Asia Scenic Thai Cooking Class

Today was our first full day in Chiang Mai!  We spent the day at the Asia Scenic cooking class, where we learned to cook several Thai dishes.  We learned so much about Thai culture and how food is such an integral way of life for the Thai people.  Our host, Gayray explained that in Thai culture some fresh herbs/plants are used for their medicinal purposes and that the Thai people "don't want to eat medicine like food but want to eat food like medicine". 

Below is the menu we were able to choose from. We were each able to choose our favorite dishes to cook.

 

This is the welcome snack (Meang Kum), containing ginger, shallots, roasted peanut, toasted coconut, sliced lime, betel leaves, and syrup.  We ate the welcome snack before we started cooking for good luck!  

Here is a mortar and pestle containing the ingredients for the papaya salad, as well as the finished product.  It was delicious! 

These are the different curry pastes our group prepared, including red, khaw soi, panang, green, and massaman curry! 

 Here we are enjoying the beautiful scenery and farm!