cookin' up a storm in Thailand

During my entire time in Thailand I don't think I've gone more than 2 or 3 hours without eating something. I just can't help it - Thai food is so delicious! After enjoying the food so much, I decided it would be awesome if I could actually make some of these dishes myself when I was back at home. And so, a few days after we arrived in Chiang Mai, Dan and I found ourselves donning aprons and cooking up a variety of dishes under the expert supervision of the teachers at Cooking@Home.

We got picked up in the morning and went straight to the market where we learned more about the ingredients we'd be cooking with. After we purchased the ingredients we proceeded to the school. The setup was fantastic - there was a very nice eating pavilion where we could enjoy our creations while looking out over the cows in the nearby pasture. There was also a large classroom with a teacher's demo station up front, and a group of cooking stations to the side where we'd attempt to concoct the same dish we'd just seen the teacers effortlessly prepare.

After arriving we took a quick coffee break (cooking class started bright and early) and got right to work! The teachers would make a dish (and make the process look incredibly easy), and then we'd attempt to follow it. We made a variety of delicious dishes, including Pad Thai, green curry with chicken, Tom Yang Goon soup, mango salad, and sticky rice with mango. As my roommates can attest, I rarely cook recipes with more than 3 ingredients, so these Thai dishes with 10+ ingredients were quite intimidating. Still, I found that it was actually pretty easy to do - at least when all the ingredients are prepped for you and you have a teacher present to assist if things get out of hand. I definitely had a blast, and am excited to give it a shot when I get back to the US. Check out my dishes below:

buying ingredients at the local market

posing with my Pad Thai (one of my favorite Thai dishes), impatient to finish taking pictures so I can dig in and try out (it was excellent!).

our teacher shows us how to make a tomato rose

one of my masterpieces - Thai green curry with chicken

Time to enjoy the fruits of my labor - about to dine on Thai green curry over rice and Tom Yang Goon soup

Dan and I pose with our mango salads

helping the teacher pepare mango with sticky rice (so good!)

my mango with sticky rice - note the "rose" made out of mango skin - I took the teacher's lesson about maing a tomato rose and ran with it - very proud of the finished product!!