Learning to cook Thai

Evy, Chad and Jo and I decided to sing up for a cooking course in Chiang Mai, we all loved cooking, and eating and thought it would be a great idea to learn how to prepare the wonderful food for our friends and family back home!

So our instructor, a feisty lady called Boom ("not boom boom!") picked us up to go shopping in the market for the fresh food we would need during the day.

She gave us lowdown on all the different types of chilli, rice, ginger etc etc.... hmmm yummy.

Rice - not as simple as u wld think!

We all picked the dishes we would cook and headed back to the cooking school.
We started with Tom Yum Goong a spicy prawn soup:

My version - it was delicious, although two days later when both Chad and I (the makers of this soup) fell violently ill, we could only pin it on this shrimp.

" You no eat shrimp in north of Thailand, the sea is so far" said one disgusted Thai woman.

*smack* is what ran through my ill and dazed head.

Me - oblivious to the shrimp busy poisoning my stomach!

Boom showing her skills!!


She had us in stitches of laughter with her statements.
"Boom so clever, so beautiful, why she still single... because Boom tough girl!"

She also picked on Chad, the lone American, saying Americans usually travelled in groups and usually spoke non-stop.


"Fran why are Americans like this?" she asked. "English language have 26 letters, how many in America?"
"I dunno," I shrugged, suggesting helpfully "Four?"

She  also did a wonderful Jamie Oliver impression:


"When you go on cooking show... you make only this face," she said, closing her eyes and slowly tasting a ball of sticky rice while moaning gently with her head tilted to one side. Suddenly she opens her eyes and says in delight: "Un - beeeee - leeev - abble."

Rolling Spring Rolls.

 Chad, Fran, Evy and Jo

My chicken cashew nut stirfry

 

The class enjoying our meal.

After falling ill I have developed a distaste for the smell and flavours of Thai food - which I hope disappears soon as I am only 2 weeks into my trip......