Thai Cooking

08.01.: Taking a cooking class when you are in Bangkok or Chiang Mai is one of the "must do's". We had a lot of fun doing it 11 years ago and cooked one or two things at home. So no question, we'll do it again!

The number of providers has continued to grow, but the school from back then (Basil Cooking) is still there and so we booked there again. Advantage: the small group of 6-8 people, there were only 6 of us (besides us, a couple from Brazil and a father and daughter from France). And of course the chef and 3 student helpers who prepared, cleaned up after us and did the dishes.

The course starts at the market, with an explanation of the ingredients. In Germany you can get most of it in the Asian market in larger cities.

Then we started straight away, everyone chose 1 dish from different categories that they cooked (and ate) themselves. At first we had a good appetite, but you can imagine that after 4 hours we rolled out of there...

The delicacies that Elmar and I cooked included two different soups, a red curry including homemade curry paste, a chicken stir fry with chashews, classic Pad Thai, Drunken Noodles, spring rolls (super tasty and no comparison to the ones you bought!) . And of course dessert: Mango Sticky Rice and Black Coconut Rice. In general, most of the dishes tasted better than in the restaurant!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun again, thanks to the nice group. What's great is that everything is prepared, you just chop a little and then everything goes into the wok. And the little helpers clean up after you and clean everything.... It's also great value for money, because we were so full that we didn't need anything to eat for the rest of the day....

January 11th: We spent the rest of our time in Chiang Mai relaxing and doing some online work. A visit to the very well-known monastery located outside on the Doi Suthep mountain in the evening was also included. From there you have a magnificent view of the city.

On Thursday evening we took the night train back south again. First to Bangkok, where I'm currently writing this blog sitting by the river, because we have to bridge a few hours before we take another 5 hour train this afternoon further south to the Gulf Coast to Prachuat Kiri Khan - a rather unknown place. With fresh coconut you can bear the humid heat here to some extent...