

Tanya's papaya salad

Tanya's Panang Chicken Curry

Eric's Mango Sticky Rice

We received our certificates and a cookbook with all the recipes.  I highly recommend choosing this cooking school in Chiang Mai.  I know there are many to choose from, but this one is authentic, from scratch cooking.

May also shared a bowl of some soup she was cooking for her own family.  Here are the ingredients before she cooked it.  The soup was VERY good, even with the blood that's in the middle bowl.  Insert big eyed emoji here.  

We were super tired when done so we came home, took a nap and finally made it out to the night bazaar for dinner around 7:30 or 8:00.  We chose to go with the flaming meat we saw the evening before.  Very good.

I had also been on the hunt for a certain ring.  My in-laws got me a ring and earrings from Thailand years and years ago.  It was silver with black onyx stones and I wore that ring all. The. Time. Until the main stone fell out and was lost.  I wanted to replace it and we found one at the bazaar!  My fingers are so swollen from the heat and travel that I couldn’t size it, so I had thought ahead, lotioned up my hand to get my wedding ring off and held it in my pocket so we could match sizes when I found it.  It worked. 

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the swelling yet.  Yah… my hands and feet are soooo puffy.  I can’t even slide into my flip flops – I’ve had to wear my hiking keens that have adjustable straps.  I can’t wait to get home and go on a detox diet. 

After the bazaar we walked home on very sore feet.