Hello all,
We had a bit of potentially bad news late last night... The company we have booked our tours through have a four person minimum and we are the only two people booked on the trip to bangkok so they might not run it. It's not until Sunday, so I'm really hoping some more people book in the mean time! Fingers crossed!!
On a better note; We've just got back from our Thai cooking course and it was absolutely fantastic!
We were picked up from our hotel at 08:45 in an open backed taxi (like a flat bed van with a roof and side bars) and driven straight to the market with the two ladies running the course.
It was already 32.9•c.
It was the same market we had been to the day before, but as it was early in the morning the smell wasn't as bad... It was still rife compared to English standards, but not quite as potent.
Our course was split into two groups to walk round the market and we were with the main lady (we think her name was Phuhm?), she told us about everything we were buying and loads more... The 'eggplants' (aubergine) they have are about the size of marbles when they're fully grown. Their parsley is long and flat. The carrots are the same. Boring carrots! We also watched coconuts being ground and creamed, which was pretty cool. As each item was bought, it was given to a member of our group to carry. As well as the unusual foods, there were some really interesting people and ways of doing things... Motor bikes and mopeds drive inside the market too!
We got picked up from the market and driven to the course.
It was in a traditional Thai teak house and absolutely stunning.
First we were shown how to make red curry paste and had a go at bashing the ingredients in the pestle and mortar.
Next we prepared all of the ingredients for all the dishes we were going to make. Simon and I fried cashew nuts, I fried some tempura floured chicken with the help of two french children, Simon shredded some white papaya and carrot. Other members prepared other parts, one of which was flash frying some dried chillies... OH MY GOD!! Even though each batch was only fried for 10 seconds at a time, they snatched the breath from your throat and everyone was coughing... The Thai's thought this bit was hilarious!
We then made chicken with cashew nuts and chowed down on that with some rice, followed by spicey papaya salad, next stir fried pork in red curry paste, finally mango with sticky coconut rice. The latter being my absolute favourite dish of the day.
Simon was in his element and I really enjoyed it too! It turns out that cooking is a dream when you have someone else chopping your ingredients and washing up for you! Haha!
While we were there we had our first taste of a Thai storm.
It's only 14:45 and we're back already, so we're going to head to the night market tonight. We've booked our place on the bus to and from, so we'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!
Also, I've posted a few pics already but they go separately into a photos section, not with the main blog. I'm not sure if you realise or not.
Hoping you're all ok and everything is well at home.
Lots of love xx