Thai Cooking Class

This is Stephanie again.  We've been doing so much fun stuff lately we are having to share the blog writing resposibilites in order to keep up.  Plus Adam is lazy. 

We have wanted to take a cooking class several times during our trip, but it has never worked out.  So, when we were in Chiang Mai we made it a priority.  I was really excited because I love Thai food (Pad Thai ranks up there right behind Spaghetti for me) and Adam has found a Thai dish that he really likes, Pad see ew, so he was looking forward to it as well.  

The school we chose is run by a Thai couple out of their house.  The husband picked us up and our first stop was a local market.  He showed us a few of the main Thai ingredients and then we got a chance to look around while he shopped for our supplies.  He also made everyone smell "Thai Chocolate", otherwise known as shrimp paste, which is used to make curry paste.  Nasty.  They also seem to love pork skins because someone was frying them up on every corner.  

Fresh Veggies at the Market

When we made it to the house we met his wife Nancy, who was our teacher, and their 18 month old son, Peter Pan.  At first we thought thy were joking about the name, but we are not sure.  His name might really be Peter Pan.  One reason that we choose this class was because they let you pick the dishes that you want to make from 6 different categories instead of having a set menu.  This way we could steer clear of seafood, which neither one of us like, and pick different dishes for double the fun.  Nancy turned out to be a great teacher and was incredibly organized.  She was always able to keep up with what everyone was making, knew what ingredients to give to who, and alway remembered to tell us when to add what.  A couple times I thought she might have forgotten about me and asked a question like  - "Was I supposed to already add my rice?" - but the answer was always "Not yet, I'll let you know when."  It was impressive.  I guess when you have been doing it every day for three years you get a good system down, but it was still impressive.  She was also really funny and loved to cook, which made for a good atmosphere.  I think we were smiling the whole day.

Me and Nancy

Our first course was soup and I made a Coconut Chicken soup that I was in love with.  It was pretty easy too (especially with someone helping you) - we just chopped up a bunch of ingredients, threw them in a pot, boiled them for a couple minutes, and out came wonderful soup!  I think I will be able to make this one again and can't wait to try.

I'm ready for some chopping!

Making Soup

Another thing that we enoyed was the curry.  We made everything from scratch, starting with the curry paste.  Curry is something fairly new for Adam and I - we didn't even know what it was until we went to New Zealand - but we are starting to like it.  The curry dishes we made at the class were great, just a little spicy for us.  Thai's love spicy food, so it's really easy to get caught up and start adding too many peppers!  I am not one for spicy food, so I'm pretty sure this was the spiciest thing I've ever eaten.  

Making the Curry Paste

Adam's finished Massaman Curry

Eating time!

Most things we made were wonderful, but one thing that didn't turn out great was my Pad Thai.  It wasn't bad, just not as good as the Thai ladies make it.  I didn't cook the noodles fast enough and they were soggy.  I think I'll have better luck next time though now that I know what I'm doing.  

My Pad Thai

Half way through the day we took a break from cooking for a vegetable carving lesson.  Project One was a thin slice of potato that we were supposed to turn into a leaf.  Nancy said this was one of her hobbies and she showed us step by step.  I gave this my full concentration, but turns out I a no leaf carver.  Me and Adam had a good laugh over my attempt.

My leaf (left) vs. Adam's leaf (right)

Project Two was turning a carrot into a flower.  I love flowers so I was determined to end up with something beautiful.  But it was not meant to be.  Adam's didn't turn out so bad, but mine looked like it could have been done by Peter Pan and was more of a sun than a flower.  We laughed even harder over the carrot flower than we had over the potato leaf.  I am actually laughing as I type this just thinking about it.  Next time I can get my hands on a carrot and carving knife I am going to have to try this one again.

From left to right - Stephanie, Adam, Nancy.

At least I did better than Adam at "Adventure Cooking" as Nancy called it.  His wok only smoked, but I got a flame!

Weak

That's how it's done!

We ended the day very full and smiling - we both had a great time.  After the class we headed the bus station to start our 24 hour journey to our next destination, Cambodia!  

A fun day at the Elephant Nature Park

Just about everyone that comes to Chiang Mai does the same tour - trek through the jungle to see some hilltribes (namely the longneck tribe that slowly adds rings around their necks to force them to grow very long), a one-hour elephant ride, and a one-hour ride down a river on a bamboo raft. Though the trekking would've been cool, we couldn't help but think a photo-op with the longnecks would have been a bit exploitative, the elephants are notoriously mistreated, and Steph made it clear she had no desire to ride a bamboo raft. So, we decided it'd be better to spend our money where elephants are notoriously well-treated - at the Elephant Nature Park.

Elephants have always played a key role in Thai culture. They are revered and even worshipped here. They were used as tanks during wars and as bulldozers in the logging industry. When logging was banned in Thailand about 20 years ago (reduced forest land increased the intensity of flooding during the rainy season), many elephants became jobless with some of them transitioning into the tourist industry. This is when Elephant Nature Park founder Lek stepped in, providing free medical treatment for sick or injured elephants and slowly rescuing as many as she could. Today, ENP is home to 32 Asian elephants (and at least as many dogs). You don't get to ride them or watch them play soccer or paint, but you can feed them, bathe them, and love on these big, smelly, gentle (usually) creatures.

Steph at one of the "snack" sessions

Surprisingly they didn't really seem to enjoy bath time

I think this guy was trained to lay in the river and use his trunk as a snorkel, but it was still cool!

It was an amazing experience to get to hang out with these rescued elephants for a day. We fed them two "snacks" - huge buckets of fruit - so had plenty of time to interact with them. I think my favorite part was sitting up on the viewing platform just watching the elephants interact with each other and with their mahouts (handlers). We heard amazing stories of elephant-elephant bonds, like when a blind elephant (tortured by former owners when it refused to work after it's baby died) showed up at camp and was immediately befriended by a resident elephant, who stays with her constantly. We also heard amazing stories of elephant-mahout bonds - apparently elephants are like dogs in that they live to please their caretaker.  There is one elephant that is newer to the park and hasn't made any elephant friends yet, but won't leave the side of her mahout.  Whenever he takes a nap, she stays beside him and watches out for him.

Or maybe my favorite part was the "elephant kisses" we got from an elephant named Hope

Hope suctions her slobbery trunk to your face and blows snot all over you

On the more depressing side of things, we watched a National Geographic documentary about the horrible torture that is still used today to break an elephant's spirit so it will become obedient. They lock it in a cage for days, torturing it and starving it, then drag it around with it's legs tied together until it follows obediently. It's especially saddening considering what good memory elephants have - ensuring they'll never forget that experience. Under Thai law, wild elephants are protected but domestic ones are classified as livestock so they aren't protected at all. Their numbers in the wild are declining very fast and few people seem to care. If you're looking for a rewarding vacation, come to Thailand and volunteer at the ENP for a week and lend a hand! Anyways, enough of that depressing stuff, maybe some pictures of baby elephants will cheer you up. So cute!