Thai Cookery

Fresh Veggies...Thai Eggplants are the little green egg shapes things in the upper right.

Fried banana's...oh man...these are a keeper. If you are nice, i'll make them for you some day!

My Favorite food now. Khao Soi.."Chiang Mai Noodles"

Chicken w/ coconut milk...simple and nutricious

Stir fried chicken with cashews and curry! A quick and flavorful treat.

A small representation of the varieties of rice for sale.

Dried goods of unknown orgin

Our fruit seller. She looks thrilled to be selling fruit. But now i know there are 2 types of dragon fruit available.

First of all I need to make a correction to a previous post. Our jungle trek was not near the border of China. In fact, after looking at a map and re-schooling myself....Thailand doesn't border China. Only Myanmar and Loas in the north and Cambodia and Malasia in the south. So please forgive my geographical oversight.

I took a one day course in traditional Thai cooking. Being the "slight" Gastronome (is that the right word?) that I am it was a great way to spend a last day in Chiang Mai learning the secrets and tips to make Thai cooking much easier. We started our day with a trip to the local market to purchase the produce and meats and fish we would need to cook for the day. Typically most good restaurants and households will go shopping daily. It's the only way to ensure the freshness that is critical in the cuisine. It was fascinating to learn about all the bizzaro fruits and veggies, and also get to try them in-situ. Seeing the fish get yanked out of a plastic pail and them get brutally clobbered by a woman with a mallot and then gutted in really somthing to see. The fish guts just get washed into the street at the end of the day when the dogs come and eat whatever the birds havnt already eaten. It's the great circle of life around the market. Only the dogs dont typically get sold for consumption here....thats in Vietnam and some other countries.
As results depicted in the above pictures, the food is simple and delicious and really isnt that hard to make with the right ingredients. Assuming you have an asian market in town you can get most everything you need. So look forward to many a yummy meal with me when I return!
I'm off to Ayuthaya on the train Monday. It's a city with lots of old ruins similar to Ankor Wat in Cambodia. Will spend a few days there seeing the ancient temples and stone Bhuddas before returning to the madness of Bangkok and then the trecherous roads to Cambodia. Thankfully someone else will be doing the driving!
Au revoir!