anyway, she was pretty excited about us cooking cos 1) she gets to eat food from a different country, 2) she has some1 cooking for her so she has food when she gets home from work. we head to d city to walk around a little. was really a quick walk as we need to buy d stuff we need fr d Asian Supermarket then head home to cook cos Hilgien has to go work out after dinner (most of our hosts has such healthy lifestyle that we feel ashamed of ours!).

this is d 1st time we r cooking for a host so it was quite exciting for us too! eve is making soup and stir fry vegetables n i'm making curry chicken. Hilgien was home before dinner was ready. but she was extremely happy to see us cook. she says it's d 1st time ever that she come home to d smell of food in her kitchen (since she moved to this apartment). she was taking photos of us cooking n all.

she was very happy with our dinner n told us we are most welcomed to stay another week as long as we can cook for her! i wasnt too happy with d curry as i bought packet curry paste n it didnt taste very good n it was a tad bit too watery! but it was acceptable i guess. n d most important thing is my host enjoyed it!

Hilgien with our dinner

Hilgien dropped us at a beach near her place after dinner. d beach was fairly quiet with a few joggers n dogs walkers. we managed to watch d beautiful sunset. awesome!

Sunset at Duindop beach

o yes, i made a new friend in d city today. he's really cute and i fell in love with him immediately. here's our photo.

a new friend!

Since coming to Asia I've been reading and hearing about how amazing Chiang Mai is and I'm relieved to say that this city mostly lives up to the hype. After taking the first flight of our trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we arrived in the midst of the bustling weekly Sunday handicraft market. We checked into a cute guest house with a garden in an inner courtyard. It was a lot cuter until we discovered we we had company in our room-- a giant cockroach on the wall to the side of our bed! Fortunately for me, Zack was brave and captured the critter in a pizza box and took it away.

Our time in Chiang Mai was spent walking around town, eating delicious Thai food, and riding bikes. We were both surprised to find that Chiang Mai was not very bike friendly. To add to the confusion, Thais drive on the left side of the road. It was all worth it as we discovered a handful of ancient, ornately decorated Wats and temples throughout the city.

The highlight of Chiang Mai to me was the private vegetarian cooking class we took. Zack and I arrived at 9am to the restaurant. Our teacher was a kind, talkative young Thai woman with excellent English. First we learned how to roast sesame seeds and cashews in a wok. After that we took a trip to the local produce market to buy the food that we would later cook. We learned a lot about Thai veggies, including Thai eggplant, which is green and circular. We learned that no Thai dish is complete without chili peppers. When we came back to the kitchen we learned the proper way to chop Thai veggies. Next, it was time for a marathon cooking session where we learned how to make TEN different dishes. It was intense, but well worth it. Zack and I each had our own burner with a wok and it was a fun competition to see who could remember what to do and who could make the better dish. Usually, the teacher had us make different variations of the same dish (for example, adding coconut milk to one soup but not the other). By 1:00 we had finished and it was time to feast. There was wayyyyy too much to eat, so we had the food bagged up, literally.

Rachel

written by  zachel on May 3, 2009 from Chiang Mai, Thailand
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged Cooking
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