Getting saucy in Chiang Mai

One of the "in" things to do in Chiang Mai is to take a cooking class to learn about making Thai food.  There are an overwhelming number of cooking schools here, so we went with the one recommended by our hotel: Asia Scenic Cooking School.  In our group of 12 aspiring chefs, there were people from Taiwan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Argentina, Italy, and Madagascar.  Very global!

Our day started with a trip to a local market to learn about the various ingredients used commonly in Thai cooking such as dried chilies, palm sugar, coconut cream,etc, and then a stop in the school's garden to see other key ingredients such as Thai basil, tamarind, keffir lime, etc.

Then it was time to cook.  We all got to choose our own menu from a limit array of choices. My first stir fry option was cashew chicken while Beth chose pad see eiw.  We did a little chopping, and then went to heat up the woks.  The key to Thai cooking apparently is a combo of garlic, sugar, fish sauce and oyster sauce.  It was used in all of the dishes including pad Thai and spicy basil fried rice (pad Thai also got a tamarind sauce added towards the end).

After conquering the stir fry, Beth volunteered as one of the two "master chefs" to make the spring roll filling for all of us.  She kicked butt, and our filling was excellent.  Later, after the filling cooled down, we'd learn how to roll and lightly fry the spring rolls.  Yum.

Next up: making curry paste from scratch and then curry. Beth went with the panang curry option, while I tried khaw soi curry.  They both start with a red curry paste, so we worked with a nice Dutch man to create our paste as a group. Lots of fine chopping of ingredients and even more pounding with a mortar and pestle.  Our arms were so tired, and our instructor just kept telling us "faster, faster!"  We all worked up quite a sweat making this paste, but the curries turned out delicious.  Mine was the only one served with noodles instead of rice, and I also got garnishes (crispy noodles, shallots, cilantro, pickled something, etc).

Last up: Tom yum soup. I went with spice level 1 out of 5 because I'm a spice wimp. Beth opted for 3, and the guy next to me went with a 5.  Both of their soups made me cough just smelling them.  The "5" guy next to me also went with a 5 level for his curry, and he was so smug about if before he started cooking it.  As he was tasting it at the end, he started sweating and his nose started running.   He got a bit more spice than he bargained for.  He and his other buddies were all sweating by the time they finished their curries/soups. Nancy, you would have loved being able to amp up the spiciness of the dishes at the place.  Maybe you could have finally made it spicy enough for you??

All in all, it was a great time cooking Thai food. Our instructor was great, very personable and knowledgable.  The school worked hard to make sure we all had our dishes, ingredients, etc when we needed them. I'd definitely recommend this school if you're in Chiang Mai.  There was also the option of a full day class (our half day class ended around 2).  You get two extra courses: salad and dessert.  We thought the number of courses we made was perfect, and we were stuffed by the end. Couldn't imagine eating any more.