Day 11: Seven Colors of Rice and Every Spice in the Cabinet

December 30, 2024

We've finally made it, people. The best activity of the entire trip so far (at least according to me) was today. The cooking class!!!! YAY!

Now as you know, I love cooking and baking, and making a huge mess in the kitchen for Maxwell to clean up. So of course I was pretty excited that we had a Thai cooking class on the itinerary during our stay in Chiang Mai. But I didn't really know what it would be like, or how much actual cooking we'd get to do. I was pleasantly THRILLED with how fun, hands-on, and educational our experience was. Let me tell you all about it.

We started our morning with another quick riverside breakfast at our hotel. The coconut yogurt and homemade granola was outstanding for the second day in a row, and thankfully the staff at the Anantara did not seem to have trouble understanding our coffee orders! Max went savory with a bowl of noodle soup while I had some fruit and a pastry. Then we were off to meet the rest of our classmates at a local market.

We were blessed with the BEST chef/guide, Perm, who owns the cooking school. He truly is a jack of all trades, serving as our driver, market guide, chef, and comedian for the day. I was honestly loling at his jokes, not just because I laugh at everything but because he was also genuinely cracking himself up.

Our class started at the market before we even arrived at the cooking school. Perm took us around and showed us how to pick the best eggs, rice, herbs, and more. He explained the uses for tons of local produce and unfamiliar items, and picked up the fresh ingredients we would need for the class later. He also taught us about the process for making coconut water, milk, and cream-- and what the differences between them are. We had some free time to explore the market (though it wasn't enough, I could've spent all day in there) and grabbed a quick iced coffee before we were back on the van and headed to the cooking school.

Before we got started, everyone got to choose the dishes they wanted to cook, in addition to the ones we would all be making together. Max and I purposely picked different ones so that we'd get to taste as many different things as possible. Here's what was on the menu:

• Pad Thai with chicken

• Green papaya salad

• Curry: Panang for me, Khao Soi for Max

• Soup: coconut for me, rice for Max

• Stir Fry: chicken with cashews for me, holy basil chicken for Max

• Mango sticky rice (duh) with seven different colors of rice! Wowza!

• Plus a butterfly pea drink that was bright purple. Was today meant for me or what???

We got to our stations, donned our aprons, and were introduced to our cooking equipment. I was ecstatic to be in a kitchen after 10+ consecutive days of restaurant meals. Then it was time to get started on our soup. Perm transformed into kind of a drill sergeant, and I loved it. He did a quick demo and then it was our turn. Even though members of our group were making 3 different kinds of soup, he had the routine locked down, telling each person what to chop and add to their pot, and when. He even had it choreographed so that different soup-makers were standing or sitting at different times. Max loved getting to show off his knife skills.

While the soups were not the most beautiful looking, they tasted amazing and were a great start to our class! Then it was time to prep the colored rice for our dessert. As a team we mixed natural ingredients into the sticky rice to create a gorgeous rainbow. We saved the rest for later and moved on to a fun little science experiment. It turns out that butterfly pea tea is naturally blue, but when you squeeze a lime into it, the colors changes to purple! Who knew?! As the proud owner of a butterfly pea signature cocktail from our wedding, this was mind blowing to me.

Anyway, back to our stations. Up next was Pad Thai. Another quick (maybe too quick) demo from Perm and we were back in business. I was amazed by how easily and quickly the dish came together and can't wait to make it myself when we are back at home. Just need to purchase a few specialty ingredients, namely palm sugar and tamarind juice. If you can believe it I don't have those lying around my kitchen just yet. My Pad Thai ended up being a bit spicy due to a heavy-handed kitchen assistant dumping too much chili in at the end, but it was still delicious and I didn't mind breaking a light sweat eating it!

Then it was curry time. It was a full class effort grinding spices and herbs into our fresh curry paste-- finally all of our workouts were paying off. I loved getting to learn about the different curry pastes and how just a couple of ingredients can totally change the taste of a dish. Perm's spice knowledge was next level! 15 ingredients went into the Panang curry paste alone. After lots of grinding and flexing, we returned to our stations to cook our curries. We saved them for later to eat as part of our lunch.

Next we used a cool string peeler (not sure what it's actually called) to make a spicy papaya salad. I had always wondered how Thai restaurants got the papaya into such even little strips, and now I know. More mortar-and-pestle-ing to make the dressing and then it sat to marinate while the cooking continued.

And now... the big spectacle moment. Stir fry flame fest!!!! Perm taught us how to carefully stir fry our ingredients to make a huge and dramatic fire in our woks. Max's almost fell off the burner, but no worry. It was extremely cool and luckily Perm had assigned another one of our classmates to take a video of it for us.

We rewarmed our curries, added a few garnishes, and finally it was time to eat. We feasted on the salad, curry, stir fry, and mango sticky rice together, feeling so proud of all of our hard work. The food was genuinely amazing. My favorite was the Panang curry and Max really loved his khao soi. It was sooo nice to do some cooking for ourselves and we were beyond proud of the finished products!

I will say, as beautiful as the mango sticky rice was, it wasn't the MOST flavorful. The mango was super juicy though!

Finally, Perm showed us a quick tour of the grounds where they grow herbs, vegetables, and rice. Then it was back to the van for the drive home. We were sleepy, full, and so content.

Our amazing day continued with a couples massage at the hotel spa. Not only was it great but it was free with our booking which made it even better! By the time it was over we were fully blissed out and ready for a nap.

The night concluded with dinner at the hotel restaurant, 1921 House, which was underwhelming to say the least. It's a Western restaurant so we went with some classics- caesar salad, burger and fries, etc. We appreciated a break from Thai food but the restaurant food was pretty basic, especially for the prices. They were steep in general but outrageous compared to how cheap everything is in Thailand. I did appreciate having some fresh veggies in my system though, and for some reason the restaurant had a gummy candy station that we could take for a sweet treat.

All in all we had an outstanding day and learned SO much about Thai food and cooking. Here is a link to the e-cookbook from our class if you're interested! Everything was super authentic and while there were a lot of ingredients the recipes were not too complicated.

Off to Bangkok for a quick stop tomorrow, then the Maldives. We can't wait! Happy new year!

Love, Emily