Thailand Cooking School via Hong Kong

I have often been accused of being spontaneous and as it was I found myself on a plane heading to Thailand via Hong Kong. It was Chinese New Year and the rest of Vancouver had the same idea. Drinking was the best way to kill time while watching Kung Foo movies. Upon landing, the stewardess gave me a bottle of French Champagne. It was an omen of the good things to come.

Hong Kong is a blur of grey buildings and ferry crossings. You must get into a groove, similar to a bobsled race. My favourite evening was spent up top of the hotel Peninsula drinking beer at an exotic 50 foot bar, made of white rock, or perhaps onyx, lit from underneath. So glamorous.

We were ushering in the year of the Horse and dancing lights in pony shapes radiated from the walls of the office buildings all around. The Chinese believe that everything in the universe is held in balance by the dynamic, cosmic forces of yin and yang. One Chinese hour is equal to two Western hours, which explains the zip over there!

After the pace of Hong Kong, something smaller and less busy with a bit of green was in order. It was on to Chiang Mai where the eating part of this story begins. Chiang Mai is a place that buzzes with mopeds, bullfrogs, sizzling woks and singing crickets.

The guidebook suggests touring it via bicycle. No thanks. We rented a moped to take us to the teak restaurants by the river. I was hunkering after steamed fish done in lime, lemongrass and galangal, which is Siamese ginger. The finished product is a delicate, tangy dish, swimming in a broth. Dining to the din of bullfrogs brought back memories of my brother keeping them in the toilet at home with the lid down, while his collection of yellow striped garter snakes cooled themselves in the cooler on the side lawn.

There is nothing quite like eating in the wild and waiting for the moment when a reptile drops from a tree, then screaming as something large runs between your ankles.

Every restaurant has a cat that needs feeding. A ploy used at closing time to get guests to leave? Yes, it is a bit grungy but so what. Why not opt for old-fashioned dirt over manufactured chemicals and the anti-vomit precautions put in our food. In six weeks of traveling, I'm happy to say only one cockroach saw me, a baby one. They were nothing at all like the numerous elephantine flying guys in Portugal!

I got really turned on to curried pork with noodles or pork served on a stick, and ate bananas in chocolate, fried crispy in a dough with at least a quarter cup of fat. Coconut rice served with mango or battered fried banana, made for a good bedtime snack. Then there were the prawns, shrimp served with vegetables in a light curry, or deep-fried with sweet and sour sauce or delicious prawn cakes for an appetizer. Omelets served with a spicy beef filling for lunch were a decent change. And asparagus everywhere

Having cooked Thai at home, I was eager to try it under a palm-thatched roof. I did learn a few tricks. Using coconut cream as a base for frying by extracting the coconut oil from the cream in the wok. Only using milk for the sauce, not more cream. This gives you a lighter sauce.

The teacher was disappointed when I refused to put the pea size eggplants into the dish. Having tried them once before, I knew them to be bitter hard rocks. We prepared six dishes in one day. I especially enjoyed the Yellow Curry with Chicken and the Fried Big Noodles with Sweet Soy Sauce. The noodles are a fast food made with fried egg and pork. Prior to stir-frying, our demonstrations were in an air-conditioned room. Cooking school is definitely a worthwhile way to spend the day and be fed at the same time.

Air conditioning is a must in Thailand when sleeping. Forget quenching your thirst with soft drinks during the day, like Rudolph. By the end of the trip he looked like a fat sugared donut. Water is the thing for a thirst or a dairy free fruit shake.

Rudolph had a particularly bad case of the sweats in the ancient city of Sukhothai. We were eating outdoors, and cooking our food on kind of a mini BBQ pot. Unique. The closet experience to it I can think of, is a fondue. The food arrives at the table raw, with a pot of cool water. Then, a fiery hot cone metal shaped dish with handles and a moat around the bottom is set down. The cone has holes in it, with perhaps some charcoal-like substance underneath. You cook your food on the cone and it falls into the moat, which you replenish with water. A chunky soup is the result.

Rudolph sweats in the Thai heat anyway, but now as we ate, sweat mixed with tears. He whined about not being able to see if the food was cooked.

God, sitting in front of the pot, our faces literally burning from the heat, you'd think the thinly sliced food would have no problem cooking. Even after assuring him at what temperatures pork and chicken were done, he still lost out. His food was burnt to a crisp while mine tumbled faultlessly cooked, into the moat, to be snapped up by me like a dragon returning to her castle for the night. A visit to the well-lit night market cured Rudolph's hunger pangs.

In Sukhotahi Park with the beautiful Buddha ruins, ponds and lotus flowers, you need to be on a moped or hire a rickshaw. Pack a picnic and plan to go to the Park for two days. For photographing, black and white really does the monuments justice.

Venture out and drink up life!

The Sipping Chef
Email: chefsusan@wineries.ca