Day 33 & 34

Tuesday

For some reason I’m feeling very tired this week!

I had a pleasant morning, catching up with emails, writing my blog and generally just doing very little! 

After yesterdays epic storm the sun is shining today and it’s Hot 🥵

I’ve decided to walk back to the Thai Trouser place today as I’m pretty sure they’ll be open. It’s not far but a bit harder work in the blazing sun, I walk a very wiggly route trying to stay under the awnings and in the shade 😀 

Luckily the shop is open and my purchases are made and I walk back a slightly different way and stop for a cold drink. 

I’ve seen,lots of people drinking and ordering Thai Tea (iced) so I decide to give it a go. It is delicious, but really sweet, apparently it’s made with strong black tea, milk, condensed milk & sugar! 😀

I think the Thai people have a very sweet tooth! Might account for all the Dental Clinics everywhere 😂

I spent the afternoon chilling at the pool. The hotel is getting busier p, which is fantastic for them, but I’m a little out out that so many people are now in my bloody swimming pool!! 😂😂(just kidding….I think 🤔😁)

My Thai Tea has kept me going all day, but by 6.30 I’m hungry, so,go,out early for my dinner, I go back to ‘Hummus’ for a falafel and some tomato salad! So good.  

We really need a good Falafel place in Newquay!! Nikki? Jenna?

I’m pretty tired so I have an early night. 

Wednesday 

Today I’m going to do a Thai Cooking Class! 

I’m doing a half day course in the morning.

I get picked up at the hotel at 8.45, our group has a French guy and his son, and 3 lovely Spanish ladies who are at my hotel. 

Our first stop is the local fresh food market, which I’ve walked past but not investigated. Our guide/teacher, Kat, explains all of the various key ingredients in Thai cooking. Things like: Fish Sauce, palm sugar, oyster sauce, garlic, tamarind sauce, tofu, turmeric, chillies. 

Vegetarians can swap out the fish sauce for Soy Sauce and the Oyster Sauce for Mushroom Sauce. 

They also use certain things as flavour but don’t eat, like Lemongrass, Thai Ginger (galangal), Kaffier Lime leaves.

There are so many amazing vegetables and food stuffs at the market it’s fascinating. 

We get to cook 5 dishes! I choose. Pad Thai, Coconut Soup, Penang Curry and we all do Spring Rolls. The 5th item is the curry paste. 

After looking round the market we walk to the cooking school. 

They have a lush little herb garden and Kat explains what herbs are which, the difference between Kaffir limes and limes, Kaffier Limes are used to add sourness. The 3 different sorts of basil, some which is hot and used in stir fry’s and sweet basil used in curry paste 

We start the lesson with a Thai welcome snack, called Meang Kum. 

This consists of a Betal Leaf which you use to hold everything. In the leaf you place very small chopped pieces of, Lime with the rind (the rind adds a bitter note) Birds eye chilli (add as much or as little as you want) sliced shallots, sliced ginger, roasted peanuts, toasted coconut and palm sugar syrup. 

Once you’ve put a small amount of everything in the leaf you wrap it up and eat the whole thing at once. If you chew slowly it releases all the different flavours! It was amazing! 

If you can’t get Betal leaves you can use cabbage, or large spinach leaves.

After this delicious snack it was cooking time. We started with Pad Thai, some people chose different stir fry’s; Pad Se Uw, Cashew with Chicken. 

We had all the ingredients laid out we just had to chop and prepare. 

I feel like I could go full on and describe every detail, but feel that would make this blog very, very long, so I’ll try and cover the highlights! 

The Paid Thai was surprisingly quick & easy to make! Once you have your ingredients ready it’s just a quick cook in the wok! 

I think to do Thai cooking properly you need a really good wok, steel, metal, no non stick stuff! and learn to control the heat! 

My Pad Thai was soo good! We all stopped to eat and try the others food. And drink some much needed water! It’s hot wok!

Then Kat said we would be cooking everything else, and eating it at the end. 

First we needed to make the insides of the Spring Rolls, it’s made in 1 batch and I was nominated to make it! 😍 

Next we made our various soups. Pretty simple, but yummy!

Then it was in to the Curry Paste. There are 3 base pastes, red, green & Masamam things are added.

The Penang Paste is a red curry base then you add peanuts. 

Khao Soi is a red curry paste with curry powder added.

We had to chop all of the ingredients very small then grind it down in a pestle & mortar, this we did in pairs, thank god as it’s bloody hard work! Once the paste was right my partner, Blanca & I added the peanuts for the Penang.

Then it was a case of cooking our Curry’s. Once again it’s actually very simple once you have your ingredients! 

My Penang was absolutely bloody amazing! 😍 

We then fried our spring rolls and sat down to eat. 

I had an absolutely fantastic time, everything about the morning was amazing. 

We also got to keep a recipe and cookbook. So I’ll be making Thai food alot on my return! 

The Spanish ladies; Blanca, Helena, Natalia and I all walked home and then being full and hot, just lazed by the pool all afternoon. Bliss. ❤️

One other particularly helpful thing to come out of the morning. Was a chat I had with the Spanish ladies, they said they were leaving Chiang Mai on the 30th July, so I said ‘oh Sunday’ and they were like ‘No, Saturday’ and I’m thinking, but I leave on the 29th which is Saturday. Well actually Claire, it’s not! You leave on Friday!! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ 

I had really got it in my head that I left on Saturday, I’m pretty sure (😬) I would have figured it out in time! 

I told all of this to Rebecca, thank god, because she had also got her timings wrong and thought they were leaving after work on Friday but it’s actually after work on Thursday!! 

Jesus! What a pair of numptys we are. We are both usually more organised and on the ball than this!! Honest. 

Still it’s all sorted now! 

So tomorrow is my last day in Chiang Mai. 

Which means it’s only 1 more sleep until I see my Beautiful Rebecca!! That’s just too exciting. 

I’m going to post this blog now, and probably won’t post again for a few days. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

I’m going to have the best one!! Reunited ❤️❤️❤️❤️