One thing you probably already know about me (and if you don’t, you just need to look at any picture to see) is that I love food.

I enjoy everything about it. And, I especially enjoy trying new kinds of food. The first time I had Thai food was in 2004. I was hooked instantly. It became one of my favorite foods.

When Jonathan and I decided to travel the world together, I knew that one thing I wanted to do was take cooking classes in different countries, both to help me learn how to make some of my favorite foods, and to discover new ones.

When we arrived in Chiang Mai, I instantly began the search for a cooking school. And I found one. A good one. Baan Thai Cooking School.

The classes we signed up for worked like this:

A discussion of rice and its importance to Thai people, and Thai cuisine.

A trip to the market, where we learned about the ingredients that form the base of all Thai cooking.

Back to the school to start cooking.

We got to choose one dish from each of 5 categories (stir fry, curry, appetizer, soup, and dessert).

Then we would make the food. We were coached along the way, and guided through every step. We were also given a cook book with all the recipes for all the dishes (even the ones we didn’t make that day).

After we cooked each dish, we’d sit down and eat it together.
We ate a lot. A lot. A lot.

On the second day, Jonathan and I chose to learn vegetable carving (since we’d already gone to the market). We learned how to turn eggplant and chilies into flowers, cucumber into leaves, and carrots into flowers or a sun.

I loved my time at cooking school. I’m also happy to say that I came away with a new favorite Thai food (Kao Soi – but Kao Soy in my case, which is Chiang Mai Noodle Curry).