7 meals in a day

Posted by Heidi

Day 4 begun at about 8:30am with another yummy and leisurely breakfast at the B&B (for me this entails selecting the cereal option). In hindsight this meal could have been avoided as by 1pm we’d had 5 meals. We got picked up in a sawngthaew again and bumped along to Baan Thai Cooking School. We turned up and met our fellow German cooking student Katrine and our chef ‘Tom’ who decked us out in pretty aprons and bandanas for our hair. He gave us a brief run down of the basics of cooking rice, agreed that a rice cooker is the best way to cook rice, and warned us that eating too much sticky rice leaves you looking like the aforementioned ie. White, short and fat. We then went of to the markets to buy our ingredients.





Chris and Ryan were smart enough to bring along their baskets, whereas after dissing the boys for looking gay carrying baskets, the girls had neglected to do so and thus failed to do their part for the environment. We walked around the markets looking at all the crazy fresh produce being sold, such as bundles of spring onion, tumeric, ginger, celery tied up together – a Thai soup stock. We even saw some of the elusive MSG. Ryan wanted to smuggle some home to Australia taped to the inside of his thighs. There was also fresh galangal, tumeric, kaffir lime leaves and morning glory. Chris was trying to explain to Danae what morning glory meant, but impetuous Danae assured him she knew what it was (an Oasis song). Later on when queried about it she eventually got the gist of it. There was some dodgy looking meat and seafood and fish being gutted before us. After the markets we went back to the cooking school and at about 10am ate meal number 2 of the day – a Thai “welcome pack” consisting of chilli, peanuts, coconut, dried shrimp, ginger and shallot self-assembled in a cone leaf of some sort. It was awesome and definitely had a kick! We also had sticky rice and banana, mangosteen, and some fruit commonly known as the lychee’s hairy cousin.



After that we got stuck into the cooking, first up my favourite - chicken and cashew nut. Each of us cooked up a storm in our own woks, and at about 11:30am ate our chicken and cashew nut, meal number 3, and were each very impressed with our own cooking. Immediately following this we sat around in a circle on the ground with a clevers and chopping boards made of tree trunks. We made a spicy noodle salad and chicken in coconut milk soup. We used little green chillies for this, how many was up to the individual punter. After we cooked this up we sat back down and consumed both these before 1pm (meals 4 and 5). By this time we’d apparently deserved a 30 minute break which involved lying on the floor under the fan propped up by those Thai triangular pyramidal cushions, and of course a cleansing ale for some.



Soon enough it was back to the grind to make some red curry paste. This involved finely cutting up heaps of herbs and roots and then grinding them up in a heavy duty mortar and pestle until we had dead arms. Before we knew it we were back sweating up a storm in front of an oil-filled wok frying up fish cakes and cooking red curry chicken, following which we were again instructed to sit back down and eat it. By this time we were overwhelmed by heat and caloric intake and thankfully we’d reached the end. We hauled our sticky rice bodies back into the sawngthaew and headed back home.




We chilled in the safety of our air-conditioned lush bungalow for a while, then headed back out, yet again, to track the progress of Danae’s fitted suit. On the way though, Danae took a tumble on the uneven concrete. We thought she’d maybe sprained her ankle, especially when she felt like she was gonna pass out, but luckily for us, this time the drama was confined to 20 minutes. But Danae pushed through the pain and when regaining at least most of her consciousness she continued on her journey, including hobbling in front of crazy Chiang Mai traffic, to keep her appointment with the suit man. She tried the suit on again, and asked the pants to be taken out about 7 more meals worth following the days feasting efforts.

This was gonna take a coupla hours so we went across the road to the Sugar Shack, a large open-air bar, again without a soul inside. Being the only patrons we were well attended to by the staff with fans and incense positioned strategically around us, as well as free mosquito repellant and tapas (a small plate of a few potato chips) supplied. The boys got through a few staple beers, the girls trying some different cocktails and wine, mostly disappointing (btw if anyone’s willing to send over a case of Marlborough Sauv Blanc at any time it would be very greatly appreciated!!).

So we went back over to the suit shop and miraculously the suit had taken the form of a finished well fitting suit! So Danae tucked yet another bulky and overpriced item under her arm to haul around for the rest of the trip. Chris then hooked us up with another cultureal experience/bargain trip home and bumped along half hanging out of a tuk-tuk. We then had a night-cap and went to bed for what we thought was our last night Chiang Mai…