Cooking school

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I need some help moving in August. If anyone will be in Bloomington August 13-14 and can help me move the bigger pieces of furniture, I will thank you with BOTH of the following: 1) Dinner at your choice of Bloomington restaurants; and 2) A homemade five course Thai meal.

For everyone else, I have lots of tasty recipes to share and I'm dying for the chance to practice. Just let me know when you're hungry.

I am now a proud graduate of the Siam Cuisine Thai Cookery School in Krabi. We were taught to make 6 dishes, and then we ate them. If there are lots of outrageous errors in this post, it's because I'm so full from delicious food that I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.

The lessons were held in a beautiful open-air kitchen, with really nice burners and tools. We got to smell and taste all the fresh ingredients -- and then someone else cleaned up. Perfect.

Cooking School Pictures

Course 1: Fried Noodle Thai Style (Pat Thai) -- no photo, I was too excited to start eating to take one.

Course 2: Cucumber Soup

That's chicken, stuffed inside cucumbers. I can't believed I've lived this long without trying this. Crazy.

Course 3: Spicy Glass Noodle Salad
Course 4: Chicken With Red Curry Paste (right)

Course 5: Fried Chicken with Ginger (left)

That curry was made with a mortar and pestle. Old school curry making, people. And, oh, the stress I released! It was brilliant.

Tomorrow, I'm taking a kayak trip to some mangroves. Not quite sure what those are, but it's supposed to be cool and the tour was highly recommended. And then I'm going to see some ancient caves. After that, on to some ancient ruins and Chang Mai.