Cooking Class

I've really been wanting to take a cooking class, and Chiang Mai is the place to do it. We signed up for a day at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. We made six dishes - they're all pictured below except for the Tom Yum Kung, which I forgot to take a picture of. It was one of the best things we made too. The course was very professional and well-run. We were a little disappointed that they did most of the prep work in advance, so basically all we had to do was chop ingredients and cook them. For example, we didn't make our own curry pastes or shrimp stock. But, it sure does make Thai cooking easy when you don't have to shop and someone else does your prep for you. The final results were really good. Our food was delicious and we had a great time.

And now, introducing the chefs:

And the dishes (minus Tom Yum):

Fried fish cakes, a la Ian.

Pad Thai and Green Chicken Curry, a la Ian. You can see a corner of Pad Thai a la Tiara, but Ian's was much prettier.

My green curry was beautiful, though.

Minced chicken salad and jellied water chestnuts in syrup and cream, a la Tiara. Yes, that dessert tasted as weird as it sounds.

And, finally, a shot of me not paying attention in class. We got step-by-step instruction in creating each dish before we were set loose to try it on our own. There was an angled mirror over the instructor's station so we could see exactly what was happening in the pots and on the cutting board: