The Most Dangerous Activity. Also, I Eat a Mangosteen.
Plans changed a little after I finished my last post. We finalised our plane tickets which involved us walking halfway to the ATM, realising that we want to send our postcards at the post office next to the ATM, returning to the hotel to get the postcards, walking to the post office, buying stamps, mailing the postcards, realising that we've forgotten our ATM cards, walking back to the hotel, getting our ATM cards, walking back to the ATM again, getting cash, and going back to the hotel to pay for our plane tickets. We are idiots.
After we bought the tickets, we needed to wait about half an hour for them to arrive, so we wandered off to set up our cooking class for this evening. There is a place near the guest house called Baan Thai and they do a 4 hour evening cooking class with not more than 10 people in a house. We paid our deposit and wandered back to the hotel for our plane tickets and sat for a few minutes in the little cafe. After the tickets arrived, we wandered off to get a small bite to eat (not having had a meal yet) at Huen Phen (again). We had different dishes this time and they were still really good. After lunch we ambled back to the East moat and decided to embark on the most dangerous activity we've yet encountered - getting a shave.
It's hot here and we'd walked past barber shops advertising a shave for 50 Baht, so it seemed like a good idea. I had tried yesterday to get a shave, but the places near the hotel refused to tackle my hairy face. Today we found a place that was brave enough, and it turns out it's because the lady who handles the shaving is absolutely insane. They took me back to the hair-washing station and tilted my head back. I hear some splashing noises and some shaving lotion is spread on my face. Then suddenly I'm attacked on the left cheek by a rapidly moving open razor, scraping and cutting every which way. Forget gently shaving with the grain, this woman was a maniac scything at my face. My first thought after initial contact was just "Oh my god, this is going to hurt for so long." My third or fourth thought was "the Fab Five would never approve." I managed to escape with minor razor burn and a single cut. Perhaps worst of all, she didn't do a great job of the shave despite the consistent low-level pain experienced - my sideburns are extremely weirdly uneven and there are little rough patches. Still, some people come to Thailand and risk their lives with hookers or drug dealers - I braved death at the hands of a female barber.
Justin was next in line for a shave, and I didn't think it fair to deprive him of the experience, so I didn't give him too much warning about what he was in for. I'm such a good friend...
During Justin's shave, I sat outside and chatted with a nice Thai man and his 7-year-oldish daughter who had just pulled up on a scooter. The man sat down and said "Sawasdee khrap," in response to which I looked slightly startled until I parsed it all and replied with the same. He asked where I was from and I told him "America" which I've found is the easiest way to handle that question ("well, I'm from Scotland originally, but I now live in Seattle"). His daughter chimed in at that point with "What's your name?" in pretty good English. I told her and she spent a little time trying to pronounce it, the "l" being a difficult sound. We had a nice chat that went along the lines that many of my chats with Thai people have gone - "How you like Chiang Mai?" "It's gorgeous. Very lovely." "How long you here?" "We arrived 3 days ago, but we leave tomorrow." "So soon!" "Yes, short time." "Where you go next?" "We're going to Bangkok and then to Ko Pha'ngan on Monday." "Oh very beautiful Ko Pha'ngan. My uncle/mother/niece/friend/golf teacher has restaurant. You will like very much." "Good, we're very excited." "So, where you from in America?" "From Seattle, Washington." "Ah.. Washington DC?" "No, Seattle, Washington, Northwest, near Canada." "Ah, near Canada." And so on...
After the shave, we decided it would be best to return to the hotel and recuperate for a few minutes before heading to our cooking class. We coddled our poor faces for a while and then left on the short walk to Baan Thai. We arrived and discovered that we were in a class with one other American so we'd be getting plenty of personal attention. For those of you that have seen me in the kitchen, this is a good thing. We were given our recipe book and told to pick 4 recipes as a group that we'd like to prepare. We all agreed on Pad Thai (of course), Chicken with Green Curry, Spring Rolls, and Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice. We prepared our shopping list and left for the fresh market. As wandered along the alleys, our teacher, a nice young Thai named Ben, pointed out various trees and explained what their fruits were. "That's Tamarind. There's a sweet one that you can eat and a sour one you can use for cooking, like a lime." "That's a papaya tree." We arrived at the market and Ben pulled us into various stalls, picking up spices and vegetables and explaining them all, having us smell various things. He asked if there was anything in particular we'd like to try and I said that I'd been instructed to have mangosteen. Ben said that shouldn't be a problem. We wandered around the market some more and pick up the necessary ingredients and then returned to the house. As we sat down at the table, Ben came out of the back with 4 very odd looking pieces of fruit on a plate. He grabbed a knife and taught us how to cut open the mangosteen. We then scooped out the kind of garlic-looking white inside and ate it. I'm not sure how to describe the flavour; it's very juicy and remeniscent of pomegranate, mango & mandarins but quite distinct from all of them. Ben told us that the mangosteen is the King of Fruits, and it seems fairly fitting. I fully intend hunting down some more before I leave.
After the mangosteen tasting, we started preparing our first dish - Pad Thai. We chopped our vegetables sitting on the floor and took everything through to the back where 4 woks were set up. Ben demonstrated the proper procedure and order for mixing everything together and then set the three of us to it. I managed to a pretty passable job and wolfed down every last bite of it once it was finished. After the Pad Thai, it was time to start the sticky rice - a simple process involving a pretty nifty wicker Thai steaming basket. Once that was going, we started on the spring rolls, first cooking the filling then returning to the floor in the house to fill the rolls. Mine looked pretty shoddy, I thought, when I had them all filled and sealed, but once they were frying in the oil they held their shape nicely and came out crispy and golden and tasted great! After the spring rolls, we prepared part two of the sticky rice. We combined coconut milk (made, I learned, by squeezing the coconut meat) and palm sugar over heat, boiled it for a moment and then poured it over the sticky rice and left it to absorb for 20 minutes. As that sat and saturated itself with lovely sweet goodness, we started work on the curry, chopping more vegetables, and scooping out chili paste. We returned to our woks and once again were shown the correct cooking procedure, then tried to replicate it ourselves. I was a little overzealous with the fish oil (Nam Pla) at one point but managed to compensate with a little more coconut milk and sugar and wound up with a quite tasty green curry dish. After finishing the curry (with rice), Ben came out with the sticky rice and some fresh sliced mango. We spooned the rice into a bowl, added some crispy deep-fried mung beans, a drizzle of the coconut/palm sugar sauce and mango, and then devoured it. It was soooo good. Everything was so good. I ate every last bite and am currently so amazingly stuffed. I have a recipe book, which is cool, and they have an e-mail address that they encouraged us to write to if we have any questions. Also, they took some pictures and will have them up on a website in a couple of days - I'll post the link when they're up.
And that's it. We're trying to decide what else to do tonight - we're both feeling pretty stuffed and beat, but it's a bit early to be going to bed. Maybe we'll go back to the night bazaar for a little more crazy market time.
This will probably be my last update for a little while - internet access is harder to find in Bangkok and more expensive. And once I'm down on the islands, I suspect it will be even more difficult. I'll post when I can though...
[edit - damn livejournal won't let me post the date in BE - Buddhist Era. It's currently 2547 BE. Somebody needs to contact LJ about their discriminatory practices...]
After we bought the tickets, we needed to wait about half an hour for them to arrive, so we wandered off to set up our cooking class for this evening. There is a place near the guest house called Baan Thai and they do a 4 hour evening cooking class with not more than 10 people in a house. We paid our deposit and wandered back to the hotel for our plane tickets and sat for a few minutes in the little cafe. After the tickets arrived, we wandered off to get a small bite to eat (not having had a meal yet) at Huen Phen (again). We had different dishes this time and they were still really good. After lunch we ambled back to the East moat and decided to embark on the most dangerous activity we've yet encountered - getting a shave.
It's hot here and we'd walked past barber shops advertising a shave for 50 Baht, so it seemed like a good idea. I had tried yesterday to get a shave, but the places near the hotel refused to tackle my hairy face. Today we found a place that was brave enough, and it turns out it's because the lady who handles the shaving is absolutely insane. They took me back to the hair-washing station and tilted my head back. I hear some splashing noises and some shaving lotion is spread on my face. Then suddenly I'm attacked on the left cheek by a rapidly moving open razor, scraping and cutting every which way. Forget gently shaving with the grain, this woman was a maniac scything at my face. My first thought after initial contact was just "Oh my god, this is going to hurt for so long." My third or fourth thought was "the Fab Five would never approve." I managed to escape with minor razor burn and a single cut. Perhaps worst of all, she didn't do a great job of the shave despite the consistent low-level pain experienced - my sideburns are extremely weirdly uneven and there are little rough patches. Still, some people come to Thailand and risk their lives with hookers or drug dealers - I braved death at the hands of a female barber.
Justin was next in line for a shave, and I didn't think it fair to deprive him of the experience, so I didn't give him too much warning about what he was in for. I'm such a good friend...
During Justin's shave, I sat outside and chatted with a nice Thai man and his 7-year-oldish daughter who had just pulled up on a scooter. The man sat down and said "Sawasdee khrap," in response to which I looked slightly startled until I parsed it all and replied with the same. He asked where I was from and I told him "America" which I've found is the easiest way to handle that question ("well, I'm from Scotland originally, but I now live in Seattle"). His daughter chimed in at that point with "What's your name?" in pretty good English. I told her and she spent a little time trying to pronounce it, the "l" being a difficult sound. We had a nice chat that went along the lines that many of my chats with Thai people have gone - "How you like Chiang Mai?" "It's gorgeous. Very lovely." "How long you here?" "We arrived 3 days ago, but we leave tomorrow." "So soon!" "Yes, short time." "Where you go next?" "We're going to Bangkok and then to Ko Pha'ngan on Monday." "Oh very beautiful Ko Pha'ngan. My uncle/mother/niece/friend/golf teacher has restaurant. You will like very much." "Good, we're very excited." "So, where you from in America?" "From Seattle, Washington." "Ah.. Washington DC?" "No, Seattle, Washington, Northwest, near Canada." "Ah, near Canada." And so on...
After the shave, we decided it would be best to return to the hotel and recuperate for a few minutes before heading to our cooking class. We coddled our poor faces for a while and then left on the short walk to Baan Thai. We arrived and discovered that we were in a class with one other American so we'd be getting plenty of personal attention. For those of you that have seen me in the kitchen, this is a good thing. We were given our recipe book and told to pick 4 recipes as a group that we'd like to prepare. We all agreed on Pad Thai (of course), Chicken with Green Curry, Spring Rolls, and Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice. We prepared our shopping list and left for the fresh market. As wandered along the alleys, our teacher, a nice young Thai named Ben, pointed out various trees and explained what their fruits were. "That's Tamarind. There's a sweet one that you can eat and a sour one you can use for cooking, like a lime." "That's a papaya tree." We arrived at the market and Ben pulled us into various stalls, picking up spices and vegetables and explaining them all, having us smell various things. He asked if there was anything in particular we'd like to try and I said that I'd been instructed to have mangosteen. Ben said that shouldn't be a problem. We wandered around the market some more and pick up the necessary ingredients and then returned to the house. As we sat down at the table, Ben came out of the back with 4 very odd looking pieces of fruit on a plate. He grabbed a knife and taught us how to cut open the mangosteen. We then scooped out the kind of garlic-looking white inside and ate it. I'm not sure how to describe the flavour; it's very juicy and remeniscent of pomegranate, mango & mandarins but quite distinct from all of them. Ben told us that the mangosteen is the King of Fruits, and it seems fairly fitting. I fully intend hunting down some more before I leave.
After the mangosteen tasting, we started preparing our first dish - Pad Thai. We chopped our vegetables sitting on the floor and took everything through to the back where 4 woks were set up. Ben demonstrated the proper procedure and order for mixing everything together and then set the three of us to it. I managed to a pretty passable job and wolfed down every last bite of it once it was finished. After the Pad Thai, it was time to start the sticky rice - a simple process involving a pretty nifty wicker Thai steaming basket. Once that was going, we started on the spring rolls, first cooking the filling then returning to the floor in the house to fill the rolls. Mine looked pretty shoddy, I thought, when I had them all filled and sealed, but once they were frying in the oil they held their shape nicely and came out crispy and golden and tasted great! After the spring rolls, we prepared part two of the sticky rice. We combined coconut milk (made, I learned, by squeezing the coconut meat) and palm sugar over heat, boiled it for a moment and then poured it over the sticky rice and left it to absorb for 20 minutes. As that sat and saturated itself with lovely sweet goodness, we started work on the curry, chopping more vegetables, and scooping out chili paste. We returned to our woks and once again were shown the correct cooking procedure, then tried to replicate it ourselves. I was a little overzealous with the fish oil (Nam Pla) at one point but managed to compensate with a little more coconut milk and sugar and wound up with a quite tasty green curry dish. After finishing the curry (with rice), Ben came out with the sticky rice and some fresh sliced mango. We spooned the rice into a bowl, added some crispy deep-fried mung beans, a drizzle of the coconut/palm sugar sauce and mango, and then devoured it. It was soooo good. Everything was so good. I ate every last bite and am currently so amazingly stuffed. I have a recipe book, which is cool, and they have an e-mail address that they encouraged us to write to if we have any questions. Also, they took some pictures and will have them up on a website in a couple of days - I'll post the link when they're up.
And that's it. We're trying to decide what else to do tonight - we're both feeling pretty stuffed and beat, but it's a bit early to be going to bed. Maybe we'll go back to the night bazaar for a little more crazy market time.
This will probably be my last update for a little while - internet access is harder to find in Bangkok and more expensive. And once I'm down on the islands, I suspect it will be even more difficult. I'll post when I can though...
[edit - damn livejournal won't let me post the date in BE - Buddhist Era. It's currently 2547 BE. Somebody needs to contact LJ about their discriminatory practices...]