Sorry for the delay in posting … we’ve had spotty WiFi since Malaysia … and I’m now in New Zealand! Australia was terrible for WiFi; it’s better here!
This was probably the best food we had in South-east Asia … Thai Food. They know their spices! Especially the hot ones … we really enjoyed this experience. We tried a variety of different locations/food options.
First, Deb signed up for 4 cooking classes from the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School.
Over those four days she prepared 28 different dishes. She had 3 different chefs teaching her everything from selecting foods/spices at the local market to food preparation to final presentation.
Each student had their own work station.
She made her own Thai Curry Paste too.
It was an excellent experience and I look forward to enjoying her dishes at home! Here are some pictures:
This is Panaeng Curry with Pork.
Fried Fish with Chillies and Basil.
Sweet and Sour Vegetables plus Chiang Mai Curry with Chicken.
Roasted Duck Curry.
Next, we took the opportunity to try different street foods. We ate at both the regular tourist street food locales as well as off-the-beaten path local’s places.
This was the Tourist night market … see the Peking Duck hanging?
This Jif Jar is the jar of fire for your meal.
Don’t let this spoon fool you … it is also a knife. So we found out …
This was the local market where we tried several traditional dishes.
All of them were pretty savory dishes and so inexpensive!
We had two plates of this PLUS drinks (cola) for $3!
Of course, figuring out how to order food AND drinks sometimes proved challenging.
Fortunately, many places had menus with pictures … no problem!
See this Fanta? Or Fanta-like drink? I had to walk 1/2 block to the convenience store to buy it so I could have it with my meal. Otherwise, you can get water out of the communal bucket. We usually just carried our water with us.
We then tried a series of different restaurants … finally settling on a routine of dining at the restaurant in the Treevana Hotel (near our place). They had 2-for-1 Mojitos (which were always fantastic).
These were “Golden Fried Sacs.” 
Our meal, with drinks and dessert (often) usually came to less than $30 combined. The chef was super nice; he always spiced up our dishes and the food he cooked was awesome. The only time it wasn’t great was when they had a substitute chef … which wasn’t often, thank goodness! We were usually the only ones in the restaurant and we worked our way through the menu.
These gummies in white sauce were probably my least favorite.
We had our Christmas dinner at this restaurant … Deb celebrated with a flaming hot pot! Haha. Because we ate there so regularly, they started making special things for us. It was a wonderful experience.
Deb had punched balls with her hot pot.
We didn’t limit ourselves to just Thai food … we tried different places too — an Italian restaurant in Chiang Rai, western-style burger joint in Chiang Mai, a couple of pizza places. It was an eclectic mix for sure.
Many times the seats were these little plastic children’s chairs and a low table. Our backs are very happy to have left these tiny seats behind! Of course, after each meal, you should brush your teeth …
Stumblingpiper
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