New Years Eve in Chiang Mai ... Who would have known that's where we would be this year. We needed to take the motorcycle back so Pat decided he would take it back and I would just meet him at Black Canyon coffee. What was he thinking? I really wasn't worried "too" much because he had shown me on the map how to get there and it really was a straight shot .... He left and I finished getting ready. I went to get our cleaned laundry to bring it back to our room. I wish I could have this service at home for these prices. I brought them back to the room. I then headed out on my own. Pat had said to go left but on the map it looked like it was closer to go right. Why should I walk further? I made it, I had read the map correctly. When I got there I just sat there with a big grin on my face waiting for Pat to say something and he did. I was quite proud of myself.
As we were sitting there the twins walked by. We got their attention and they took us to where Peggy gets her really good knives. I bought a box of twelve for 600 baht = $12. Melissa will contest about how wonderful they are, Peggy gave her one when she was out at Thanksgiving.
We decided to let them go their way as we were tired and thought we would head back to the room after lunch to rest before our cooking class tonight. We had lunch and I bought a few gifts for friends and then we went back to our room, when we got back Pat was going to get a massage but the clerk at our place said the taxi wouldn't be able yo pick us up at 4:50 a.m. tomorrow. How were we going to get to the train? Pat started to worry as we had a lot of crap. My back back was so full ... We had gotten a lot of souvenirs and some were heavy. Oh we'll, ... The Hoekers arrived so we visited with them until the cooking group came to pick us up. I was so excited about doing this and didn't know what to expect. The truck came to get us, there was so much traffic because of the new year.
We had 7 of us plus another couple, Linda and Richard, from Amsterdarn. They were a very nice couple. We first went to the market where Perm, our chef, told us about the different ingredients we were going to use. He told us the difference between small eggs and large eggs. He said a large egg came from an old chicken and the smaller egg came from the younger chicken. It's better to get the smaller eggs. The only difference is the price. The smaller ones are cheaper!
This is Perm ....
This is Perm with some mushrooms.
He also showed us all the spices to use. I learned the hotter peppers are green and the smaller they are the hotter they are also. Perm said the hotter ones grow up, above the leaves and the milder ones grow below the leaves. I'll definitely tell Mom about this. After the market we headed to the kitchen where we were going to cook. From what the Hoekers said, it use to be outside the city more but one of the brothers left the cooking business and started a zip-line business. It was at their home and it had a nice set-up. The classes were held in the back of the house, outdoors of course with the garden in back of that. He had everything we needed except the protein growing in back. There was a large fruit growing which I thought was durian but it was jack fruit. I remember Yacht talking about that. I would like to try it before we leave.
We picked all kinds of ingredients for our meal like basil, ginger, and long beans. We put everything into one basket
and took it back to our cooking stations. Each station was equipped with a propane stove, a counter with a chopping block, our own cooking utensils, plus pans. We got to choose between a green or Penang curry to cook. Pat chose the Penang and I chose the green. We also got to choose what soup we wanted to make. I made the Spicy Sour Soup (Tom Yom, I believe) and Pat chose the Coconut Milk Soup. We then got to make Cashew Chicken and Pad Thai. Perm went through it step by step ... He kept saying, "watch me before you start". It was hard to understand him but we managed to get'r done! The soup was so easy and quite tasty. The one thing we noticed was a lot of the ingredients are used for flavor but aren't eaten. We surmised that when we serve this to guests we should take out the things they aren't supposed to eat. I bit into a chunk of ginger when I had this soup before and it was gross .... The favors here are so wonderful and rich.
What you see here are the ingredients for my sour soup: tomato slice, cilantro, mushroom, a slice of ginger, shallots, and lime. We put a pan on our stove and Perm added water to them. He then added fish sauce to everyone's pan as ll, telling us it added salt to the dish. He then added coconut cream to Pats pan And coconut milk to mine. What is the difference you MIT ask? Well, milk is half cream and half water. Ta-da! Okay, most people would know this but I didn't. We then got to choose what protein we wanted either chicken or prawns. I chose prawns and Pat chose chicken. He would tell us to turn up our flame or don depending on the look of the mixture. We then added the other ingredients and it was done in about 10 minutes tops. I loved it, my prawns were just right. :)
Pats coconut soup ... It had another name but I can't remember it
My sour and spicy soup. One thing I forgot to mention was he told us to pick a pepper to put in our soup. Both Pat and I took two and three green ones ... Aaaahhhhh.
We each got an apron and rag like Perm to use and we also got a cookbook to bring home!
We then made the curries.
This is a picture of our work stations and you can see how it's set up. Those two large testical looking things over Kelli's head are the jack fruit. I tell Pat what I just wrote and he just shakes his head and says, "joy, joy, joy" ... What can I say - I can't help myself.
Chef Pat getting his mortar and pestle on ... Grinding all the herbs for the green curry. Peggy and I decided who needs to do this when we have food processors! :)
This Is Linda grinding herbs with Ken in the background waiting his turn. Perm told us that everyone had to grind them 50 times.
Perm explained to us that when we make curry from scratch you can store it for 3 days but if you cook it in oil then it can store it unrefridgerated for 3 months. Here Perm is cooking the Penang curry for us to use tonight.
Here I'm cooking the green curry that we just ground up. We got to cook ours which caused a few of us to choke. The smell was wonderful but very strong and overwhelming.
Both Matt and I chose the green curry to make.
Chef Pat patiently waiting his turn. We both ate very little earlier because we knew we would have a big meal tonight so we were ready to eat!
Pat's Penang curry cooking. I liked the flavor of his better than mine.
Here is my green curry. I've had it a couple times since we've been here and there were green vegetables in it and I didn't know what they were. I found out they are egg sized eggplants and the curry also has a pea sized eggplant in it as well. I wonder if ill be able to find these in the states?
The pink bowls had the sauce in it for the Pad Thai and the white bowls had the sauce for the cashew chicken. The three ingredients in each was palm sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce but of different proportions .... I'll have to check the cookbook to make sure though.
This is Perm's nephew who helps him. He is deep frying the banana spring rolls he taught us how to make. Oh my heck were these good, we are so making these for the college ministry group!! We dipped them in sweetened condensed milk. Get ready guys :)
Perm is showing us how to make Pad Thai. This was so good and I can't wait it make it at home.
Perm taught us how to do the wall of flame. *** This should not be attempted by an amateur, so if you try this we can't be held responsible if you burn down your house!***
First, we got our pans hot until the oil started smoking. We added the garlic which had been smashed and tilted the pans AWAY from us. We added the chicken and onions which he added a bit of water to. By tilting the pans forward this allowed the oil to cat h on fire. WOW! So cool, of course the guys,liked it but I screamed my head off. Debbie, you should start a cooking school and this could be the hook to get guys cooking! FIRE!
Us getting ready. Half the class did this while the other half took pics.
This is where I screamed ... More than once.
Pat is cooking his Pad Thai.
After we finished our meal, it was back to the market to bring in the New Year. The streets were so crowded and it took our truck awhile to get there. While driving back we saw all the lanterns in the sky. It was absolutely beautiful. I want to make one when we get home to let off ... I'll probably get arrested but oh we'll.
This is someone letting their's go. We bought two, 30 baht each, one for us and one for the girls. Linda and Richard were still with us and they bought one too. Peggy and Matt got one as well. It took a bit to get it lit. The ring you see is a slice of a toilet paper roll that has been dipped in gas and wax. You don't smell the gas so it could be another flammable substance. After we got the ring lit, we held it down close to the ground to allow for allow the heat to stay in. This took a few minutes. Once we let it go, off it went. Some weren't as lucky as theirs went into the canal and quite a few went into the trees. People weren't a lot smart as they saw others going into the trees but they still let theirs go near them. Silly people.
Now picture the night sky with hundreds of these floating through the air. It was just so wonderful. This went on for hours. There were heart shaped ones, angry bird shaped ones, one with long tails, some attached firecrackers to them or sparklers to ... Just amazing.
We did a bit more shoppng as the walking street was opn late tonight for New Years. Pat went back to the room, this was the beginning of him ot feeling well. not a great time to be sick. We realized that we hadnt picked up our drawing. pat called us to see who was closer to the place. we would meet there. Pat got there first but it had just closed but another gentleman called the owner to let him know we were there.
After we rang in the new year we went shopping a bit more and then decided to head back to the rom as we knew we were going to be up early. Once we got back to the room and got packed it was 2:30am, why go to bed when we need to get up at 3:30 to make sure we can get to the train station so we didn't. Uuugggggg
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