kao nio ma muang .... anyone?

More of that later when I talk about the day at the Cookery School.

Well, I thought 40 degrees high enough, but I have now experienced 43 - a wopping 109 fahrenheit.   Too hot!   this week, it's difficult to be out of aircon between about 12 & 4 so having to have pm siesta.   just how much hotter can it get?

Highlights of this last week .......

Checked out a hotel swimming pool.   Hotel quite snazzy but pool area seen better days although pool itself clean and very refreshing.  Apparently, unless living by the sea, Thais don't learn to swim  - probably because it cost us 150 bahts each to go in (remember mimimum wage is officially 350 bahts a DAY).

Hit Chiang Mai Night Bazaar.   A mega giant market.  Think Birmingham Bullring markets times 20 and some!   As with markets all over the world, lots of stalls selling the same things, lots of fake and lots of tack.   On the other hand, loads of colour and unusual bits & bods and some real gems at ....for us Westerners .... ridiculously low prices - and, yes, haggling is encouraged!   Pity I don't have a strong man any more to carry extra luggage for the journey home.

Pick a colour, any colour - cute baby shoes in Lanna style

"Ooh La Lah Honey Bread"  - a kind of posh bread & butter pudding.  Oozing with honey and dripping cream with big blodge of ice cream, topped with bananas and toasted flaked almonds.  Yummy Yummy, as the Thais would say!

Day at the Thai Farm Cookery School with Amy.   It was excellent .... hard work, fun, educational and Yummy!
We were picked up at my hotel about 8.50 .... oh no!   The heave-oh into the back of the truck was not pretty.   I've only got short legs and I can tell you, it was higher than me (almost!) .   Still, had to be done.    After we had gone about 20 mins, stopped at a food market.  Fascinating.   Our lady Thai teacher took us around a few stalls explaining and showing us Thai herbs, spices, sauces (where we kept getting splattered with fish water and god only knows what else as the woman on stall behind us was battering to submission fish chosen by customers with a big hunk of wood).  We then moved onto rice tales and then "a million things they do with coconuts" which I then was chewing for hours!   Then we had 15 mins to explore on our own.   Hucknall Market -  you could learn a thing or two!   Think the most "wonderful" items for sale were crispy frogs followed closely by fried maggots (there were probably other contenders but, sorry, couldn't identify which species of edible insects.   No, we didn't sample - didn't want to spoil our appetite for other things coming later.

Our Thai cookery teacher with all the sauces we used

Green, red and yellow curry paste

Chewing on fresh minced coconut... for hours...

Pickled........ some....thing......

Horrific meat

Huge bags of pork scratchings

Fried insects, yum yum

Tea and coffee stall

Lurid Thai .... desserts?

Back in the truck (oh, and the nice driver obviously didn't want to detour via the hospital to get me un-dislocated, so had found me a step to climb up into the truck).   About 30 mins later, after driving through countryside, we arrived at the farm.    No time for a rest - straight to work pounding our pessels to make the sauce for our chosen curry.    We had chosen from a list of what we wanted to cook when we booked the trip.    But before we got down to other dishes we were took on a guided tour around their herb, fruit and vegetable gardens - picking, smelling and tasting.

So, by the end of the day, I had made and eaten:

kaeng kiao waan gai   (green curry with chicken)   not too keen
tom yam kung  (soup with scrimps)   delicious
gai phad met mamuang him mapaan  (fried chicken with cashews) delicious
pad thai  (fried noodles)  took back for Andy who said it was good
kao nio ma muang (sticky rice with mango)  to die for!

Really great day, and would like to do back in UK if I can find the ingredients.  Apparently you can find most in an Asian supermarket.

Mango with sticky rice and coconut sauce - a tasty Thai dessert