Dear Family and Friends,

Mondays are tough, are they not? I cheerfully experienced an exception this Monday when I woke to a beautiful 6:00 o’clock sunrise, stretched, and realized that my body felt almost normal (there had been issues). I felt good and happy and looked forward to the day.

I know, I know, at this point you are all wondering if this is the same Laura Drumm, the same one who awakes with ruffled hair, slitted eyes, and acts like Medusa.

Well, yes, same girl, but you see I had a reservation for a cooking class at a Chang Mai cooking school called “A Lot of Thai” and although I really needed to follow-up on my correspondence relating to Korea, I was helpless to do so because the Internet cafes were not yet open and I was committed to cook. And I was hungry! But I followed orders and did not eat breakfast – which worked really well because by 10:30 am, I had successfully imitated an expert, concocted myself a plate of Pad Thai, and happily sat down to eat my efforts.

“A Lot of Thai” is a cooking school run by the Sriyabhaya family out of their home: Yui is the teacher and spirit of the place, her husband Kwan is business manager, graphic designer, driver, jack of all trades, while their 4 year-old son is the “part-time general manager” of the place – although he away at his other part-time job during my visit (attending pre-school). This last Monday there were 7 of us students: 3 unapproachable bordering snobby German ladies, 1 wonderfully, non-snobby Israeli guy, an unlikely American couple, and myself. We were a motley, non-cohesive group but with Yui’s guidance, we soon learned Pad Thai, Hot & Sour Prawn Soup (Tom Yam Kung), Green Curry with Chicken, Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Spring Rolls, and Mango + Sticky Rice. We ate what we cooked and by the end of the day, we were full and groaning. I took my green curry as “take away” – which made a perfect dinner before journeying to *sigh* Korean paperwork.

Yui was a kick, so knowledgeable as well as a wonderful teacher and I learned loads about cooking from her – but my favorite part of the day was a middle of the day visit to a Thai market. I had been to a true Thai market just after my visit to Doi Suthep and I sadly wandered through its aisles, too chicken to buy anything already cooked (flies + lack of refrigeration make me very cautious) and because I didn’t have a clue what I’d be buying. Generally I am unbothered by tasting unidentified foods but the sheer population of unrecognizable foods at this particular Thai market was daunting beyond hunger.

Anyway, now, please come with me for a tour of our tour:

Admittedly, we started off on the wrong note: fried pig skin with or without fat. I had actually tried this one night with the boys but I cannot say I’ll ever develop a taste for it. And the fat content [shudder]…! Yet things rapidly improved as we walked down an aisle created by long tables weighted with metal bowls filled with spicy fish mixes, sauces, sausages, fried fish, pre-prepared stir fry kits (already cut up veggies), and fried cakes. Further down there were desserts: bananas or sweet potatoes or pumpkin or taro root in coconut milk, white sticky rice, black sticky rice, Chinese black jelly…



On the other side of the aisle, Yui stopped to show us other desserts: pumpkin cakes, taro cakes, sesame cakes, and sweetened egg yokes. I’ll admit that I hadn’t tried any of these but I did later and found that I really liked the green ones in the right corner – pandanus cakes.

We next wandered past the fruit, many were identified for us – especially the Durian - the “King of Thai fruit.” I’ve long been afraid to try Durian as it is reputed to be so stinky that many hotels ban it. Yui assured me that it is only that stinky when over-ripe and gave me some general guidelines for trying it, devoid of my sense of smell. I’m still girding my courage on this – and may save for scaring bushy-bearded man. Gotta love my smell paranoia…



We also clapped eyes on green bumpy skin custard apples, larger, rounder, less bumpy guavas (v. good when served with salt + sugar + pepper dipping accompaniment). We saw mangosteens (which confusingly resemble eggplants), long gongs (size of grapes, have seeds but taste closer to lychees and require peeling of tough skins), tamarinds (you eat the eat the sweet ones – the sour ones make Thai food luscious), and rambutans (picturesque members of the lychee family – approximate size of golf balls with green & red hair skins). We also learned about santol (often cut & served by street vendors) and sala (pointed, spiky fruits that I missed the description of while taking a picture somewhere else - so I’ll just have to try). We also passed the happily recognizable green oranges (contradiction in terms), apples, ripe mangos, hanging banana bunches, ripe papayas, melons, and green papayas. Thailand is a great country for fruit.

Next we breezed by the steamed fish arrayed on leaves in small baskets and stopped near the rice. One stand had 17 huge, colored plastic bowls of different types of rice. We were told that there wasn’t a huge amount of difference between the rices – besides the sticky rices versus regular rice for steaming. One useful bit of knowledge: Yui explained that there are both young and older rices. The younger rice starts out with a higher moisture content and cooks faster while the moisture has long since dried from the older rice and when cooked, it takes longer and is crunchier. She likes younger rice; older Thais like older rice. Coincidence?



On to the veggies and lots of familiar items: tomatoes, browning cauliflowers, onions, limes, chilis. We passed regular recognizable garlic and the smaller, thinner skinned Thai garlic, lemon grasses, Thai basil, regular sweet basil, pandanus leaves, shallots, basil, and Kaffir lime leaves. I loved the rice-straw and rat-ear mushrooms and was very intrigued by the pinky galangal root (another v. Southeast Asian flavoring – related to ginger). Excellent discoveries: the pumpkins in Southeast Asia are blue and they taste different too. And I finally found out what banana blossoms look like: they are beautiful, large pointed, waxy, unopened blossoms of a light yellow color, heavily tinged with magenta. Beautiful – and so tasty. I was also greatly intrigued to meet fresh luffas – oh, yes, the bathroom “sponges” that we are all so fond of are actually Southeast Asian vegetables. And I was even more amused to glimpse a Thai vegetable family where all the names start with “fuc_ _ _...” It doesn’t take much to amuse me…



I then popped into a metal-lined room for a walk through the fresh seafood and meats – I stayed just long enough to re-contemplate becoming a vegetarian. To recover, I took Yui at her word and ordered a fruit shake from “the best place in Chang Mai” – I had a lime shake served with shaved ice and a straw in a plastic bag. It was scrumptious.

Finally, I succumbed to investing in some palm sugar and with my head stuffed with food notes, I followed my guide and fellow students out with the promise of green curry and mango + sticky rice in near future. Oh…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Laura

PS: For the record, very soon now I’ll be returning to my Monday morning Medusa act… feel free to count your lucky stars that you are thousands of miles away and in no danger of turning to a pillar of stone.