Making Thai Food in Thailand - booyah

One of the days in Chiang Mai, we decided to take a cooking class.  First, we stopped at a local market to purchase the ingredients and learn more about the ingredients that go into Thai food.  Then, it was off to a secluded location where both Katrina and I prepared 5 amazing dishes.  First was a pork salad accompanied with pork spring rolls.  Next, we followed it up with fish curry and prawn stir fry.  We finished with a black sticky rice and some new fruits for desert.  They were very accommodating and Katrina was able to make all vegetarian dishes.  The school was called cooking@home and I would recommend it for those not on a strict budget who want to learn how to make some Thai dishes.  We were also given a cookbook so hopefully Katrina and I will be able to prepare a few of these dishes in the States.  Also, there are a few pictures from diner one evening. 

 Cooking at Home Culinary School

Our first stop was a market - here you can see some different curry pastes.  We actually made our own, homemade curry paste which is something I've never done.

I believe this is a curry starter set.  You have your turmeric, a garlic/ginger like root, and some lemon grass I believe.  It's kind of cool how they sell them all together as a curry starter set.

Blood - not sure what it is used for...

Meat anyone?  This part made me a little sick but Katrina didn't mind it all - go figure...

Some sort of new fruit...

Dragon fruit - quite possibly one of my favorite new fruits

View as we ate our meals - a little bit of heaven on Earth, almost doesn't seem real

Our stations for the day

First dish was a pork salad - tofu and mushroom for Katrina

Chef Katrina whipping up a master piece, frying her spring rolls

Not sure what I'm doing in the picture but my spring rolls were a little brown...

Spring rolls and pork salad - Thai Style

It is actually a family run business and this is one of the sisters.  As a group, we all pitched in and made the sticky rice for desert.  Here, I added the rice.  There was a Canadian couple on their honeymoon who was also at the school with us.

This is another sister showing us how to make a dish.  First, one of the sisters would prepare a dish, we would taste test, and then go back to our stations and make it.

Chef Katrina making her curry paste.  It was quite the workout using the mortar and pestle, a utensil I've never used before. 

Bam - Fish Curry

The Chef and her dishes

Prawn or Shrimp Stir Fry

Katrina tasting some fruits at the end of our day

Dinner with Libby...  This was the day before, since we were stuffed from all the food we ate at the cooking school.  This was a Northern Thailand restaurant.  Yeah, I didn't know there were different Thai dishes either.  

Entrance to the restaurant

Inside were lots of cool nick knacks

Green Curry with Shrimp

Katrina mistakenly ended up with the pork fried rice

Pomelo Salad with baby eggplant.  It was a cross between pineapple and grapefruit.

Katrina and I after dinner

We went to a night market afterwards to get some desert - here's a fruit stand

Here's a food stand - I was a bit concerned about how long the food's been sitting out.  There didn't seem to be many takers and as you can see, some of the pans were quite full.  It just made me wonder a bit, that's all...

Rotee Time - It was like a fried dough, drenched in oil and butter, with bananas inside and drizzled with chocolate on top...

The ladies watching as she made